Success
By Queena Foster
Nick ran up from the galley and snagged the ringing phone. "Riptide Detective Agency."
"Good evening, Nicholas. How are you?"
Nick blinked in surprise. Only one person called him Nicholas on a regular basis. "I'm good, Mrs. A; how are you?"
"Fine, thank you. Is my son available?"
"Yeah, sure. We were just finishing the dishes." He covered the receiver with his palm and stood still, wondering. Cody's mother didn't just call on a whim. "Hey, Cody. Phone."
"Coming."
In seconds, Cody hopped up the stairs and held out his hand for the phone. Nick just looked at him, trying to hide his concern.
"Nick?" Cody stood there expectantly, eyeing Nick with obvious confusion. "The phone?"
Nick couldn't help his reluctance, and Cody finally just took receiver.
"Hello." In half a second, Nick watched the change come over his partner. He didn't personally see it very often as Cody usually went east to visit his mother, but as soon as Cody recognized the voice, the weight of unmet expectations shadowed his eyes, dropped his chin just a bit, and brought his shoulders a shade lower.
"That's great…No, that'll be fine; I'll pick you up…Are you sure?" Cody's voice sounded enthusiastic even if his body language did not reflect the same.
Nick waited with bated breath, wondering what was going on. Sounded like she was coming west this time.
"Of course, no problem. I'll see you then."
Cody pensively hung up the phone and stood silently, staring at the handset. Nick waited, a little impatient in his concern, but unwilling to push into this most private problem, one of the things Cody had never been able to completely resolve.
Finally, Cody glanced up at him. "Well, she's in town. Got in today. She's coming for dinner tomorrow night."
"Kind of sudden."
Cody's eyes betrayed a little uneasiness. "Yeah." Like he wasn't sure of her motives either. And it was almost certain that she did have some sort of plan in mind—no doubt one that involved her son.
Nick fingered the corner of the table, wanting to give Cody a message of support, but not knowing what to say…never knowing what to say. After debating with himself for a few seconds, he glanced up and found Cody looking back at him in defeat.
"I'm gonna take a walk, okay?"
"You want some company?" Nick wanted to be available if...
Cody sighed, distracted and resigned. "No, I'm good. See ya later."
Nick watched the bowed shoulders as they headed up to the wheel house. He tried to rub the tension from his neck, wishing he knew how to make this better. But then, Nick didn't have many family expectations to live up to…or down to depending on who might've had the expectations. His father was long gone and his mother and grandmother long dead. His only blood relatives were a few distant cousins scattered across the country that he heard from maybe a couple of times a year. For all intents and purposes, Cody and Murray were his real family.
After Nick's mother passed away and he'd come to live with his grandmother in California, it only took getting in trouble one time for him to find out what she expected: that he become a Man of Honor and Integrity, that he take care of his family, and that he fully apply himself to achieving his goals. Those expectations took a while to become ingrained in a young Nick, but by the time he went into the army, he understood their value and resolved to follow his grandmother's path.
Nick had been in country a couple of months when he got orders to fly backup on a mission to extract a couple of squads in I Corps. Nick's job was to fly cover for the two choppers on pickup duty.
He had the radio tuned to the lead chopper's frequency and flew in formation with the other birds. From the sound of it, the LZ was hot and getting worse. He called back to the door gunners to be ready as they got closer to the coordinates.
Sure enough, once the other two Hueys descended, the jungle spewed out men in a running firefight. Nick swung his chopper in pass after pass, allowing the gunners to lay down covering fire in the surrounding foliage. His copilot kept an eye on the main birds and elbowed Nick when they lifted off. Nick was ordered to return to base. By then, his chopper was taking fire too, so it was time to vamoose.
As he pulled on the stick to get the hay out of Dodge, he heard yelling over the radio. Sounded like the ground unit's colonel was ordering the pilots to go back and get the rest of his men while the flight leader was yelling just as loud that it was too hot and a lost cause. Nick swung back around the LZ and saw a few more men sprinting out of the jungle in a fighting retreat, waving their arms.
