Original Stories Fan Fiction ❯ What If ❯ Not in Oz ( Chapter 4 )

April 3, 2005

Salina Municipal Airport

Salina, Kansas

We stood there all together. There had to be about one hundred and fifty or more of us. All females, and scared out of our wits. Most standing about while others talked with each other. Others were standing apart contemplating what was going on. Me, I was just standing there. Lost in my own little world of wonderment.

Up in front Officers was lining up people into 5-foot intervals ten people across. The next line was 5 foot farther back from that. I watched as they lined up people. As they got closer, I counted off the 5 foot and stepped into a place I thought I should be. The person marking the spots also noticed me doing this.

As he neared my spot he eyed me up and down. I could feel his eyes over my body. This was the time that I was glad all my years in marching band and drill team would pay off. Head up, eyes forward on a distant spot, my shoulders back. I felt like it was marching band season all over again. But this was not marching band. This was the army. I'm not going to be able to see my family, my friends. None of this very familiar to me at all

But, yet here I was standing waiting for my next instructions. Waiting for an Officer to come down the line to take my name. I had already spotted them going down the lines. Talking to each of the people one by one. With every step they made toward me the more nervous I got. Each person after being talked to were being handed a piece of paper. I am not sure what was on that paper. But, I knew that I would have one soon enough. Because the officer was there, just in front of me, talking to another girl. I could see him eye me as I stood there at attention. Focusing out on a far away tree that really had no purpose but to keep my eyes on. I was not about ready to let these people intimidate me. Yes I was scared out of my wits, but they were not going to know about it.

“Name?” Questioned the Officer.

“Parker, Catherine…. But some people call me Cat.”

The Officer looked at me again then wrote my name down on the paper. His name was Smith. About six foot tall and built in the form of a linebacker. I could tell this guy had seen some time. Now he was out here with us and that should really up his moral.

“Any military background?” he growled.

“ Grandfather died in World war two. Father was drafted in the army for two years. And a brother medically discharged from the army.”

“You have no military experience yourself?”

“No, Sir.”

“Who taught you to stand like that then? Because I find this very interesting on how you stand like this. This is a military position after all.”

“Sir, I have ten years of drill team experience. Five years of marching band experience. And in both I was taught head up, eyes forward, shoulders back and feet firmly planted.”

“I commend that you had a very good instructor. This is all we need at this point in time. You will get more instructions in a bit as to what is on the paper and where you will be going.”

He handed me the paper and I just held it. Neither looking at it nor moving it from my hand in the distance I could hear him talking to other women. But this gave me a little more time to look around and see what was going on.

A slow buzz had started to catch my attention at this time and it was then I spotted them. With out relaxing from attention I surveyed my surroundings. In the time I had been there I had already noticed that no vehicle was present except for the occasional military jeep.

As the planes drew closer I felt as though I would shit my pants. Many of the women were running for cover. My legs were frozen to that spot. As they drew closer my eyes opened with fear. The plane looked to be boring down on me. I knew it was not going to hit me but it was going to come close. Oh god why didn't I move. Why will my legs not get the rest of me out of there? I knew I should have shit my pants but even at that it felt like it was frozen up in me. Too scared to move.

The plane landed and breezed right past me. The wingtip merely forty-feet away from me the back drafts off the plane trying to knock me from my feet but I stood there. How in the world I did it but I stood there. And I was still alive. Someone upstairs was sure looking out for me that is for sure.

Seven planes all together landed on that road. That would mean about twenty or so people to a plane counting the officers also. That was when I noticed that I was not the only one that had stayed rooted to one spot. Only about twenty other women had done the same. Officers now were walking towards each of us. Probably to make sure we were still alive and not dead on our feet. One of the women stood not far from me in total fear. There was something about her. I didn't know what and would not find out right then either. For one of the officers had approached her and another was coming directly towards myself.

“Paper.” he barked.

I had handed over my paper not even a word to him or eye contact. If he wanted to look down his nose at me let him I can do the same to him. After all I may only be a draftee but I was going to make the best of this. Hell I was going to show all of them I was not just another face in the crowd. So I stood there and waited for anything further. I knew this guy was a commanding officer. But I was in this also.

Not a word was said as he handed the paper back to me and walked off. He had written something on it and then on a separate piece of paper that he took with himself. Still fearing what was on that paper I refused to look at it. This one piece of paper held everything on it. More or less my whole future rode on this one piece of paper.

It had taken some time before all the chaos and order was restored. The officers had got many of the women back into the lines. Others went back to their own spots. There I stood in the same spot. A tree was in my line of vision while standing there. I was proud I had the marching band experience it had taught me well. But still, out of the corner of my vision I could see the other girl that had also stayed rooted. She stood in the same way as myself but I could tell she also was scared. She was almost on the verge of crying. She glanced back at me. So I smiled in a way to tell her it was ok. I was in it with her. With that she turned and took a deep breath and let it out.

