Ron's Worst Nightmare
Message and the Box
By Pat Squared
Kim Possible wept as she looked down on the still form of the father of her unborn child.
Ron Stoppable was surrounded by machines keeping his body breathing and his heart beating. Kim knew that this was the end result of fifteen years of friendship and a single moment's rage. Although Kim did not fire the bullets or cause the rubble to collapse on Ron, she knew that she was responsible for Ron's fate.
The doctors did not want to tell her anything at first, but Pastor Schlosser simply used the Evangelich Network.
Unlike the Catholic church with its formal hierarchy and its own intelligence service based out of the Vatican, the Evangelich or Lutherans had an informal worldwide network of friendships and in certain cases family linkages that allowed Lutheran ministers to communicate with their counterparts around the world. Pastor Schlosser simply contacted Major Walter Mortimer, a US Army Chaplain and ordained Lutheran Pastor assigned to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center.
It was Major Mortimer who managed to cut through all the red tape so that Kim could visit Ron.
After traveling three quarters of the way around the globe and dealing with an entrench bureaucracy, Kim now knew just how hopeless things truly were.
Ron was legally alive. His heart still beat inside his chest and his lungs still functioned. However, there was no reaction to virtually any stimuli. The doctors keep saying that Ron was a six on the Glasgow Coma Scale or more accurately an E2V1M3. The doctors told her that Ron had severe head trauma and might not make it.
However, the doctors stress thatit was a miracle that he end survived long enough to make it to be evacuated, let alone survive the multiple surgeries. Over fifteen bullet fragments and numerous other pieces of foreign matter had to be removed from Ron's body. Ron was strong and his body was fighting on.
However the worse injuries were caused by the rubble crushing his already weaken body.
The reports, Kim knew would fuel her nightmares tonight and for many nights afterwards. In the back of Kim's imagination, Ron was badly hurt and buried alive. He was inneed of her help and she was not there when he needed her the most.Kim shuddered at the image.
It seemed the only part of Ron that was not under some sort of bandaging were his hands and forearms. Every other part was wrapped up like an Egyptianmummy and attached to half a dozen pieces of machinery and IV lines.
No one knew if, let alone predict whenRon would wake up.
Only the occasional beep and hiss of the respirator broke the suffocating silence of the hosptial room.
Then a deep voice violated the silence.
"Misses B, he would not wish you to cry. Seeing him like this is not a memory that he would want you to carry for the rest of your life."
Kim turned around and wanted to yell at the deep voice that violated her time with Ron. However, it was a dark-skinned, middle-aged, one-legged Marine sitting in a wheelchair with a handmade wooden box on his lap.
"Sorry ma'am. They told me that Boiarskii's wife, you were here. I would stand but the butchers here took my leg to feed the local werewolves and they have not gotten around to giving me my peg leg."
The man was obviously in good spirits despite losing his leg, however the tone quickly grew somber.
"Your husband, Private Vasilii Boiarskii, gave up everything a man could sacrifice to save us.
"The sad part was that none of us really knew him until it was too late."
The marine held his breath for a minute as if hee was making a terrible decision. With the exhale, the decision was made to continue.
"The Sudanese Islamic Militia, or SIM's,were sending waves of drugged up maniacs to attack our position since dawn. To keep them out of the fire base, we were burning up our ammo and we were starting to run low. Every time we knocked down one attack, another would come We did not have really any time to take care of the wounded ... we were to busy melting our machine gun barrels trying to hose down another human wave attack.
"Boiarskii, turned out that his squad was wiped out while one a routine anti-IED patrol.Everyone thought that he was blown to bits when the SIM's ambush the Humvee with a couple RPG's. However, he managed to walk, crawl, run, whatever back towards our base camp. That alone took some major guts.
"Boiarskii was alone, just a couple minutes run from the base when he saved us. There was a large crowd being spurred on by the mullahs to attack the infidels. We all could smell the burning rope. Another bunch of Sim's were drugging themselves up for the final push. We knew that they were going to come for us. Higher ups told us that the Navy just sent a dozen plus choppers inbound with ammo, reinforcements, and supplies. However, they were half an hour out. We did not have even five minues, let alone thirty.
"Suddenly, we heard a shot and all hell broke loose.
"Boiarskii found a place to make his stand and start taking out the mullahs and the leadership. He kept them busy long enough for reinforcements and supplies to arrive. The SIM'sused everything they had trying to take him down. However, he just kept on going like the damn bunny in those battery commercials. Even when the building was rubble, he kept on firing until ..."
