Down Pad 6
Jake and Yael / Isolation
Jake and Yael
Jake wouldn’t be coming back to his room in the barracks that night. He had gotten permission to live off base, starting that day. Since this wouldn’t be a marriage, he wouldn’t qualify for base married housing, and he didn’t have the rank to qualify for the Base Allowance for Housing. He was going to live in the house Yael and Sammy shared. Sammy would stay with them, at least until the current lease ran out.
The Mass was over and the priest had recessed out of the nave. Most of the congregation left. But those who remained came up to the front pews of the church. Antoine and Jenna Mae Carrington were among them, with their five children, ranging from six months to 11 years old. Antoine and Jenna Mae had sponsored Yael when she’d been baptized and joined the church.
A few people who weren’t from the church came in, then. Everyone from Carrington’s Retrieval Ops team. Jordan Lo, Budd’s girlfriend, a Spec2 from Base Support. Denny, of course, and Sammy. Even a few guys from the junior enlisted men’s barracks showed up, but most of the men from the barracks would meet them later, at the Down Pad.
The priest came back, not in his robes for the Mass but in his usual daily clerical garb, a black robe with clerical collar. He stood in the nave, in front of the sanctuary.
“Welcome, friends,” the priest said. “Jake and Yael have asked for a blessing on their vocation as a couple bound as brother and sister. He read a passage from the Bible, then said, “Jake, Yael, could you come up here now?”
They came up and stood in front of the priest, facing each other. Jake wore a button-down shirt with no tie and neat black trousers – his normal church clothes. Yael was also in one of her church dresses with an infinity scarf pulled over her head; it was a bit more modest and a bit less flashy than what she wore to the pub.
“Jacob,” said the priest. “This is your sister in Christ, Yael. Will you take her into your home and into your heart, to love, to serve and to protect, as a sister, in sickness and in health, until death do you part?”
“Yes!” said Jake, then suddenly realized his response was a little loud. “I will,” he added, a bit quieter. Then he turned to Antoine, standing next to him, took the ring from him and put it on the middle finger of Yael’s left hand.
Then the priest turned to Yael.
“Yael,” he said, “this is your brother in Christ, Jacob. Will you enter into his home and take him into your heart, to love and to serve, as a brother, in sickness and in health, until death do you part?”
“I will,” said Yael. Then she turned to Jenna Mae, standing next to her, took the ring from her, and put it on the middle finger of Jake’s left hand.
The rings were silver bands, worked in a pattern of loaves and fishes from the miracle of the feeding of the multitudes in the Gospels. Inside, they had engraved the first part of the verse from Matthew 14:20, “They all ate and were satisfied.”
Then the priest gave the blessing. “May the Lord bless you and keep you. May he make his face to shine upon you. May he be gracious unto you, and give you peace. I bless you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”
Jake and Yael crossed themselves with the priest, and answered, “Amen.”
Then they held hands and walked down the aisle and out into the narthex of the church, followed by the priest. Their friends shook their hands, and some hugged them, congratulating them, and then everyone made their way to the Down Pad, for a party.
Jake was popular, so pretty much everyone from the junior enlisted men’s barracks was there, in addition to everyone from his team. Some of the men had girlfriends, but at least half didn’t, so men outnumbered women by roughly two to one. Denny was proud to be one of the guys with a girlfriend, and Sammy looked beautiful on his arm.
“Mind if I cut in?”
Another one of the guys from the enlisted barracks interrupted Denny and Sammy, leaving Denny on the sidelines. He hadn’t minded it at first. At first, it had been Jake dancing with Sammy while Denny danced with Yael, Antoine while he danced with Jenna Mae, Budd while he danced with Jordan. He’d been proud of showing off what he’d learned in dance class, and the other men had brought Sammy back to him and he’d felt very adult – as if he’d been inducted into the order of adult men.
But now, they weren’t trading partners any more. He was being shoved off to the side. And the last one hadn’t brought Sammy back to him at all, he’d traded her off to someone else. And now this guy….
