Chapter 7: Drafted

The days and weeks after the game passed by in a blur. I was almost always busy, whether it was with school, football, Rachel or music. Something always had my full attention. I had no spare time to really just pull up a chair, kick back, and relax, so to speak. That is until I made time to relax for a very special day, my eighteenth birthday. Of course, November 16 fell on a Tuesday that year, so I decided to celebrate my birthday on November 20 which was the Saturday after my actual birthday. I had it all planned out. I was gonna take Rachel out on a late afternoon date to a nice dinner, then we'd go watch a movie. Finally, I'd take her to our favorite spot overlooking the city to watch the sunset together. Afterward, I would take her home around 10:45-11:00 p.m. Now all I had to do was wait till the appointed time, six days from now.

As I laid my head on my pillow I couldn't help but be somewhat excited for tomorrow. After all this week was homecoming week too, which meant a lot of TPing and egging houses. It promised to be a lot of fun. Kerry and I were planning to join James and Andrew tomorrow night since they had a truck, which would allow us to put all the toilet paper and such in the truck bed, while we piled into the cab. After Kerry and I met up with James and Andrew, we would then meet up with a couple of other groups made up of a collective of our mutual friends and go have some fun. Rachel wouldn't be joining us since her father wasn't allowing her to stay out to late being the mildly overprotective father he was, which was compounded by the fact that he was the pastor which meant he held himself and his family members to a very high moral standard. 

"General I (pronounced "ee") Ryong Yoon has taken Control of South Korea in a successful military coup. Yesterday afternoon he declared his military junta 'United Korea'. It is also rumored that General I's brother, Lt. HoTong has been given command of the new nation's air force. In other news, It is rumored that a draft may be issued to the citizens of the US in the near future. So make sure you have all the necessary legal documentation you need to either serve faithfully like the patriotic, God-fearing American you are or escape service to your country." I quickly changed the radio channel to something different, not wanting to listen to the bullshit-filled rumor mill. 

It's like people honestly seem to want to make it appear as if it's the end of the world. I mean just yesterday, Rachel's father was quoting from the Book of Revelations about how there would be wars and rumors of war in the end times. 'Tch. He forgot to mention how there would be famine, disease, and natural disasters as well. Well, none of it concerns me,' I think to myself as I put on the local country music channel and head to school.

…

…

…

The week passed by rather quickly. Monday, after class, we had practice then after practice James, Andrew, Kerry, and I met up like we had planned and went to town on our pre-selected victims, one of which was Rachel's house. Needless to say, by the time we left, her house was covered in toilet paper. I had to spend my Tuesday evening helping her clean it up, but it was worth it. Hell, it was practically a mini-date. My house was TPed on Tuesday night which I had to clean up Wednesday evening after I got home from practice. Since today is Thursday, practice ended early and I headed home. I wanted to make sure I was physically and mentally ready for the games tomorrow, however, as I pulled into the driveway, I saw both my parents sitting on the front porch steps. 

When I got out of my car I noticed my mom had extremely red eyes, as if she had been crying for hours and the only reason she wasn't crying now was because all the tears had dried up. Instead of grabbing any of my gear or my backpack I immediately walked towards my parents with a worried look on my face. Once I was in front of them I asked them both "What's happening? What's going on? Why has mom been Crying?" My Dad just wordlessly handed me a letter that read:

To: ROBERT JOHN LINDER

From: THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Greetings:

You are hereby ordered for induction into the Armed Forces of the United States and to report at Armed Forces Examining and Entrance Station, 2350 N Harvey Mitchell Pkwy, Bryan, TX 77807 on December 31, 2004, at 06:00 a.m. This notice is effective immediately. 

IMPORTANT NOTICE 

(Read Each Paragraph Carefully)

If you are so far from your local board that reporting in compliance with this Order will be a serious hardship, go immediately to any local board and make a written request for transfer of your delivery for induction, taking this Order with you.