The marine suddenly stopped.
Kim asked, "What's wrong?"
"I'm sorry ... I can't help myself for being emotional sometimes. If it was not for him, a lot of us would be dead, instead of returning to the land of the Big PX. I am the last of the lot still over here who witnessed your husband pull off a miracle. The docs told me that I was to head out on today's flight so they could fit me with an American made peg-leg. However, I wanted to have someone relay our personal thanks and to give him this."
The marine grunted as he lifted a heavy cardboard box.
"Ma'am, it's too heavy for you to carry. Have someone help you, but make sure he gets it."
Kim asked, "What is inside?"
"It's a dog tag from each life he saved. Also in there is a Get Well card from all the Marines that were here and able to sign, and a letter describing the significance of this box. This box has been held in succession by five different Marines, each one of us owes his life to your husband. I now surrender it to your care, Mrs. Boiarskii."
Kim was stunned. Ron had risked his life many times for her in the past, but no one ever though of him as a hero.
"Each dog tag represents father returning home to his children, a husband returning to his wife, or a child returning to his parents. It is the restored futures of one hundred twenty seven Marines and Navy corpsmen that otherwise would have been lost if Vasilii did not break up the enemy's attack on our compound.
"Should Vasilii muster for the final guard, show your child the box, show your child the names of those he saved, tell your child that its father died not for glory, duty, riches, or vengeance, but sacrificed his life so that we may live."
"It's never about the medals or the parades, it about helping those you love. To us he was just the new face in the battalion mess. To the marines of the First of the Fifth, he was just Vee, Dumbo, Fresh Meat, or New Boy.
"Before all the insanity, I only got a chance to speak to him once when he reported in-country. The word from his platoon sergeant was that he was a quiet marine and did his job without having to be asked. He was a natural with a rifle, scored a possible on our qualification. He did not rattle, but just would hunker down and do the job. It seemed that he did not have any friends on this world, but he would help any marine in need.
"Boiarskii was so average that he kind of blended into the landscape. When he awake, tell him that there are a hundred twenty seven marines and corpsmen whom would unhesitatingly would follow him if he ever decided to storm the gates of hell. We are proud to be his friends."
The proud marine started sobbing and his hands started trembling.
"Misses Boiarskii, your husband is something special. When he wakes up, he will need you. Not as some kind of nurse's aid, but as a companion.
"Combat is a hell that no veteran can ever describe to someone who has not experience it. Fear, arousal, anger, love, hate, brotherhood, rage – he has felt and experience things that were not meant for men to feel. There will be times that he will be distant, times that he can not connect with the world. Don't hate him for that. Don't hate your husband for having some part of his life that you can not understand. It is better if you don't try to understand, but just accept the moments of joy that he, hopefully, will share with you in the future and thank God for all the moments of joy that you two have shared in the past.
"Boiarskii was living proof that the Kingdom of God is not in the heaven, but on earth, living inside of each and every one of our hearts. Goodbye, Mrs. Boiarskii. I am sorry, but I have to report to patient out-processing."
"What is your name," Kim asked the crying marine.
"Gunnery Sergeant Tyrone Wilson, ma'am.
"Thanks to your husband, I'll soon be back in Louisianna doing the Lord's work and hopefully soon be commanding a pulpit. Should you need anything, write us. NCOIC, Headquarters, First Battalion, Fifth Marine Regiment, First Marine Expeditionary Force – Your letter will find us anywhere in the world. Vasilii was one of us. In the Corps, we are family and family stick together no matter what. Semper Fi.Oorah!"
With those words and tears streaming from his eyes, the Marine turned his wheelchair around and rolled out the door.
Kim was upset. She did not want the box. She did not want to carry the responsibility that came with the box. Over one hundred lives ...
Kim did not want any of this. She only wanted her best friend back. She wanted to go to the lake and play water assault with Ron like they did at age six. She wanted to lie next to Ron like when they were teenagers watching some cheesy monster flick. She wanted see his goofy smile and chocolate brown eyes light up with they play tickle wars. She wanted to mess up his messy hair. She wanted to dance with him like they did at Prom, even if he stepped on her feet half the time. There was some much she missed, so many memories that Kim wanted to relive with Ron.
However, her unborn daughter would wish to know that her daddy was more than just the sidekick or buffoon or the distraction. In case Ron ... in case Ron did not make it, his daughter should know that her father's death was not in vain.
Kim wept.