before he got back, and she was five months pregnant, which, for a Marine coming back from a seven-month deployment, is not pregnant enough.
Corporal Weissertâs wife wasnât there at all when we got back. He laughed, said she probably got the time wrong, and OâLeary gave him a ride to his house. They get there and itâs empty. Not just of people, of everything: furniture, wall hangings, everything. Weissert looks at this shit and shakes his head, starts laughing. They went out, bought some whiskey and got fucked up right there in his empty house.
Weissert drank himself to sleep and when he woke up, MacManigan was right next to him, sitting on the floor. And MacManigan, of all people, was the one who cleaned him up and got him into base on time for the classes they make you take about donât kill yourself, donât beat your wife. And Weissert was like, âI canât beat my wife. I donât know where the fuck she is.â
That weekend they gave us a 96, and I took on Weissert duty for Friday. He was in the middle of a three-day drunk, and hanging with him was a carnival freak show filled with whiskey and lap dances. Didnât get home until four, after I dropped him off at Slaughterâs barracks room, and I woke Cheryl coming in. She didnât say a word. I figured sheâd be mad and she looked it, but when I got in bed she rolled over to me and gave me a little hug, even though I was stinking of booze.
Slaughter passed Weissert to Addis, Addis passed him to Greeley, and so on. We had somebody with him the whole weekend until we were sure he was good.
When I wasnât with Weissert and the rest of the squad, I sat on the couch with Vicar, watching the baseball games Cherylâd taped for me. Sometimes Cheryl and I talked about her seven months, about the wives left behind, about her family, her job, her boss. Sometimes sheâd ask little questions. Sometimes Iâd answer. And glad as I was to be in the States, and even though I hated the past seven months and the only thing that kept me going was the Marines I served with and the thought of coming home, I started feeling like I wanted to go back. Because fuck all this.
The next week at work was all half-days and bullshit. Medical appointments to deal with injuries guys had been hiding or sucking up. Dental appointments. Admin. And every evening, me and Vicar watching TV on the couch, waiting for Cheryl to get back from her shift at Texas Roadhouse.
Vicarâd sleep with his head in my lap, waking up whenever Iâd reach down to feed him bits of salami. The vet told Cheryl thatâs bad, but he deserved something good. Half the time when I pet him Iâd rub up against one of his tumors and that had to hurt. It looked like it hurt him to do everything, wag his tail, eat his chow. Walk. Sit. And when heâd vomit, which was every other day, heâd hack like he was choking, revving up for a good twenty seconds before anything came out. It was the noise that bothered me. I didnât mind cleaning the carpet.
And then Cherylâd come home and look at us and shake her head and smile and say, âWell, youâre a sorry bunch.â
I wanted Vicar around, but I couldnât bear to look at him. I guess thatâs why I let Cheryl drag me out of the house that weekend. We took my combat pay and did a lot of shopping. Which is how America fights back against the terrorists.
So hereâs an experience. Your wife takes you shopping in Wilmington. Last time you walked down a city street, your Marine on point went down the side of the road, checking ahead and scanning the roofs across from him. The Marine behind him checks the windows on the top levels of the buildings, the Marine behind him gets the windows a little lower, and so on down until your guys have the street level covered, and the Marine in back has the rear. In a city thereâs a million places they can kill you from. It freaks you