I worked at the Family Service Center at Naval Air Station, Brunswick, Maine. One of the folks I worked with was a female Senior Chief Petty Officer. She made me aware that women warriors face the same issues returning that male warriors face, but without all the publicity that men get. The struggle to deal with injuries, both seen and unseen, and return to a normal life back home is real for both of them.
Chapter 1
The convoy of Army mail trucks made its way along the road to Forward Operating Base Fenty.
“Looks like we’re going to pick up your boyfriend,” Elpidia Delmar said. “Isn’t Gabe’s team out here doing their thing, whatever that is?”
“He’s not my boyfriend,” Kara Dyer shot back. Her lips thinned as she glared hard at the road.
“Uh-huh,” Delmar grunted. She looked out the truck’s passenger side window through the swirling dust.
“So, Dyer, you going to re-up?”
Kara’s right hand flipped off the steering wheel as she shrugged.
“Not sure.”
“Thought you wanted to go home to that lake of yours.”
Kara cast a sharp glance toward the soldier.
“Actually, it’s not my lake.”
“That’s not how it sounds to me. You talk like it’s your private lake.” Amused at Kara’s response, Delmar grinned
Kara returned to glaring at the road.
“Dyer ancestors have been living around Wea Lake for a very long time, but we don’t own it.”
“So, you going to go back to it?”
Kara’s eyes darkened. She could remember every detail of where she was on that morning in September. Her decision to drop out of school and join the Army had been made before the day was done. “Eventually. Right now I’m still angry about the whole 9-11 attack. The bad guys are still out there.”
Delmar leaned back, rolling her eyes. “Uh-huh.”
Kara frowned into the side-view mirror. She could almost see the lake shimmering behind the dust clouds kicked up by the trucks. She thought, “It’s not a very big lake; if someone isn’t there keeping it healthy, it will die. Pops is getting old.”
She recollected how the lake called to the people living around it when even the air perspired in the Indiana summer. Soothing breezes beckoned when the heavy, hot air made it difficult to breathe. Right now she could almost feel the wind blowing off the lake, almost see the refreshing water lapping at her toes before her thoughts were jerked back to the dust and heat.
The chatter on the radio alerted Kara to an approaching motorcycle.
“Which side? Where are they?”
Leaning forward to get a better look in the passenger side-view mirror, Delmar said, “I can’t see it. It must be on your side.”
Kara’s eyes flicked from her side mirror to the road in front of her.
“There. No, I’ve lost them. Where are they?” Kara demanded.
“Coming up on this side. Weaving between the vehicles. You should be able to see it now.”
“Got it.”
The motorcycle was three trucks back. It didn’t seem to be moving all that fast. “Probably nothing,” Delmar remarked.
Kara ignored the comment as she watched the motorbike’s leisurely pace quicken. The driver leaned into the dust kicked up by the truck convoy. She could see him gunning the bike. Moving past Kara’s truck, the motorcyclist fumbled with a backpack and tossed it onto the lead vehicle.
“Piper, they threw a satchel onto your–” Kara barked into her headset. As the backpack exploded, the lead truck pulled to the side, taking evasive action.
Kara could see the smoke trail of the RPG before she heard it. Endless hours of combat training took over as the small arms fire pinged off the truck. She automatically reacted to repel any attack from the front by pulling around the lead truck.
Angling to a stop in front of the burning vehicle, Kara’s sharp eyes watched the truck convoy from the side-view mirror. Barely noting the movement, she saw Delmar rolling out of the truck’s passenger side. Kara glanced at the burning vehicle briefly before turning to fire on the insurgents. Using the smoke as cover, she moved toward the wounded soldiers.
The only thing Kara remembered for months afterward was someone yelling “Medic!” and Gabe’s slate-gray eyes before she seemed to slip under the waters of the lake into unconsciousness.
