Recruit, Jonathan Brazee [which ebook reader .txt] 📗
- Author: Jonathan Brazee
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Bigger was an understatement, Ryck thought as Joshua pulled in front of a, well, a mansion. There was no other way to describe it. Easily twice as large as Barret’s old home, it had all the architectural extras currently in fashion. The front yard was stately, with two huge trees of some sort as the main features. The water tax on those two trees alone would cost a huge chunk of Ryck’s corporal’s salary. From one tree, a rope swing hung, out of place in the new construction, but a nice touch. Above the side wall, Ryck could see the tops of what looked like a jungle gym. This wasn’t Barret’s old bachelor pad. This was a family home.
“Here you go, my man,” Joshua said as he pulled up.
“You coming in?”
“Nah, this is family time. Do your duty. We’re all getting together on I-Day to watch the fireworks, so I’ll see you then. Don’t worry, we’ll have some time together, just you and me,” Joshua told him.
Ryck took his pack, watched Joshua pull out, and walked up to the front door. Before he reached it, the door opened, and Lysa ran out, colliding with him in a hug.
“Little brother, it’s so good to see you. Come in, come in!”
“Uncle Ryck, Uncle Ryck, come here,” a little voice said from behind Lysa.
Ryck had spoken with Kylee on the cam, but this was the first time he’d seen her in the flesh. She reached around Lysa to take his hand.
“Kylee! What did I tell you! Give Uncle Ryck a chance to breathe first. He’ll see your room later,” Lysa told her daughter. Lysa took Ryck’s hand and led him into the house. Barret was waiting there, a beer in his hand that Ryck gratefully took, giving his pack to Barret in exchange.
“You look good, there, Ryck. I don’t know what all those ribbons mean on your chest exactly, but your friend Joshua says they are pretty important. I know the girls want you to stay in your uniform, but I bet you’d like to get into something more comfortable,” Barret said.
Ryck was towed to his room by Kylee as she pulled on his arm. He managed to get into the room alone and changed into shorts and a 2/9 t-shirt. As he opened the door, Kylee was waiting, and grabbing his arm, she dragged him back into the living room. Barret was sitting down, another little girl peeking out from behind his chair.
“Hi, Camyle,” Ryck said to his youngest niece.
The two-year-old retreated back a little further behind her father’s chair.
“Don’t worry about her. She’s a little shy, but she’ll warm up to you,” Lysa told him.
The next few hours were pure domesticity. Lysa cooked up some katsudon and yakisoba, Barret talked about the job he was offering Ryck, sports, and asked about Ryck’s military operations, Kylee dragged him to her room for an introduction to over 30 stuffed animals, and Camyle even said a few words to him.
Ryck didn’t have much time alone with Lysa. He managed to catch her while she was making the noodles for the yakisoba. She had flour on her forehead as she kneaded the dough. She was different. Not just the weight, which had crept on during the last four years. This woman was not the woman who left the house in skin-tight dresses for a night in the bars and night-spots. This was a woman who was at home.
“You look happy,” Ryck told her, knowing it was true.
“Like this?” she said with a laugh, brushing the hair back off her forehead, leaving more flour.
“Yeah, just like that.”
“You’re right. I am happy. I’m not sure I deserve it, but I thank God every day for my two little girls, my husband. The only thing I am missing is you. If you take Barret’s job offer, then that would complete me. Of course, then I’ll be bugging you to find a wife and give me some nieces and nephews.”
“And I’m happy for you, big sister. Really, I am.”
Dinner was great, and the conversation was surprisingly interesting, even when initiated by a three-year-old. Three-and-a-half, that was, as Kylee took pains to remind everyone. Ryck had to watch his language a bit as some choice phrases and words almost leaked out. Little girls should not be faced with the same language as salty Marines and sailors.
To his surprise, Ryck was tired, and he went to bed early. He had to show up at his high school the next day to receive an award. He’d have liked to skip it, but he got three extra days of free leave for what the Marines considered a recruiting trip. In the afternoon, he promised he’d visit Barret at his office to check out the position being offered.
He had never been in Lysa and Barret’s house before, and never in the guest bedroom. But as he lay down, with the little-girl shrieks of laughter coming from downstairs, it was feeling much more like home than he would have imagined.
Chapter 26
“This is your office,” Barret told him, as they stepped into a good-sized, if barren, room. “Of course, you can personalize it as you want when you get here. But you can see it has a pretty good view. You don’t get a private bathroom, I mean ‘head,’ but who knows?” he said with a laugh.
Water, or water reclamation and prospecting, had been good to Barret. With PCDC off the planet, water was scarce, and those who could find it were at a premium. Barret’s company had done very well since the PCDC’s charter was revoked. Barret was offering Ryck a position as vice-president of operations. Ryck didn’t know the first thing about the water business, or any business for that matter, and he knew this was an offer based entirely on Barret’s love for his sister. Still, as Barret said, the discipline Ryck had gained as a Marine would enable him to quickly grasp the ins and outs of his job.
The day had turned out better than he’d expected. Going back to school, this time in his dress blues, had been a rush. He felt like a flick star with all the attention. He was even moved by the Distinguished Alumni Award he’d received, much to his surprise. He’d received the extra three days of leave for meeting with his school, but frankly, he’d do it again even without the extra leave.
Barret had picked him up after lunch and taken him out to one of his projects in the area, which proved quite interesting. The company had dug several “lead wells” around what had once been a producing well but was now dry. With modern technology, the lead wells were able to “suck,” as Barret explained in not so technical terms, the residual moisture from the area. The science was beyond him, but Barret assured him that the understanding would only take a bit of time.
During the long drive back to Williamson, Barret did most of the talking, and most of that was family-related. Barret would never fit in with a Marine platoon, and he had no idea of what Ryck had experienced, but he was a good man. Ryck felt guilty for not liking him at first. He would never be Ryck’s best buddy, but he was good for Lysa and good for the girls. For that, he deserved Ryck’s respect.
“Well, what do you think? I mean, do you like it?” he asked Ryck.
“I have to admit, it’s kinda interesting. You’ve certainly done well with it,” he said.
“You will, too. We’ll talk about salary and perks later, but be easy on me, OK? No Marine combat attacks here. I’m not the enemy!” Barret said with yet another laugh.
Barret’s sense of humor was not the most developed, and that fact alone made Ryck smile.
Chapter 27
“You ever get to Goa?” Charles asked as they looked out over the crowd.
“No,” Joshua and Ryck said in unison.
“You’ve got to get there,” Charles said. “Grubbing amazing! Better than Vegas or Pattaya, and I’ve been to both of them. We pulled into Goa, and as soon as you get off the spaceport, there’s this line of bars with hot, and I mean hot mares . . .”
Ryck and Joshua had met up with Charles at The Park while waiting for the fireworks. He was obviously military, and he could tell both Marines were military, too. After introductions, they found out he was Navy, a petty officer second class. His ship was in the same sector as with First Division, and the talk drifted to bases in the area, then liberty ports. Ryck listened with half an ear while he watched Joshua’s and his families. Joshua’s dwarfed Ryck’s in size, but for the little kids, Kylee was making her presence felt, bossing the other little ones around into playing her games.
She’d make a good DI, Ryck thought.
Ryck turned back to the two others. Charles was in the middle of a description of a very perverted, obscene, and frankly funny escapade he and another sailor had on Goa. Ryck found himself laughing along. Even Joshua got into the flow of it, with a few somewhat-risqué stories of his own. Ryck knew better now, but before he enlisted, he thought the Torritites were all pretty uptight
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