Missy and Mike (Excerpts)

This is Missy and her Man- What a Bombshell!

Graduation for Mike

From Bombshells:
....From the parking lot I could see Bravo Company’s graduating class standing in formation outside the hall where they’d soon be honored for completing 19 weeks of basic and advanced training. Mike’s last letter said he’d lost 30 pounds, and when he stepped from the line to greet me, indeed I could see that the training had erased a decade of gluttony and sloth. I reached out to grab his arm but missed the flesh and grasped only the cool rigid fabric of his fatigues. This ominous empty-handedness sent panic to my heart, and though I promised I’d stay composed, I started to cry smearing black mascara under my eyes in a conflicting mess representing both the ecstasy of seeing Mike safe and within arm’s reach, along with the agonizing fear I’d been nurturing since the day he’d enlisted, that one day I could lose my brother in combat.

....I slipped into the ladies room to fix my makeup joining two women who were also fussing with their looks in front of the mirror. A mother from Texas dabbed powder on her forehead to absorb her perspiration, and then smiled in the mirror as though she needed to practice. When I complimented her alligator boots, she said they hurt her feet, but admitted that sore feet were the least of her pain. Ever since her son had joined the Army she could barely climb out of bed, she said; in fact on this day it took all the strength she could muster to dress up and keep her hand steady enough to apply lipstick without drawing all over her face....


...Mike pointed out his comrades who had already received their orders to go to Iraq. They were laughing and gesticulating and seemed fortified with confidence. Oddly, I felt envious. Then a thought struck me that I haven’t let go: What if there was a boot camp for the psyches of every soldiers’ loved ones, a basic training to align our spirits with some battle creed that prompts in us a mechanical reaction to survive when our worst enemies—say fear, anxiety, and depression—threaten to eviscerate us?...

.... Currently, Mike is on standby for a new deployment-