“Yes, I do mind,” he said, and pulled Sammy away from him.
“Let’s go over there,” he said, in her ear.
“Den, you can’t just pull me away,” Sammy said. “You don’t own me. Maybe I still want to dance.” She shook herself free of him.
The other guy bowed to Sammy. “May I have the honor of this dance?” he asked, with exaggerated politeness.
Sammy nodded her head and gave him her hand, and he took her away. Denny watched as they danced, very stately, at arm’s length. She was beautiful and the guy was elegant and danced way better than he could. He suddenly felt embarrassed for thinking he could dance just because he could manage not to step on Sammy’s feet now.
And what was he doing wearing what had become his pub clothes and the stetson, instead of his church clothes, maybe with some kind of sports jacket? No one else here was wearing a T-shirt – they all had button down shirts or polo shirts on. But Jake had said no, he should stick with the black T-shirt with the image of the dragon Sammy had drawn. A dragon? No one else had a shirt with a dragon.
The song ended and the guy hadn’t brought Sammy back. So where was she now? Over there, he saw her, dancing with someone else. An older guy this time. He didn’t recognize him from the barracks or from Jake’s team. Probably from the base, though, by his hair cut. Another sharp dressed, good dancer.
Denny started to head over, but then he overheard a woman next to him talking to her girlfriend. “Don’t they look great together? He’s so hot. Much better than that geek she came in with.” Denny stood stuck to the ground, but kept an eye on the couple. The song ended, and this time the man leaned down and gave Sammy a kiss on the lips. She stepped back, but then the man bowed, like the other one had done, and when the next song started, he had swept Sammy over to where Denny could barely see her anymore.
Then Denny lost sight of her altogether.
“That geek.” Somehow, over the past months, he’d forgotten that in most places that was a term of derision. And of course, it was what he was. And what Sammy wasn’t. He went over to the bar and started to order a whiskey, but then thought better of it. Don’t get drunk, just a beer, to calm down a little.
He was halfway finished with it when Budd came over. “Fuck, Denny, what are you doing here? Sammy needs you! Jake’s getting it under control, but she needs you.”
Budd grabbed him by the arm and dragged him across the dance floor.
It didn’t look like Jake had it under control. He was on his knees with his arm twisted up behind his back, looking up at the older man Sammy had been dancing with. But Sammy was away from the man, with Yael. Sammy looked over at Denny as he approached.
The man saw Denny, surveyed the crowd, then let Jake up. “Hey, hey,” he said, “everyone calm down. Just a little misunderstanding. I didn’t know she was taken.”
Denny came over to Sammy, but still didn’t say anything.
“Her name is Sammy, and she didn’t want to dance with you,” said Jake, when Denny was still silent.
Finally, Denny spoke. “I don’t own her,” he said.
Isolation
The next morning was Sunday. Denny slept in and missed breakfast at the mess hall, so he just took an energy bar out of his food drawer and started a cup of coffee. He sat at his computer in his underwear and brought up his game, the one he was programming. With Jake gone, he kept the door closed all the way.
A while later, there came a knock on the door. Denny opened it a crack.
Budd opened it the rest of the way and walked in. “You’re not dressed?” he said. “We were going running and then maybe take the bikes out.”
“I didn’t think we were doing that,” said Denny. “Jake’s gone.”
“So I don’t count?” said Budd. “We were all running together.”
“I thought you were mad at me,” Denny said, changing the subject.
“Have you even eaten?” said Budd, looking at Denny closer. “Have you even been out of this room since last night?”
“Sure.”
“I mean except to take a piss.”
“Oh, then no.”
“And food?” asked Budd.
Denny pointed at the energy bar wrapper on the desk to the left of his computer.
Budd walked over to the desk, picked up the wrapper, and put it in the waste basket. “Now at least go take a shower, even if you don’t want to go running,” he said.
Denny pulled on a robe and started checking his shower bucket, then stopped. “I don’t have to take orders from you.”
“Yes, I’m mad at you,” said Budd. Then, “That’s why you’re listening to me.”
