Easter Excerpt: Making Friends

"Well son, we don't usually accept children into our ranks here in the Marine Corps," said Sergeant Crabtree while taking a knee so he could look the weeping boy in the eye "But your daddy there died like a real Marine today, and they say the apple don't fall far from the tree, so if he was any indication at all of what sort of soldier you'll be, we'd be lucky to have you."

The boy continued to cry as white and black smoke curled up out of the bomb crater which just a few minutes before was a Hummvee containing several troops, one of them this boy's step-father. Sergeant Crabtree looked over both his shoulders, scanning for enemy threat, and then back down at the boy who was giving no indication of pulling his shit together anytime soon.

"I know it's hard, I lost men here too, your daddy among them. I'm going to miss them all and I am going to honor them. I am going to honor them by living. I am going to honor them by going on living, so I can go and kill me some more of these Haji scum." There he paused for a moment for this idea to sink in. "And I am going to need you to help me do it." By now several soldiers were lingering nearby with their weapons at the ready, awkwardly watching Crabtree try to withdraw with the child in a respectful manner. It seemed to be working, the boy began to wipe his cheeks with his dirty hands and now looked into the face of the Marine kneeling in front of him. "Will you help me, Packer? Will you help me to honor your father and the rest of the men who fell here today?"

Miles Packer sniffled a few times, and looking one last time over to the twisted wreckage of the blast, and then back at Crabtree, he asked "Do I get a gun?"

There were a few chuckles from the loose circle of soldiers as Crabtree stood up and ruffled Packer's hair. "Now THERE'S A MARINE FOR YOU!" he shouted back to his men, and then looking down at the boy he got this show rolling again. "OF COURSE you'll get a gun! But we got to get back to base first, and we're pretty exposed out here right now holding a roadside service like this. We usually do this sort of thing back in camp, or better yet, we wait until we rotate back into the world before we say our goodbyes. I'm just saying, you'll get your carbine as sure as a fish shits in the water, but I'm not going to lie to you Packer; you've got some training to do before you're going to get your own M4."

The boy began to look upset again and Crabtree quickly added, "You ever hold an M67 Frag before? Here. Why don't you keep an eye on this for me?" And he removed a grenade which was hanging with several others from his combat vest and handed it to the boy "Hold on to it real good now, and just be sure not to pull that pin there. Okay?"

Miles took the grenade cautiously, wide-eyed, and held onto it with two hands. "Okay." He said, and a moment later began to fiddle with the pin with a free finger.