IF YOU HAVE HAD PREVIOUS MILITARY SERVICE, OR ARE NOW A MEMBER OF THE NATIONAL GUARD OR A RESERVE COMPONENT OF THE ARMED FORCES, BRING EVIDENCE WITH YOU. IF YOU WEAR GLASSES, BRING THEM. IF MARRIED, BRING PROOF OF YOUR MARRIAGE. IF YOU HAVE ANY PHYSICAL OR MENTAL CONDITION WHICH, IN YOUR OPINION, MAY DISQUALIFY YOU FROM SERVICE IN THE ARMED FORCES, BRING A PHYSICIAN'S CERTIFICATE DESCRIBING THAT CONDITION, IF NOT ALREADY FURNISHED TO YOUR LOCAL BOARD.

Valid documents are required to substantiate dependency claims to receive a basic allowance for Quarters. Be sure to take the following with you when reporting to the induction station. The documents will be returned to you. 

(a) FOR LAWFUL WIFE OR LEGITIMATE CHILD UNDER 21 YEARS OF AGE-original, certified copy or photostat of a certified copy of marriage certificate, child's birth certificate, or a public or church record of marriage issued over the signature and seal of the custodian of the church or public records; 

(b) FOR LEGALLY ADOPTED CHILD – certified court order of adoption; 

(c) FOR CHILD OF DMRCED SERVICE MEMBER (Child in custody of a person other than a claimant

(1) Certified or photostatic copies of receipts from the custodian of the child evidencing the serviceman's contributions for support, and 

(2) Divorce decree, court support order, or separation order; 

(d) FOR DEPENDENT PARENT - affidavits establishing that dependency.

Bring your Social Security Account Number Card. If you do not have one, apply at the nearest Social Security Administration Office. If you have life insurance, bring a record of the insurance company's address and your policy number. Bring enough clean clothes for 3 days. Bring enough money to last I month for personal purchases. This Local Board will furnish transportation, and meals, and lodging when necessary, from the place of reporting to the induction station where you will be examined. If found qualified, you will be inducted into the Armed Forces. If found not qualified, return transportation and meals and lodging when necessary, will be furnished to the place of reporting. You may be found not qualified for induction. Keep this in mind in arranging your affairs, to prevent any undue hardship if you are not inducted. If employed, inform your employer of this possibility. Your employer can then be prepared to continue your employment if you are not inducted. To protect your right to return to your job if you are not inducted, you must report for work as soon as possible after the completion of your induction examination. You may jeopardize your reemployment rights if you do not report for work at the beginning of your next regularly scheduled working period after you have returned to your place of employment. Willful failure to report at the place and hour of the day named in this Order subjects the violator to fine and imprisonment. Bring this Order with you when you report.

I finished reading the letter and wordlessly looked from my Dad to my Mom back to the letter and then back to my Dad. "Is this real?" I asked him. He just nodded his head helplessly. 'Sigh,' I exhale feeling exhausted all of a sudden. "Well, I need to get my car in the garage and get all my school and football stuff out of it so that we can lock the house up for the night, and I need to do my laundry. We can talk inside once I've taken care of everything," I say. My Dad just nods and brings my mom into the house, while I take care of my business.

After taking care of my tasks I walk into the kitchen to see my Dad consoling my Mom as best he could. I quickly heated my dinner and ate, before cleaning up and coming to sit next to my mother and hugging her. It's the best I can do to communicate to her that everything is going to be okay. After a few minutes of just staying like that in a family group hug, which both my dad and I were feeling increasingly awkward in, my Mom seemed to have come to terms with the situation, at least as much as she could at this moment. 

"My baby boy. My precious baby boy, you have to stay safe. Promise me you'll stay safe, promise me! Please baby promise me you'll stay safe and that you won't do anything dangerous." my mom croaks out as her eyes threaten to start tearing up again. "I can't promise that Mom. I can't promise that I'll always be safe nor that I won't do anything dangerous, it's war after all. I'll have orders and I'll have to follow them. However, regardless of all of that, I promise you, both of you, that I will always come back to you, that I'll come back home," I say which causes my mom to start tearing up again as she begins to cry into my chest, while I hug her to console her. As I'm doing so I give my dad a pleading look asking for his help, but he just shoots me a look that says 'You made her cry, you figure it out,' which earns a glare from me. After a few minutes, however, he intervenes and we calm Mom down for the third time tonight. 

