Free Throw Like A Girl by Jean Thompson

tables and a bowling alley and a bar that served soft drinks, since enlisted men couldn’t drink on base. There were other soldiers there with other visitors, moms and dads, but mostly wives or girlfriends and children running in shrieking circles. And since there were women soldiers too, there were husbands and boyfriends.
    Jack saw a guy from his company who was there with his wife, so the four of them sat down together in the snack bar and ordered hamburgers and fries. His name was Peterson, and Jack introduced him as Pete, even though his name was really Wayne. In the Army, they hung nicknames on everybody. Jack’s nickname was Party.
    Pete’s wife’s name was Lucy, and they were from Texas. Lucy had a beauty parlor hairdo and a red manicure. She was dressed up too, in a skirt and heels and a plaid jacket, and a handbag that matched the plaid. Kelly Ann wondered if she should have worn something other than jeans, since she could tell that at least part of the visit was about showing her off.
    But Jack didn’t seem to notice or care what she had on, just shoved their chairs close together so he could put a hand on her leg. Pete Peterson said, “So how’s it goin, huh, you two finding enough to talk about?” Kelly Ann knew that what he meant was sex. He had one of those Texas accents that made everything sound fake.
    Jack said, “Don’t you worry about us, buddy. How about you guys, you enjoying the hospitality of the U.S. Army?”
    â€œLucy here wishes it had more of a resort feel to it. She wanted waterskiing and maybe a casino.”
    Lucy gave him a drop-dead look. She wasn’t doing anything besides sitting there all dressed up and prissy. There was a silence that stretched on and on, then Kelly Ann said, “I was supposed to bring our little girl, but she got sick.”
    Pete said, “You don’t hardly look big enough to have a baby. A shrimp like you.”
    â€œWell I did have her. Didn’t I, Jack. He was right there.”
    â€œOh yuck.”
    â€œThey don’t have kids yet,” Jack told Kelly Ann.
    â€œNor never will, if I have to watch.”
    Lucy gave him another nasty look, this one suggesting he wasn’t going to get the chance to even start any kids.
    Kelly Ann would have liked for Jack to say something about what a wonderful experience it had been, watching his daughter come into the world, because it had . But Jack just started in on his fries, as if none of this had anything to do with him. Kelly Ann was beginning to wish she hadn’t brought up the subject in the first place. So far she wasn’t too impressed with the class of people the Army attracted.
    â€œNow that is one thing I could never do, be in some delivery room,” Pete said, twisting his face into a comical expression. “All that blood and gunk coming out of her.”
    â€œThat’s funny talk for a soldier,” said Kelly Ann, when no one else would say anything.
    â€œThink I’d rather get shot at.”
    â€œI wouldn’t want you there anyway,” said Lucy, then she closed her mouth for good.
    Kelly Ann looked out the windows, where ranks of soldiers in camouflage uniforms were marching right down the middle of the road, like a parade. A sergeant ran alongside, counting cadence. She wished the rest of them would just drop it.
    They began talking about the war, about getting to the hot zone. Because after all, that was the main event, the whole reason for the base and the uniforms and the manual of arms and the flags flying and all the rest. She understood that for Jack and the other soldiers, everything else was only talk and waiting around, and nothing else up to now had ever been so important. Not her, not even the baby. Jack said, “Man, I do not want to be in that stinkin place. But if I got to go, I say let’s get it over with.”
    â€œIt’s messed up,” agreed Pete. “They can’t do one thing