Me & Waitress - The Desire

Ray Wallace decided early in his college career that he didn't care for it. After finishing junior college, he enlisted in the army instead of going to another university. At twenty-one he began a military career in the infantry. After 9-11, his unit was sent to the middle east. He was a corporal by then, and his squad went on many patrols. As the years went by, his division was rotated in and out several times. Afghanistan or Iraq, it didn't matter much to them. On the last rotation into Iraq, Ray was a sergeant and a squad leader. By then, they spent most of their time patrolling areas that didn't have many battles, but a lot of insurgencies. Valleys would flare up, and patrols were sent in. On his last patrol, Ray and his squad went into a valley that had a small village at the bottom. There were hills overlooking the valley, and the military sent men into the high ground before sending the patrols in to check on the reports of insurgents threatening the villagers. The village was quiet, the hills were quiet, and everyone was on edge. It had all the earmarks of a trap, and the hair on the back of his neck was up. Sure enough, as soon as they entered the village, the entire world exploded. The men on the hills found themselves defending themselves instead of protecting the men in the valley. Ray heard the comms; he knew what it meant. They were on their own. They set up a perimeter with his squad covering one side and the other squad covering the other side. Choppers were there quickly and began clearing the hills until the men trapped were able to pull back. They then came over the village and provided cover for Ray and his men to pull back. The withdrawal was bloody; the enemy wanted to extract as much pain as possible and kept the pressure on. Ray lost a couple of men in the original ambush and had a couple more injured. He was helping one man and nearly dragging another when the explosion came. When he woke up, choppers were in the clearing, and he was being put in one. He saw other choppers overhead apparently destroying the village to cover their retreat. The next time he came to, he was in an ambulance at the base. The next time he opened his eyes, he was in a hospital bed. When his eyes finally cleared, he assessed his situation. He had a bandage around his head and one of his arms was wrapped up. But when he saw his right leg, his heart stopped for a second. His leg was in a huge ball of bandages. He felt nothing, but he knew that was because of the drugs. While taking everything in, a nurse came into the ward, noticed he was awake, and left. Within a minute she returned with a doctor. "Sargeant Wallace, it's nice to see you back with us. How do you feel?" Ray put his good hand on his head and shook it, trying to clear his thoughts. "No idea at the moment. My leg?" He patted Ray on the shoulder. "Take it easy." He looked Ray in the eye. "It will take time for you to begin healing. Your head is superficial, a bullet creased you above the ear. Another inch, and you wouldn't be here. You took shrapnel in the shoulder. We will see how that does." He then laid his hand by Ray's leg. "We will have to let the swelling go down to see where we are. For now, I just want you to rest. You're a lucky man, Sargeant, remember that." He patted Ray on the shoulder and left. Lucky, yeah, sure. The nurse brought in some pills and he drifted off to sleep wondering about his men. That evening he was visited by one of his men. Perez came in a wheelchair. "Sarge, how you doing?" Ray shook his head. "I want to thank you for helping me to the chopper." Ray smiled. So, Perez made it. "What about Anderson?" Perez smiled. "Oh, Sarge, you don't know? You carried him out of that village. If not for the explosion, we'd all have walked out of there. The explosion blew all of us clear. He's here shook up and scratched up, but you took the brunt of it. He was on your other side. He'll be by later. Good to see you, Sarge. I knew you were too tough to let them kill you." Too tough, yeah. Right now, he was considering whether he should have. The pain was real, and he knew this was going to be a long recovery. He drifted off to sleep. The next several months were hard. He was transferred to Germany, and then the states. His head and shoulder healed nicely, but his leg was shattered. They put it back together the best they could. He got a new knee, and when they were finished, they had saved his leg, and he could walk. The limp was noticeable, but the pain only came sporadically. He was given a medical discharge and a disability pension. He'd spent fifteen years in the military. It was all he knew or cared about and now he was out. On his own. His family tried, but it was noisy, and they didn't really understand. He stayed with his parents for several months, but, after a while, they began making hints about him "moving on" and finding something to do. His leg hurt if he stood on it very long, and he knew if he was to find anything, it would need to be not standing. From the very beginning, he saw a VA therapist weekly. He liked her, she was quiet and didn't need to continue talking if he was quiet. Six months after he came home, it came to a head with his parents. Either he found a job, or he'd have to move. His first break came while visiting his therapist at the VA. On his way out, he ran into Anderson, the man he'd carried out of the village. "Sarge, it's great to see you again. How've you been?" "Okay." Anderson looked at him carefully. He shook his head. "No, you're not. Don't f**k with me. I've been there, too, remember? What's up?" Ray didn't need this, but he knew Anderson wouldn't let it go. "My parents." "Let me guess, get on with your life, get a job, s**t like that?" "Yeah." "You're staying with them?" "Yeah." They looked at each other for a few minutes before Anderson spoke. "How about coming by and meeting my wife? She wants me to talk to someone. That's why I'm here, setting up a therapist. I want to introduce her to the man who saved my life." Ray didn't need or want that. He'd just done his job. Anderson would have done the same thing. He looked at Anderson and knew he had no choice. "Okay, how about tonight?" Anderson agreed and gave him the address. The apartment building was in a nice neighborhood. Ray buzzed in and went upstairs to the second floor. It was a nice, breezy apartment that overlooked a park at the back of the building. Anderson let him in and introduced him to his wife. "Sarge, this is Mary, my wife. Honey, this is the man that saved my life." She hugged him before he could step back. "Thank you for bringing my husband home." "Ma-am, I just did what he'd have done if it was reversed." Her eyes watered up. "I'm sure he would have, but it was you that did it. Thank you." Dinner was nice. The conversation was light. Ray didn't say much. Mary kept watching Ray while her husband talked. When the dinner was finished, she looked at her husband, "Tom, why don't you take Ray into the living room and talk while I clean up the kitchen?" They headed for the living room. "Your wife is beautiful and seems so sweet." Tom Anderson smiled. Ray could see he really loved her, and he was happy how it turned out for Anderson. "Thanks, Sarge. I wouldn't make it without her. Now, what are we going to do with you?" "What do you mean, with me?" "You can't stay with your parents much longer, and you can't take a job right now, correct?" Ray nodded. "So, you need to find some other place to live to give yourself time to work things out, correct?" Ray didn't like where this was going. He slowly nodded. "You want a beer?" Good, time to think. He nodded and Tom headed to the kitchen. Tom returned with a couple of beers. "I talked to Mary. She thinks me having someone around to talk to would be good for me, and I think it would be okay if it was you. You are quiet, and don't need much." Ray shook his head. "No, I'm not crowding the two of you. It's nice here now for you." "Sarge, it wouldn't be crowding. Mary and I have been struggling. Most of the same things you have been struggling with. I need help, and Mary thinks you would only help, not hurt. She is desperate enough to try anything, and this is the first thing. Please?" Ray took a deep draw on his beer. It gave him time to think. It didn't sound like a bullshit story. It might be true. And he needed to get away from his parents until he could figure out what he wanted to do. "You're serious?" Tom nodded. "Maybe, for a short while. It would get me away from my parents for a while." Tom smiled and headed to the kitchen. They came back quickly, and Mary smiled at Ray. She didn't try to hug him this time, just stood away from him. "Thank you, Ray. I think this will help both of you." It was decided. Ray would move in with Tom and Mary, at least temporarily. Cynthia Smith has worked in restaurants since high school. She was a waitress and bartender as she worked her way through college. By the time she graduated from college, she was making a decent living as a bartender. It just happened that she continued bartending until she was thirty before she looked up. At that point, she decided her career was as a bartender.