Nick flashed on his grandmother who'd died just a few months earlier. A Man of Honor and Integrity. Take care of his family. An honorable man would not leave good men—fellow soldiers—to die if he could help it, so Nick dropped the chopper into the LZ as his copilot squawked about their orders. Nick ignored him and watched the soldiers run toward the hold as enemy fire pelted his bird.
"Come on, come on! Let's go!"
The windscreen splintered, and Nick flinched as a few shards of glass struck his face. But the chopper was thumping with men bounding through the open hatch, and finally, Nick heard from the gunner that the last man was aboard. Then they were off the ground with rounds hitting the bottom of his Huey.
When Nick landed at the base, he heard the soldiers being greeted by their squad mates from the main choppers. He was starting the post-flight checklist when he got yanked out of the cabin by his copilot who then proceeded to deck him. Nick came up ready to give as good as he got, but their captain showed up and ordered them both to follow him.
Once they arrived at the chopper CP, he got reamed by his copilot, the flight leader, his captain, and his major for disobeying orders and risking the chopper and crew. Nick briefly wondered if his grandmother's Man of Honor and Integrity was required to stand still and get yelled at and finally decided to hell with it. When he left, he was on report for insubordination, but he considered it a minor victory that he hadn't assaulted a superior officer. Of course, he was also grounded but that wasn't likely to hold as the need for pilots was too great. As soon as they found another copilot willing to go up with him, he'd be right back in the saddle.
That night found him pounding beers in a bar outside the base gate, thinking about his grandmother's other expectations: that Nick fully apply himself to achieving whatever goal he established and that he take care of his family. When he first arrived in Southeast Asia, his aim was to do the job he was given—fly choppers—to the best of his ability. And he figured the Army was his family now. Tough to keep those promises when he was grounded for trying to do the honorable thing. Unable to resolve the problem—and having nowhere to fly the following day anyhow—he decided to get hammered, and he was seriously working toward that goal.
"I been looking for you."
Nick felt the hand on his arm and jumped up ready to hit whoever was on the other end. He was still angry at having to defend himself for doing what he considered job number one.
But the ground pounder lieutenant backed off and raised his hands in surrender. "Hey, sorry. Didn't mean to startle you."
Nick eyed him suspiciously. "What do you want?"
"Just to say thanks. For coming back for us."
Nick let out a short breath and glanced around the room, but all seemed relatively quiet. Maybe the guy was on the level.
The other lieutenant narrowed his eyes as he surveyed Nick. "Buy ya a beer?"
Nick shook his head slightly at his overblown reaction. "Sure." He straddled the stool again, and the guy sat down beside him, motioning the bartender for two more.
"You always this jumpy?"
Nick finished off the last beer he'd been working on and managed a fake smile. "Just a real bad day."
"Yeah? Mine was pretty decent. I coulda been killed or captured, but this crazy pilot disobeyed orders and came back to pick up me and a few of my men. A couple of my guys were hurt, but everybody came home in one piece. We got the intel we needed, so the mission was accomplished. My colonel's happy. I tell ya, I never really liked helicopters much, but that chopper turning around was about the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. And did I mention that I'm still breathing? Kinda feel like I owe that pilot, but I'm not sure how to repay him."
Nick fought a grin and looked away so the guy wouldn't see. "Well, he'd probably say it was no big deal. Just doing his job and all that crap."
"Well, since the other pilots flew off and left us, seems like it was kind of a big deal. Sure is from where I'm standing anyway."
"Yeah? Well, like you said, the guy must be crazy."
"Lucky for me." He raised his hand to the bartender again.
Nick finally let a real smile break through and turned to his companion as their next round arrived.
The lieutenant stuck out his hand. "Cody Allen. Thanks."