“What for?”
“I’m assuming you’re too stupid to know what you said last night, and it’s obvious you’re too stupid to take care of yourself this morning. Just get in the shower, okay?”
“Yes, sarge,” Denny said to the Spec2. When he got back to the room from the shower, he felt a lot better. He’d even gone ahead and shaved, which he hadn’t planned to do at all that day. But Budd wasn’t there anymore. There was a note on his desk: gone running.
Denny was programming again when Budd interrupted him the second time that day.
“Lunchtime!” Budd said, knocking and then walking right in.
“I’m in the middle of something,” said Denny. “Leave me alone.”
“Well, I thought you might like something to eat before you go over to grovel in front of Sammy and beg her forgiveness. Not to mention apologizing to Jake and Yael for wrecking their party last night.”
“I’m not going to grovel. She was the one who said I didn’t own her. And it’s not my fault Jake and Yael got involved.”
For a moment, Budd just stood there, silent.
“You know,” said Budd, “up to now I thought you were just embarrassed and needed some help to face up to facts. But if that’s what you really think….”
“Of course it is,” said Denny. “Just leave me alone. I’m in the middle of something.”
Budd left. Denny spent the rest of the day in his room, with the door closed, on the computer.
With Jake moved out, and the next group of Boot Camp graduates not due for several weeks, Denny had the room to himself. He didn’t go anywhere, except to his job at Space Force Base IT Support. He ordered food delivered to the barracks, and ate at his desk. He stopped going to church altogether.
A couple of weeks later, Denny ran into Budd on his way back from the dungeon. Almost literally. He hadn’t been paying attention, but Budd held up his hand to stop him. Denny’s first reaction was to push back when he felt Budd’s hand on his chest, but Budd stepped aside quickly, so that Denny stumbled forward instead.
“Watch where you’re going,” said Budd.
Denny looked up. Budd looked different than before. “Oh, sorry,” said Denny.
Denny placed the difference, then, because his apology had brought back the start of a smile to Budd’s face. That was it. Budd used to smile, he was always smiling.
Another Specialist passed by and Budd lifted a hand and called a greeting and Denny saw Budd’s usual face, the smiling, friendly one. So that hadn’t really changed. It was him, not Budd.
Budd turned back to Denny, the smile scaling back to cautious. “Seems like I haven’t seen you in forever,” he said.
“Yeah,” said Denny. He remembered to switch his resting bitch face to at least neutral, even if he wasn’t up to a smile.
Budd, encouraged, suggested, “Maybe we should run this Saturday.”
“Maybe,” said Denny. “I’ve gotten out of shape since Jake left. How’s he and Yael doing?”
“Really good,” said Budd. “We seem to tag up at the Down Pad every Friday. Him and Yael and me and Sammy.”
“That’s right,” said Denny. “And Jordan, too, right?”
“Well, her and me, yeah, every weekend at least. But not always at the Down Pad with the others. Doesn’t always like to share me, she says.”
“So you’re dancing with Sammy now?” Denny asked.
“Um, no,” said Budd. “I wasn’t really into that anyway. Osbert from church comes by sometimes.”
“He’s a civilian, isn’t he?” asked Denny. “Legal intern?”
“Yes,” said Budd. “Sammy… she seems to like him.”
Then it hit Denny. “They’re dating? He’s dating Sammy?”
Budd nodded. “He’s not as good at dancing as you are….”
“I didn’t think Ozzy went in for that,” said Denny.
“Well, he doesn’t like to drink, but Yael doesn’t either and neither does Sammy when he comes by.”
“That’s not what I meant,” said Denny.
“Denny,” warned Budd. “Don’t go there. She’s kept up what she started with you. Dresses real nice and doesn’t go for hook-ups anymore.”
Denny looked down. “Well, but it sounds like she’s forgotten about me.”
Budd looked at him, exasperated. “What the fuck? You’re the one who dropped out of her life. You want back in, maybe she hasn’t written you off altogether, but you left her.”
“Yeah, guess so,” said Denny, and walked away.