I Am Not Afraid.
I came here to do my job. To serve my country. To help my fellow soldiers. I am a medic. My name is Jane. But I don't like Jane. I like to be called Baby. I've been shot 5 times. In the shoulder. In the back. In the stomach. In the leg. In the heart. War has torn my life apart. Ripped it up into little pieces and then ran it though a shredder, making sure I would never recover.
I joined Bravo Company on June 3rd. Camp Victory is small, only a total of about 50 soldiers. This was my new home.
Carrying my duffel bag, I stomped up the steps of my new cabin. I knocked lightly. No answer. B6… This was the right one. I knocked again, this time harder.
"Excuse me ma'am?" I turned around to see a young man dressed in uniform, "Are you looking for Bravo Company?"
I nodded quickly.
"Oh. They have patrol right now. You might have to wait for them to come back before you can get in." I nodded again.
"Thank you."
So sighing, I lugged my stuff back down the stairs, and waded through the sand and plopped in front of the base. A young boy was walking around, heckling off DVDs with a soccer ball underneath his arm.
"Hey! Nigga nigga! You want one? They fuck cheap!" Men turned the young boy down, and kept walking. He kept socializing with the men, only a few bought movies from him, and after about 5 minutes he lost patience and started to kick his soccer ball around.
I sat in the hot sand, waiting for Bravo Company to pull up from the patrol, watching the boy kick and juggle his soccer ball. Sand kicked up into the air. The sand brought back lots of memories. I remembered how much I first hated this place when I first came here. It was hot, uncomfortable. Most of all, dangerous. But, now I had grown to find beauty here. Not sure how or why though…
The sun had started to set, and finally a Hummvee pulled up.
"Finally…" I groaned and got up, stretching. Three men hopped out of the transport chuckling and joking around.
"I mean we could have a really awesome tank battle with the Russians if they ever showed up but-"
"You guys Bravo?" I asked quite straight forward. One of they guys, with sleeves rolled up replied, "Ya. And you are?"
"Baby."