He pushed a large plastic dinosaur into the remaining space at the top of the cardboard box, satisfied that he, as a rapidly maturing 17 year old, was making definite progress in packing up his childhood. His room at the cottage was tiny and he needed space for all the climbing, kayaking and mountain biking gear he had begun to accumulate since moving north full time. The magazine he had been reading, as he fell asleep the night before, had slipped under the bed and he paused as he returned it to the drawer, searching under a stack of other issues until he found a very well hidden, dog eared cardboard folder, clearly of some vintage. He sat down on the edge of his bed and looked at it. A female infantry soldier filled the front cover, her face disguised with camo cream. In the top right hand corner was a logo and beneath it, the words 'Be the Best'.
'Bloody hell Staff, he looks a bit familiar.'
'Doesn't he just, Brains, doesn't he just.'
'Na, couldn't be, could it?'
'Only one way to find out...'
He watched as, hesitantly, the tall teenager began to approach. He saw him stop, look at their stand, run his fingers through his curly, dark hair, knot his brows and turn as if to walk away. He seized his opportunity, 'Interested in joining up?' The boy jumped and turned to face him. He held out his hand, a smile warm with recognition spreading across his face, 'I'm Staff Sergeant Kinders.'
'Well, I'm still only 15 but, yeah, after school, I think so. Might gonna need to get some A Levels first though!'
He guided him towards the stand, 'This is Corporal Brown', another handshake, 'We're just here to answer your questions and explain the options, seriously no pressure.'
Brains spoke, 'So, do you know much about the army?'
'A little, my father was in for about 10 years and my step mum still is.'
He raised a knowing eyebrow, 'So... will it be officer or medic for you then?'
The teenager looked completely taken aback, 'Officer... I think. But...'
'Captain James was the best Captain we ever served under.'
Brains interjected excitedly, 'And Molls, I mean, Dawsey, sorry, Sergeant James, she's the nuts. One of the best medics the army has... and we know, we saw it first hand.'
'Oh. My dad won't speak about his time in the army now. He works with a lot of veterans and soldiers, like on that expedition, but he says his army life should stay in the past. Bo, she sometimes tells me things, but nothing from when she fist knew dad.. It was years later that I even realised that she was the same lady who was at the hospital just after his operation, who he said had saved his life, not that I knew what that meant when I was 7. I didn't even know about the Military Cross until a couple of years ago, when the army held a reception for the Annapurna Expedition. I live with my mum so I'd never seen Bo in dress uniform before. Dad started crying before we left the house and told her she was brilliant, just like he'd asked her to be on their first date. She just walked up to him, wiped away his tears and said, 'Sometimes, Bossman, you're such a massive Cockwomble.' I was pissing myself, although I had to leave the room when they started snogging. Euggghh.'
He and Brains both started to laugh.
'What are you laughing at medic?'
'Cockwombles, Sir.'
He laughed again.
'And I will have no hesitation in lobbing you out of the plane!'
The teenage boy looked on, somewhat bemused, as the two soldiers doubled over with laughter, tears streaming down their faces as they tried desperately to squeeze out more words and phrases, the utterance of which only served to make them laugh even harder.
Having finally managed to collect himself, he looked up at the boy's quizzical brown eyes and started to explain, 'Your father called us all cockwombles when we were getting the pre tour photo done at Brize and your step mum started laughing. He went a bit overboard and told her that if she wasn't up to the job he would throw her out the plane! I don't think they hit it off that day! Actually, I've never been quite sure when they did hit it off, I always thought she was sweet on Smurf, God rest his soul.'
'Really?', replied Brains, 'I can tell you exactly when they hit it off. You lot don't open your eyes! Kept it to myself at the time but since they've been married for 7 years, I don't think anyone's going to care now. '
'What do you mean?'
'It was the day we put on the entertainment, you know.' Brains looked at him pointedly, trying to convey operational information he could not or would not speak in front of a civilian. Knowing precisely to what Brains referred, he nodded. 'Well, you were too busy dancing, Staff, and everyone else was singing but I noticed the body language the minute they walked onto that stage. He threw her a wink at one point too, I saw it and Smurf saw it, he just chose not to understand. You lot all assumed something was going on between her and the Welsh Wanker, she didn't correct you and I kept my mouth shut. Captain James was far too professional to contravene any army regulation, but I most definitely watched them fall in love over the course of that tour.'
'So she went AWOL to visit Captain James at the hospital?'
'Evidently so, ' Brains responded, nodding towards the now even more agog teen.
'Bloody hell, well they don't call you Brains for nothing and it's a bloody good job he didn't lob her out the plane!' He turned back towards the boy, 'She quickly proved she was more than up to the job, never met anyone like her and well, we all love her like a little sister.'
Brains spoke again, 'Listen mate, if you're half the officer your father was, you'll be a credit to the army, if you apply yourself like Dawsey, you'll also go far. But don't go into this lightly, try to get them to talk to you about their experiences, particularly your dad. It's not our place to tell you what happened and some things we can't say, but if you are going to join up, you need to go in with your eyes open. Molls and the Bossman have seen and done things you can't even imagine, you'd need to be able to cope with the same.'
'Take this', he said, handing him a cardboard folder full of leaflets about officer training and various regiments. 'You're still young, but get up your fitness, work hard at school and have a think about what regiment you fancy. Try to get any skills you can that will help your application.'
The teenager lifted his familiar brown eyes and looked at him, to Brains and back again, 'Thanks for this, Staff Sergeant Kinders, Corporal Brown, but please, if you see my dad and Bo, don't tell them anything, I want to explore this in my own time, I know things will be hard with him. He always encourages me to go to university and get a well paid desk job. Bo will be more understanding but I think she will worry too and God knows about Mum...'
'No worries, if you don't want us to speak to them about this, you have our word that we won't.'
Brains held out a scrap of paper with a phone number scrawled across it. 'I'm based at Catterick, so if you are up at your dad's let me know and we can do some fitness stuff or a mini exercise, anything like that.'
'Thanks, I might just do that, Corporal Brown.'
'Call me Brains, you're not in the army yet! One question though? Why do you call Molls Bo?'
The teenager grinned, looking even more like his father as he did so, 'They got married when I was 8 and it was amazing, like having a second, dare I say it, better mum. I think of her as a mother but I couldn't call her mum because mum would have been upset. So I called her Bonus Mum, because that's what I felt she was. But I was 8 and easily bored so it just became Bo.'
'That woman has more names that I've had hot dinners,' chuckled Brains. 'Well good luck mate and seriously, keep in touch, ' he held out his hand.
He did the same, 'See you again I hope.'
He watched as Sam James walked back across the school hall and out the door.
'What do you reckon then Staff?'
'I think pigs will fly before that boy goes to university and gets a well paid desk job.'
