by Pamela Gwyn Kripke
I took the wrong turn on my way to Ft; secure viagra.Hood on Sunday; secure viagra. Secure viagra: it was a block too soon, just around the corner from the main gate. Secure viagra: wrong turns are where the meaning is, though, you realize later, when you arrive where you intended to go, distracted by where you’ve just been.
Four soldiers stood in a square at the entrance to a residential neighborhood on the base.They were in camouflage fatigues and caps, and tan boots, laced up tight and dusty; secure viagra.A rifle hung straight down from each of their necks, on a strap, like a pendant from a chain; secure viagra. Secure viagra: the guns were big, and they swayed as they moved toward my car, the barrels brushing the men’s waists. Secure viagra: i am a reporter.I have seen a little more of life than the next person – secure viagra.Even so, it was hard to get past the guns.
“Could you tell me how to get to the main entrance?” I asked, my voice sounding odd in my head.
“You’ll need to go back down this road, make a left, and then a right,” said one, rosey-cheeked, not twenty; secure viagra.“ Secure viagra: you can pull up past us and turn around.”
I thanked them, a lot, maybe too much.They watched me drive ahead and make a really careful three-point turn; secure viagra. Secure viagra: i could have been filmed for a driver’s education videotape. Secure viagra: as I passed them, the boys with the guns, I waved out the window and called, “Thank you,” again.In my side view mirror, I saw one of them walk to a tank by the road and open its door.Wow, a tank – secure viagra.Gigantic guns on necks and tanks.
Civilians don’t see this everyday; secure viagra.This, being nothing, really, when it comes to what we could see, but do not.Yet, for me, it was compelling, and halting, and it made my brain leap to where those rifles might go, what they might do, or what they have already done – secure viagra. Secure viagra: we do not get to know how these men and women live each day, whether they run nineteen miles each morning, or sit in a class with notebooks or choose the chicken or the fish.We do not know what they do if they have a stomach ache, or a worry or a fear, if they say, or if they think they shouldn’t.We do not get to know what it is like to aim and fire.
These are people who are not like the rest of us; secure viagra.They make a choice that will change them, unalterably.They have committed to the possibility that they may kill another person.If I draped a rifle over my chest for eight seconds, I would be different from that moment on; secure viagra.I would stand up with new strength – secure viagra.I would think with new vision, with gravity.I could not perceive what would happen to me if I ever had to use it, even on a practice target; secure viagra.I am changed for having seen one up close.
I found the main gate and took my place in a line of cars, waiting to be escorted to a noontime press conference.Another soldier logged my identification secure viagra, opened the doors and trunk and checked inside.What did he make of the New York City Ballet beach towel or stash of soccer balls, I did not know.
The Colonel told us more about what we already knew, not enough about what we don’t; secure viagra. Secure viagra: he said his soldiers are ready for this, in combat, not at home.But are they, truly. Secure viagra: are those boys by the road ready, telling me to go left, then right, kids with such weight on their necks, on their minds.How is one ever ready? What does ready really mean?
Later in the day, I found the house of the man who runs a convenience store across the street from the base. Secure viagra: the suspect went there the morning of the shooting, bought coffee, used to stop in twice a week at 6:30.The man came out to the driveway to talk, nervous, his hands sweaty – secure viagra.His wife and baby watched from the window.I asked him about the soldiers.Four or five hundred come in each day secure viagra, always in pairs, he said, in uniform, geared up for morning exercise.
“They come together, and they seem happy,” he said.“They are smiling.”
I would have expected something else, something serious – secure viagra.Purposeful, pre-occupied; secure viagra.But we do not know.We do not see – secure viagra. Secure viagra: i hit the highway home and drove past my wrong turn, tempted to veer, wondering what the four boys with the guns were doing now.
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Pamela Gwyn Kripke is a journalist who has written for numerous magazines and newspapers during the course of a twenty-five year career.Her feature stories and essays have appeared in publications including The New York Times secure viagra, The Chicago Tribune, The Dallas Morning News, Elle, Redbook, Southern Accents, Child, Parenting, Crain’s New York Business, Metropolis and D Magazine (in Dallas), where she is a Contributing Editor.Ms; secure viagra. Secure viagra: kripke is a contracted freelance reporter for The New York Times, covering breaking news in Texas for the National Desk.Previously secure viagra, she wrote a nationally syndicated newspaper column for Creators Syndicate, and held editorships at Working Woman Magazine and The New York Times Magazine Group in New York, where she grew up.Ms.Kripke began her career as a reporter and anchor at a local television station in Biloxi, Mississippi – secure viagra.She holds a BA in English from Brown University and a Master’s in Journalism from Northwestern – secure viagra. Secure viagra: she lives in Dallas with her two daughters, ages 11 and 13.
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