Chapter 8
.
I knew after I saw that girl's suicide that I would enlist in the army. I didn't know her, I heard her name later but since then I've forgotten. I realize that her death was simply the last straw. I didn't tell my mother, wanted our last month together to be as pleasant as possible. She could tell I was nervous about something, she just assumed it was anxiety about the war, hardly uncommon at the time. It's funny how, in some ways, I was more afraid of how mom would react to this news than to the actual war. To be fair I had seen her wrath a few times. I thought about how I would let her know, maybe leave a note while she was at work, and then just go off and enlist. I don't know how much preperation people had in the old days, but in 2064 you could enlist in the morning and be at boot camp before sunset. We needed all the soldiers we could get, we weren't all trained for a long time. Going to school after this was weird, since I knew for a fact I wouldn't finish the year. I wondered if I would miss this school when I was in the army. As May 4th approached mom saved sugar, enough to bake a birthday cake that we would eat with Willow. She told me a little trick she did as a cashier. There was almost always at east one customer who still didn't seem to realize that they could only buy a certain amount of products per day. When she had to confiscate these items, she'd leave them at her register, and purchase them at the end of her shift. I decided to have my birthday dinner on May 4th, it would also be the last dinner I would eat with my family for awhile, possibly forever. It was a good dinner. The next morning I ate the last piece of this cake for my breakfast. A year ago my mother never would have let me eat cake for breakfast, but now we feared this would be my last birthday. Mom had to leave for an early shift, I hugged her goodbye. She still didn't realize that I was saying goodbye, we just didn't take these things for granted. It was Monday, May 5th. I dropped Willow off at her school, and asked a friend to take her to the food distribution center after school. I knew Willow would be safe there, or as safe as one could be. I had already asked them to call my mother later, have her pick up Willow after work. Instead of going to school this Monday I went to the enlistment center, and officially joined the army. I signed all the papers, naming mom and Willow as my beneficiaries should I not make it back. By noon me and the other recruits were on the bus to boot camp. They gave us all sandwiches for the ride there, and we bonded. You've probably heard the expression "The enemy of my enemy is my friend." People think it refers to political alliances, but it can mean something else. I don't think any of us on the bus were over 21, we had the same fears, the same enemies, and more than enough of both. We all bonded over our mutual fear. Shortly before we reached boot camp, my mother called my cellphone. I started to regret taking the phone with me, but I still answered. My mother was as angry as you can imagine. That I just left, without even telling her, leaving Willow at the food distribution center. As she was yelling at me the bus arrived, and the drill sergeant began yelling at all of us. I quickly hung up and ran out to face my future. For better or worse, I was in the army now.