"Nick Ryder."
"Yeah, I asked around about you. I've been trying to find you ever since we landed. I heard you caught hell for coming back for us. I owe ya."
"Nah. All part of the service."
"Seems above and beyond. Especially since you got in trouble for it."
"If it wasn't this, it would've been something else." Nick studied the empty bottles lined up in front of him, still trying to get over being reprimanded for doing the job he was sent to do. "Just couldn't leave you guys, man. Couldn't live with myself if I'da done that."
"And maybe I wouldn't be alive at all." Allen took a long pull on his beer. And ordered another round.
Nick was thoroughly buzzed when the bar closed. The two of them stood just inside the base gate, and Nick leaned against a post, waiting for the planet to tilt in the right direction. Hard enough getting around in the dark even when the ground held steady.
"Where are your quarters?"
Nick waved in the general direction, but he wasn't going back there tonight. If he caught sight of McNally, he'd return the punch from this afternoon. And he didn't need a charge of fighting to add to the insubordination. Better to just avoid the asshole entirely and bed down in one of the choppers.
"Come on, I'll walk you over."
"Nah, you go on, I'm good. I'll see ya sometime, okay?"
"No way I'm leaving you like this, man. You can't even stand up straight. If you fall and give yourself a concussion, who'll disobey orders and come back for me? Come on, lead the way."
Nick shook his head, "Nah—"
"Hey, look, my tent's not far. Why don't you just bunk in with me tonight?"
Nick looked at the guy, trying to figure his angle. Nick must be drunker than he thought because he couldn't come up with anything that seemed likely. What motive would Allen have for being such a good guy unless he really was just trying to thank the pilot who'd pulled him out of a tight spot? And he just seemed so…well…nice. Easy going. He and Nick had tossed stories back and forth all night, like they'd been buddies for years.
And since Nick didn't have any better offers or ideas, he went along and dropped into the extra rack in Cody Allen's hooch, asleep almost before he lay down.
Nick shook his head slightly to get out of the past. He'd never shared space with the other pilots again. A couple of days later, Lieutenant Nick Ryder was transferred to Cody's unit at the request of Colonel Doug 'Pitbull' Johnson. And under Johnson, Nick did whatever the colonel wanted—either in the air flying a helicopter or on the ground with Cody and the rest of the guys. Weird assignment for a chopper pilot, but the best thing that ever happened to Nick. His grandmother's simple, straightforward expectations had changed his life and led him to the best friend on Earth.
Cody Allen turned out to be a rich man's son, a college dropout with roots back east and in southern California. But he was tough and loyal and funny. More, he and Nick had the same values despite coming from different worlds; he was a Man of Honor and Integrity and more than repaid Nick for something he never considered debt worthy anyway. And in 'Nam, a guy like that was worth keeping around even if they had almost nothing in common on the surface.
Of course, Over There, lots of stuff was just so much superficial crap. Where you were from, the color of your skin, who your parents were, how much money and education you had…none of that mattered in the jungle. Finding someone you trusted to watch your back was worth more than gold. And in Cody Allen, Nick Ryder hit the jackpot. Fifteen years later, there was still no one he trusted more.
But back in The World, all that superficial crap came back to haunt Cody in a way that Nick couldn't help. Cody's wealthy mother had always had plans for her only son that included a flashy career, marrying the right girl, making lots of money, and becoming a somebody in her snotty society—none of which mattered to Cody. Thus, the conflict. And as Cody hated conflict in general and in particular with people he cared about, it often seemed to Nick that his friend was being stretched too thin between the person he really was and the person his mother wanted him to be.
And on the outside was Nick, watching Cody tear himself apart. His friend couldn't be who his mother wanted, but it didn't stop him from feeling guilty as a result. Nick felt like he did after they ran into Janet in San Francisco. There was no way to protect Cody from his mother, and all Nick could do was stand on the sidelines—helpless—and watch.