Chapter 3 – musings
Michele thought about him again. She'd tried not to but it had become almost instinctive now. Something didn't sit right with her. She'd wanted to say something to him, talk about what she was feeling, before he'd roped out of the helicopter but the situation hadn't been right. Something had been stirring within her beyond the adrenaline of the previous 48 hours. But the chaos of the battle at the bridge, trying to find cover from the bombing that never happened then the race from the wreckage of Santa Monica Airport to the extraction point had never provided an opportunity for her to articulate her thoughts let alone speak to the tall, rugged Marine named Mike Nantz.
Then she'd heard that he and his team had done the impossible: they'd not only destroyed the alien command and control center in LA but had lived through it. Her heart sang at the news. She felt an elation that still brought her to tears which she couldn't quite explain either.
The vivacious, attractive woman had made sure her young charges, nieces Kirsten and Amy, and now young Hector Rincon, were looked after before she made her way to the base to find him from the refugee encampment next door. Guards at the complex had told her once she explained who she was that the heroes of the hour had landed and were in the mess area getting food and resting.
Michele couldn't help it but she began to run then started to giggle as she saw a cluster of Marines. The sophisticated woman felt like a school girl again, giddy, heart pounding. Maybe it was the stress of all she'd been through the past few days, but she hoped something else had taken over.
It would be like one of those scenes in the movies that she used to loath, she'd call his name, he'd turn, his face would light up in recognition and then…
The group was in ear shot. She knew he was there, though his back was to her in the group. She knew.
"Mike!" Michele called out, anticipation thick in her voice.
The Marines stopped their conversation and turned to stare at the running woman. 'He' turned but it wasn't him, stopping her dead in her tracks.
"Can we help you ma'am?" a tall Marine officer with salt and pepper hair wearing a Lt. Colonel's silver oak leaf on his tactical vest asked with a note of irritation.
"Sir, she's one of the refugees from the police station," another officer tried to explain quietly.
The lights of realization went on for Lt. Colonel Ritchie and his disposition changed. "Sorry about that, you just caught me off guard," he explained. "What can I do for you?"
"Umh," Michele hesitated, her face turning red with embarassment, "is it possible to speak to Staff Sergeant Nantz, just for a few minutes please? I never really got a chance to thank him for saving my life."
"I'm sorry," the commanding officer responded with a genuinely pained expression on his face, "he and his team went back in to LA on a mission about ten minutes ago."
Gone.
Ten minutes, she'd missed him by ten minutes.
It seemed to be the story of her life. A day late and a dollar short.
Suddenly Michele felt light headed and her knees began to wobble. Lt. Colonel Ritchie called over a female Marine who led the dazed woman away. The officers then returned to their conversation though none made eye contact with each other. The cost of this war had just ratcheted up one more notch.
For Michele Trantor this seemed to be yet another frustrating chapter in a mostly frustrating life. She was the one who was supposed to make a mark in life, not her sister. She was the one to leave the family home in Nebraska while her sister stayed. She left for the glamour of California. She had become a professional, a veternarian who worked on the pets of the stars.
On the surface Michele had it all: success, looks, money, yet there was an emptiness to her life, something seemed to be missing, something she'd never quite been able to put her finger on. She'd tried, God knows she'd tried everything possible to find peace and contentment. But nothing had worked.
Her sister had not strayed far from home, married a guy she'd known for years and had two beautiful children. Michele had a string of failed relationships.
Yes, a day late and a dollar short. It seemed like a life of stalemate.
She'd resented her sister for a long time then finally just gave up and tried to find solace in being Aunt Michele. This was supposed to be a special two weeks for her and the girls while her sister and brother-in-law travelled.
Then the aliens attacked.
Michele had been fixing the girls grilled cheese sandwiches when the news roke on CNN. The first mistake had been packing too much stuff into her SUV to take along. By the time they'd gotten on the road the aliens had cut off their escape to the evacuation zone so they'd ended up at a police station. When she arrived there were several dozen people hunkered down and a good number of police officers to protect them. A call then had gone out to the military to get them out.
It didn't quite work out as planned.
By the time the Marine patrol arrived there were only five of them left. She didn't want to remember what had happened to the others. When the grotesquely shaped monsters attacked the police hadn't stood a chance. The rest of the civilians tried to run for it with the remaining police.
They hadn't made it past the parking lot.
One officer had stayed with them. When he went down Michele, Hector and the kids stayed hidden so had not been found.
When the Marines arrived, no when Mike and the Marines arrived, she thought she might actually live. Mike looked like a square-jawed angel to her and she wasn't sure she'd seen anyone more handsome. The stress of the situation had amplified her feelings to be sure but she also knew he was a guy she would have noticed in more normal circumstances.
Yea, notice and then dismiss as not worth it, she chastised herself immediately.
That had been a problem of hers, arrogance and an inflated sense of self worth. But much had changed. She also had the opportunity to watch him closely, how he treated his men and more importantly how he looked after the civilians. To many in the Marine detail the refugees seemed like a burden, especially when the helicopter filled with their wounded comrades had been shot down.
But never with Mike Nantz.
He was attentive and even took the time to help calm young Hector down when he'd been scared. Every time he looked at the young boy the sergeant had a strange look in his eye which made him even more attractive for some reason.
Then they had worked together dissecting a captured alien. It hadn't been much of a first date but it was a start. Despite the feverish pace to find a way to kill these monsters they'd connected and even had a moment of levity. There had definitely been something between them.
No, he was pretty attractive to her, hot in fact, as her young assistants at the clinic would have put it.
Yes, there had been something there between them, despite all the chaos, a connection that stayed every step of the way right up to when he'd given her the letter for Lt. Martinez's wife in the helicopter. She'd wanted to say something, tell him how she felt, even spontaneously kiss him, especially when he held her hand after giving her the note but she'd frozen.
A day late and a dollar short again.
Despite what seemed to be yet another setback, much had changed in the past few days for Michele Trantor. Their lives had intersected for a purpose and she was determined to do something about it even if a war raged around them. But there was more, it was time to become an asset, not a liability.