'God damnit, South American Fuckers. I'm gonna kill every last one of you for making my Mom cry,' I thought to myself before my Dad and I shared a look and he escorted my Mom to their room. After that, I got into bed and went to sleep. 

The next day I woke up and went through my morning routine as usual before heading to Rachel's house to pick her up. Once there I stepped out of the Porsche and opened the door for her. Once she was in I walked around and got back in the car before driving off. Rachel noticed something was off with my demeanor so she asked "Johnny, What's wrong?" I just wordlessly took the draft notice and handed it to her saying "It's better you know now after hearing it from me as opposed to finding out later. 

Needless to say, after reading the draft notice, Rachel was very emotional and ended up in a similar state to my mother. She was still crying when we got to school so I pulled her into a side hug and she and I just sat in my Porsche in silence until she calmed down. After she had calmed down I began to speak "I'll tell you what I told my mother and I'll offer you the same promise I offered my mother to you. I promise that no matter what happens over there, I will come back to you. War isn't safe so I can't guarantee my safety, but regardless of that I have people to come back to and I'll be damned if anyone tries to get in the way of me coming back to them. That includes you, my love, so please don't cry. I'm going to apply for an extension on the deadline so that I can finish high school. Once I get that extension we'll have a little over half a year till I have to report for duty, so until then let's enjoy the time we have together. Okay?" "Okay, but for now, let's just stay like this, just a little longer," she responded. 

Eventually, we had to go to school so we stopped hugging, grabbed our bags, got out of the car, and headed to class. The school was abuzz with the news of the draft. This of course included me and many of the other seniors who had already turned eighteen or would turn eighteen before the end of the year. Kerry however, was lucky, since he was among the group of students who wouldn't turn eighteen until after the new year began. More specifically, the lucky bastard wouldn't turn eighteen until January 13, 2005. 

After a very long school day, the football team headed off to prep for the football game. Since it was homecoming week, we were playing an easy opponent. It was so easy that by halftime the coaches benched most of the starters since we were winning 56-0. Needless to say, even after being benched our team continued to stomp on the opponent for a final score of 70-0. The next day, Saturday, was the day of the homecoming dance. Originally I had planned to skip the dance with Rachel. However, both she and I had been informed by the principal that we had been elected homecoming queen and king respectively and therefore our attendance at the event was mandatory. Since I was now being forced to go to an annoying event for reasons I still cannot possibly fathom, I decided to make the best of it. I had debated with my parents about skipping the dance altogether, however, my mom asserted that twenty or thirty years from now Rachel and I would look back on the event fondly, and as much as I wanted to disagree with her I knew she was right. 

So here I was wearing a gray three-piece suit with a blue tie, sitting on the couch in the Harper family's living room with Rachel's father staring at me rather intensely, while waiting for Rachel to finish getting ready. "You know if you keep staring at me so intensely sir I may get the wrong impression and think you were interested in me," I said with my signature charm to cut the tension. It was somewhat successful as Mrs. Harper stifled a laugh while Mr. Harper looked like he wanted to take my head off though that was just for appearances. "Why you–," Mr. Harper began before being cut off by his wife."Dear, Behave yourself. And Johnny, that was uncalled for." "You're right Mrs. Harper, I shouldn't have said that. I'm sorry." I apologized while Mr. Harper just grunted and stopped staring at me, though he continued to give me the side eye that only fathers can give. After a few more minutes of waiting Rachel came down the stairs and I must say she looked absolutely captivating. She was wearing a dark navy blue dress that highlighted her assets in all the right ways while still maintaining a modest wholesome appeal that just made you wanna protect her, as if she were a goddess descended from on high. 

