Part 7 (2/2)
As our relations.h.i.+p got closer and closer, Taya and I started spending more time with each other. Finally, we'd spend nights at each other's apartment, either in Long Beach or San Diego.
I woke up one morning to her yelling. ”Chris! Chris! Wake up! You've got to see this!”
I stumbled into the living room. Taya had turned on the television and jacked the volume. I saw smoke pouring out of the World Trade Center in New York.
I didn't understand what-all was happening. Part of me was still sleeping.
Then as we watched, an airplane flew right into the side of the second tower.
”Motherf.u.c.kers!” I muttered.
I stared at the screen, angry and confused, not entirely sure it was real.
Suddenly I remembered that I left my cell phone off. I grabbed it, and saw I'd missed a bunch of messages. The sum total of them was this:
Kyle, get your a.s.s back to base. Now!
I grabbed Taya's SUV-it had plenty of gas and my truck didn't-and hauled down to base. I don't know exactly how fast I was going-it might have been three digits-but it was certainly a high rate of speed.
Down around San Juan Capistrano, I glanced in the rearview mirror and saw a set of red lights flas.h.i.+ng.
I pulled over. The cop who came up to the truck was p.i.s.sed.
”Is there any reason you're going so fast?” he demanded.
”Yes, sir,” I told him. ”I apologize. I'm in the military and I just got recalled. I understand you got to write me a ticket. I know I was in the wrong but with all due respect can you just hurry and give me the ticket so I can get back to base?”
”What branch are you in?”
Motherf.u.c.ker, I thought. I just told you I have to report. Can't you just give me the d.a.m.n ticket? But I kept my cool.
”I'm in the Navy,” I told him.
”What do you do in the Navy?” he asked.
By now I was pretty annoyed. ”I'm a SEAL.”
He closed his ticket book.
”I'll take you to the city line,” he told me. ”Go get some f.u.c.kin' payback.”
He put his lights on and pulled in front of me. We went a bit slower than I'd been going when he nabbed me, but it was still well past the limit. He took me as far as his jurisdiction went, maybe a little farther, then waved me on.
TRAINING
We were put on immediate standby, but it would turn out that we weren't needed in Afghanistan or anywhere else at that moment. My platoon would have to wait roughly a year before we got into action, and when we did, it would be against Saddam Hussein, not Osama bin Laden.
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