Around us, many of the women were relaxing down. Talking amongst them. Many looking at the papers they held and talking with others about their papers. I still held mine in the same spot. Frozen at my side. Right now the paper was the last thing on my mind. I thought of my family of my friends. Of those dam planes I feared so much. Only close people around me knew of my fear of planes.

“Attention”

My eyes snapped to a spot where and officer had climbed onto of a parked jeep. He was speaking through a megaphone so that everyone could hear him. But I think at this point in time even if he whispered we could have been able to hear him. When he said attention not a sound was head. Not even the birds were chirping.

“As you can tell there have been several planes landed just down the road. I would like for each and every one of you to make your way down there in an orderly fashion. You are to board the planes and take a seat. When you arrive at the destination busses will be waiting to take you all on to the Bases. Basic training will start as soon as you step off the bus. Proceed to the planes now.”

So this was how it was going to be. I get into the plane, sit down and shut up and sure as hell hold on tight. God help me now. I know I am not going to be able to run. And I cannot get out of this in any way. What I need to do is act like nothing is wrong. Yea right and I am the Queen of Sheba also.

“Hi”

“Oh my god you scared me. I did not even see you walk up to me.” I said

“Sorry about that. I'm Stormy Schwartz. I saw you look at me earlier and I just wanted to say thanks.” Stormy said.

“Thanks?” I asked looking at her. “For what?”

“For the smile.” She giggled. “If it wasn't for that I probably would have fainted out there. And not the faint I would be waking up from.”

“Oh by the way I'm Catherine Parker. But you can call me Cat if you like.”

“I'll tell you one thing this is nothing like marching band that I been in.” Stormy laughed.

“Yea.” I said as I looked at her then back at the planes. “And those are sure not the fields I used to march on.”

Stormy looked at me then at the planes and back again. “Are you ok?”

“No” I said. “Not really.”

“What's wrong?”

As we drew nearer and nearer to the planes I felt a tightening in my body. Screaming not to get on that plane. I could remember watching on the television where planes crashed for no reason. Where others had hijackers on them. Watching all my life about bombs on planes. I knew I shouldn't think like that. These were military planes. Not only the best but the safest as well, they had to be safe. I couldn't let people know how scared of them I was.

“Listen I think I know what is wrong.”

“Huh?” I said as I snapped out of my trance.

“It's the planes. I can see it in your eyes. Have you never been on one?” Stormy asked.

I just shook my head.

“Listen you was there for me when I needed it now let me return the favor. Come on we will get on the same plane and I will help you out.” Stormy smiled.

That is when I knew I would have a good friend in Stormy. Jesse had always been there before for me. But he is not here now. Where are you Jesse? He had went straight back into the army when the draft had come up. He did not know that I had been drafted at all. Guess he will now when he gets my first letter saying your not going to believe this.

By this time I realized we had boarded the plane. Stormy was ahead of me and went to grab a couple of seats for both of us. As I caught up to her I took the seat next to her and sat down but my fear had crept up on me again. I sat there frozen in the chair my knuckles turning white on the armrest. When I plane started the engines I closed my eyes. My whole body was frozen with fear.

“The worst part is the take off and the landing.” Stormy said as she reached over and took one of my hands.

I sat there slightly trembling and scared. Please god; don't let me shit my pants now, for all these people to smell for how long a ride we was on. With Stormy saying it was all right I took a deep breath and calmed down a bit. Before I knew it Stormy was saying that part is over.

When I opened my eyes we were in the air and the ride was like a car. But with no windows for me to see out thank god. That was sure a blessing in disguise.

Stormy and me sat there and chatted back and forth mainly talking about a little of everything. I had told her about Jesse and she told me about her best friend Kenny. Who just happened to be as gay as a three-dollar bill she laughed. We both had been in marching band about the same time just from different towns. We also talked about our families and many others of our friends.

“God, tell me more about this friend of yours.” I spoke excitedly.

“What's there to tell? He is gay,” Stormy laughed.

“Like how gay? Is it anything like you see on those shows on T.V.?”

“What shows?”

“You know those shows, usually late at night. Sheesh I can't even think of the name of one.” I said as I laughed.

“Well to answer your question, you can't really tell. He dresses like a normal guy. No drag stuff that is. But he does have an exquisite taste in men.” Stormy said with a giggle. “Now you tell me about this Jesse.”

“Not much to tell there. We met about three years ago at a rodeo. Nothing is going on between us. Just too strange I guess. We are very close, best friends in fact.”