After a moment of pin-drop silence that made Rachel's face turn red as a tomato, I managed to speak up "You look absolutely stunning, love." "You look beautiful Rachel." "Yes. You look positively amazing dear." Mr. and Mrs. Harper said respectively after me. After complimenting her beauty, I took out the corsage I had bought while Rachel went back upstairs to grab the boutonnieres and her change of clothes. After she came back, I put the corsage on her wrist while she pinned the boutonnieres to my suit jacket just above my left breast. After a few more minutes of taking pictures and talking amongst ourselves, Rachel and I Headed to school so that we could participate in the dance.

After arriving at the school we headed to the gymnasium and began to hang out with friends. Rachel and I danced to a couple of slow songs and got a little frisky to some of the other ones. Eventually, it was time to be awarded our respective titles. We were called to the stage and accepted the awards. Afterward, she and I were sure to get plenty of pictures together for the future, and then we slipped out of the dance and went up to our little hill, overlooking the town. We changed out of our Homecoming clothes and into more comfortable casual clothes. I put a blanket out on the ground while we just reclined against my car and stargazed for a while

Rachel was the first to break the silence when she said "You know, I didn't get you a birthday present." "No, but you are the greatest gift I've ever been given," I said. "You know the state of Texas recently changed their policy regarding the age of consent." "Oookay. That's interesting but why are you bringing that up?" I asked in response. "Well I was thinking I could give you a more special present this year," she said. Before I could respond she straddled me and pulled me into a deep, intense, passionate kiss. After breaking from the kiss and catching our breath she pulled me into yet another kiss. Before long though her hands began to wander and I stopped and pulled away from her. 

"Rachel, stop. What's going on? You're normally not like this." I asked. "Sniff. Sniff. I'm sorry." she said, her voice breaking as she began to cry. "I'm just so worried. You're going to go off to war and leave me all alone. If something were to happen to you I…I don't know what I would do. Before you went off to war I wanted to give you everything, all of me." I couldn't help but pull her in as tight as possible to console her. "Don't worry about a thing love. You've done nothing wrong. I'm here and I promise nothing going to happen to me. What did I tell you yesterday? I told you that nothing and l mean nothing, would stop me from coming back to you. I will always be there for you, I will always come back to you, and I will always love you." "I know. I know but that doesn't stop me from worrying about you." After she said that I brought her in for a gentle kiss. The kiss slowly deepened and became more passionate until we separated, both of us breathless. "Johnny. Take me, please."

…

SCENE CUT DUE TO LEWD

…

The rest of the school year passed by in a rather mundane manner. We won the state championship in football. I was able to get an extension on my draft deadline to finish high school. I wasn't able to play baseball this year since the season would continue until after it was time for me to report to boot camp. As such I spent all of the free time I now had, which was a lot, training. I learned as many different types of martial arts as I could off YouTube. I got a membership at the local gym and began training my body harder than I ever had. I graduated as a valedictorian for East High as well. Mine and Rachel's relationship didn't change much after Homecoming night. Though we were a little bit closer in ways I couldn't explain. 

Inevitably, however, my assigned date to report to boot camp came. Here I was saying goodbye to mine and Rachel's family. Mine and Rachel's Mom were both crying, as was Rachel, whereas Mine and Rachel's Dad were trying to console their spouses and I was trying to console Rachel. We would have been getting stares had it not been for the fact that most of the families here were all in a similar state. It was 5:45 in the morning and I had to be inside the base I was currently being dropped off outside of by 6:00 a.m. After giving one last hug and kiss to Rachel, I did the same for my Mom and Mrs. Harper, before giving Mr. Harper a handshake. Then I moved to give my dad, who was on the verge of crying but holding it in and putting on a strong front like all men do, a hug. After hugging him and telling them all that I loved them, I grabbed my bag and made my way to the busses that would bring us into the base that would be my home for the next ten to twelve weeks.