“So where is he at now?”

“When the draft came up Jesse went back to the army, back to the Rangers. It took me for complete shock and Jesse almost lost his horse Venom.”

“Almost lost him? How?”

“He didn't have anywhere to keep him nor anyone to watch him.”

“But he found someone right?”

“Yep, he found his best friend. I talked to my parents and we took his horse and another friends horses in.”
“Ok I can see why you did this for Jesse but why the other horses?” Stormy said in puzzlement.

“That I did not know at the time but I knew the girl from where Jesse kept Venom. She had two little girls and was hard up on money. So I asked her if she would be willing to move her horses for free.” I said staring blankly into space. “Now I am glad that I did.”

“Because of the draft?”

“Yea, when I found out I got drafted, Allison was a real lifesaver. She was already living on the farm in the bunkhouse with the kids. But she took over managing it. We decided that Venom would make a great stud horse and bred a few mares. Including my mare, Mischief.”

“So you're telling me that your parents did not mind all this?”

“Not at first they didn't. It wasn't till that weekend that things changed.” I said thinking back.

“Oh? What happened then?”

“Well that weekend I went out to mom and dads. I decided that I needed to clean some equipment and it would be a good time for it.” I said

“Ok? Go on.”

“Jesse decided to bring out Venom that day so I had the stall ready. What I didn't know was he was also bringing Allison's horse and pony as well.” I continued. “You see Allison wasn't going to bring out her horse and pony till the next weekend.”

“Uh, oh.”

“It wasn't that bad really just unexpected. And that unexpectedness is just what set my mom off.”

“Ok? Explain because I don't quite understand.”

“She threw a fit about not being ready for the extra horses, that is until she saw the car pull up.”

“What car?”

“Allison's car. She had followed Jesse out to the place to help unload the horses. With her she brought these adorable little girls, her daughters. My mom shut up real quick.” I said.

“That's kind of strange.”

“Not really. You see my parents have no grandchildren and they both love kids. This was like a dream come true to them. I had to laugh about it.” I said stifling a laugh. “But enough about me. What was going on in your life.”?

“My life, now that's funny.” Stormy laughed.

Stormy did not know where in life she wanted to be. So when the draft came around she thought it was god's way of telling her to do something. So she did and went along with the draft. Like she could get out of it to begin with.

It did not seem like a long time before I felt a heart-wrenching drop. The planes was starting it's downward decent. The panic that had once left me had returned and my knuckles were once again white as paper. The food I had eaten for breakfast in the early morning hours was sitting heavily. Threatening to come up at the slightest movement of my body. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. God please let this plane land safely I had thought to myself.

I felt the slight bump and knew that the plane had landed and we were safely on the ground. That was then I let out the breath of air I had unconsciously been holding.

“See I told you the worst parts were the take off and the landing.” Stormy exclaimed.

“I think I am ok now. Just a bit stirred up at the present. I had never been on a plane. Never knew what it would feel like.” I had let her know. “But it wasn't that bad.”

Stormy laughed at me. “I wish I would have had a camera for the face you made when we landed.”

“That bad huh?”

“Let's just say any worse and I would be wearing a clothes pin on my nose and you would be cleaning your pants.”

“Ok, so I was terrified. Like I said I had never been on a plane. I did not know what to even expect.”

When the plane had finally came to a complete stop we were told to stay seated. That was pretty much fine with me I was still trying to regain my dignity. They would let us all off the planes when the other planes had come to a complete stop and it was safe to move about.

We were also told at that time that when we got off the planes to stay in a single file line. When we got off the plane we were to hand our paper over to an officer. This officer would in turn tell us what bus to board. This bus would take us to the base where we were to be stationed.

It seems that not everyone was going to the same base. There were many others from other states that come in to those bases. They did not want all the people from the same state at the same base. Although most of us would be on the same base there would not be a lot of us together.

I thought even if Stormy and me was not in the same group that I maybe we would at least be at the same base. It wasn't like I was not going to make any new friends. But there was something there that I could connect with her.

It wasn't that long after we were told to wait on the planes that we were heading off them. Slowly through the line we walked. I just held my paper staring blankly at it. Not really trying to make heads or tails of it.

“Your paper.”

“Huh? Oh! Excuse me, my mind was………..” I started to say lost but knew better. “I was just thinking.”

The officer looked at me. Then went back to reading the paper. He wrote on another paper the information that was on my paper. Then wrote on my paper as well before handing it back to me.

“Go to bus 2 and take a seat. You will be stationed at Fort Cobra here in Texas. You will get the rest of your instructions on the bus.” he smirked.

I thought about waiting around to see where Stormy was sent. But I knew better than to wait around. I may have only been a farmer's girl but my daddy taught me some things. One of those was follow orders. So off I headed towards the bus. There were some ladies already on it.

I noticed that not only did our planes land but others as well have landed. This means that not only our state was here but others as well. My curiosity over came me. I had to go see who was here and where they were all from.

“Hey wait up.” Stormy yelled at me.

“Hey what bus did you get put on?”

“They said bus 2. Is that where you are going?”

“I was just heading there. I had noticed other planes had landed and saw some people already on the busses. So I thought maybe I should go over and make myself known.” I smiled.

“Well it sure does look like your over the airplane scare.” Stormy giggled.

“Well my feet are touching the ground so I feel a little safer. That makes me feel better too.”

“Well let's go see what kind of trouble we can make. That is if you're ready to head to the bus now.”

“Lets go for it.”

I felt more like a schoolgirl when around Stormy. She had this cheery attitude that made you think that you could do just about anything if you set your mind to it. I could just picture her in a cheerleading outfit and pompoms.

We neared the bus and stopped for a second. I took this time to look around. We were down in Texas now. I had never been out of state at all. Of course I had never done a lot of things. This was all new to me so I tried to take as much of it in as I could. When I wrote to Jesse and back home I could tell them of my own adventures. My new adventures here in the army.

“Are you coming?” Stormy questioned.

I looked up and just smiled. Of course I was coming. I stepped up to the bus steps and looked at the airport one last time. It was off to my new home now. So I boarded the bus and went back to take a seat. Fort Cobra was our next stop.

It wasn't much of a ride at all before we spotted the gates to Fort Cobra. We could already see formed units acting as one. We all sat there with our attentions focused out the windows. Not long from now we would also be doing the same things as all the rest of these people. But first we would be formed into a unit. I didn't know if all of us on this bus would be in the same unit. But here we were.

I already had a clue where we were heading. The physical examination was first on the list. All the trainees arriving at the training center were to be given a complete physical. This was mandatory that the soldiers of today were both strong of body and mind and healthy as well.

We pulled up in front of the physical examination building and got out. In single file lines we were told to strip down to our underclothing and step into line. So I stripped out of my clothing.

First up on the list was the E.E.N.T check. This stood for eyes, ears, nose, and throat. From there we had our hearts checked and lungs. They wanted to make sure we was still alive and breathing I guess. Next a guy came up to us one by one with this gun looking thing and told us to stare forward. This gun held needles and he shot us all in the arm with it.

When given a clean bill of health we could then put our clothing back on. Afterwards we headed to the next building where our uniforms and initial military gear was to be issued.

They measured our feet. Made us try on every part of our clothing. This was to insure that our clothing fit properly. We were also issued a duffel bag correctly stamped with our name and number on it.

I looked at all the stuff I was issued and thought to myself. I had never bought this much stuff in a year's time. The bag was heavy. So I threw it up on my shoulder and made my way back to the bus. My next stop would be my new bedroom if you wanted to call it that. I would be sharing it with at least twenty other girls. I wondered what they would be like.

Stormy came back to the bus at that time, She looked like she was ready to fall over.

“Did you get everything?”

“I think they packed the kitchen sink in here,” she said out of breath. “How in the world do they expect us to carry all this?”

“They think of us as men now Stormy. We are no longer girls. With that they give us just as much as them. But I do think your right. If you find the kitchen sink I have the table and chairs.”

We sat there waiting for the others to finish the physical examinations and board the bus. Then we would find ourselves heading to our new home away from home. The barracks.

They sat there all lined up in rows. They reminded of soldiers with discipline and strict order. Here we will sleep, keep all of our personal belongings. We will learn the rules and regulations of a soldier. We would learn to act as a unit and be as one.

We would stop and the officer on the bus would shout a few names. These people would stand up and get off the bus and go to the nearest barrack. Then we would drive on farther. I wasn't sure how people could tell the difference in the buildings but I guess you could. All of them had the companies name over the door.

“Parker, Schwartz, Walker. Up front now.”

We stood up and headed for the front of the bus. I glanced out the window and saw the name Company B; it stood there in a break in the lane. To it's left and right mirror images stood beckoning, each waiting for its occupants to arrive. Two story structures weathered from the rain, the wind, and many occupants from the past. So this was to be my new home away from home. Only three of us got off at this stop. Stormy, a mousy brown haired girl with glasses named Walker and me.

“I don't think were in Kansas anymore Toto.” I muttered under my breath.

Hearing my words was one thing. But, Stormy humming were off to see the wizard, from the wizard of oz just set it off. The mousy haired girl and me just looked at each other and smiled. With a shrug of the shoulders we followed Stormy into the barracks.