Desert Passions

As expected the line to use the phone for fifteen minutes was wrapped around the tent a couple of times with the rearmost people sitting in the sand playing Gameboy. Kris sat down watching a pair linked together to play Pokemon. An hour later he got to spend a whole ten minutes on the phone with his mother telling her that he was still fine, still bored and yes please send more cookies and then he was on his way to wait in line for the PX.

"Man did you see those nasty army turds?" A corporal said.

"All raggedy lookin' and shit?" Another marine replied.

Renaud strained slightly trying to see his rank before speaking. "Excuse me there. . ." He paused again as the heavy set marine turned to face him, a single golden bar on either lapel. " . . .Sir."

"Go on Marine."

It always bothered him that officers called him "Marine" as if they were something else. Fighting down a rude urge as he slid into a messy parade rest. "What army unit got here?" His heart was already fluttering at the idea that it could be here, already here someplace.

"You think I give a shit what fucking unit is here?"

"No sir."

"No shit huh Devil Dog. If you're looking for them though they are doing their laundry up on the north side."

"Thank you sir." He snapped to attention offering a quick salute and then striding away.

It was true, even before he got near the van he could see several of the huge seven ton trucks the military used for troop movements and beneath them several of the messy old styled utilities the army still wore hanging from cords. He frowned slightly as he stared at what their cammies, the traditional pattern only in light browns with a few white circles thrown on. They looked like white chocolate chip cookies to him. Not at all like the more advanced USMC Digital Camouflage pattern. The utilities he wore shared the same colors with the army but the resemblance ended there, more pockets and a pattern that looked like a mistake from an Atari 8600. Not to mention the Eagle, Globe and Anchor that marked the wearer as one of the few the proud.

He waited a second before plunging himself into the group looking around first for the redheaded beauty he'd come for but not one of the girls he saw was the siren from the pictures. Walking past the trucks, ducking beneath the hanging lines of clothing towards a black soldier.

The man raised his eyes acknowledging Kris as he approached but said nothing. "Hey there." Renaud stared for a moment at the rank insignia sewn onto the man's uniform. "Staff Corporal?" He thought for a moment seeing the rocker then pushed the idea aside and took a guess. "Lance Corporal what unit are you with?"

A smile crept over the man's face as he stood up and walked over to Renaud. The size difference was immediately obvious; Lance Corporal Telk filled out a broad six foot four frame that seemed to have stepped straight from a professional wrestling ring. "Hey there Jarhead, I know your one of the few who can't read but you know numbers right?" He motioned his head toward one of the trucks where 269 were written in huge red letters.

Feeling the heat rising in his blouse Renaud took a half step back and locked his glare on the soldier. "Well there brand name there is no need to be rude about it. Just asked you a fucking question. Now sit the fuck down and go back to wishing you weren't out here to pick up trash behind me." For a moment it looked like the man wasn't going to back down and Kris felt the rush of adrenaline firing through his blood. Just before he would have taken a swing he could only pray would slay the giant it backed away silently sitting down.

"Damn it." Renaud muttered turning and heading to the parking lot where the vans would return in a few hours.

It was 1330 and peaking at nearly one hundred forty degrees when he got back to the ordnance compound. He only stopped in his own tent long enough to remove his blouse and toss it on his sleeping back before entering the rec tent. It wasn't much, only a freezer they'd acquired, which is Marine for stole, from the Air Force and a thirty seven inch television that had supposedly been thrown away by a unit heading back to America. Kris always thought it had been acquired as well though. The crowning achievement though was a working X-Box sitting next to a recently destroyed Playstation 2. All day everyday somebody was in this room, watching movies.

"What's on?" Renaud asked reaching into the freezer and pulling out a partially frozen bottle of water and taking a seat on a wall of sandbags formed into a couch.

"Matrix Reloaded Corporal." Garcia replied without even turning.

"Shit this doesn't even come out until Friday. Goddamn Hajjis." You could barely see the action on the grainy obviously recorded copy. Every so often someone would just get up and walk across the screen, or the camera would loose focus. "Look you can even see the exit sign in the corner." He sat down through the rest of the Matrix, then through the Real Cancun, and Wrong Turn before he went back to his tent. Balling his sleeping bag up at one end as a pillow he lie back in the tent and let his eyes drift shut.

It was too hot to sleep, even with the portable AC units it was still sweltering inside the tents. Unless you were directly in front of one of the openings in which case it was merely hot. It made Kuwait into what seemed to be the undeniably longest place in the world. He'd watched three movies and somehow it was only close to 1700. "Why do I love this girl?" He asked himself as he stared at the light streaming through the patches in the roof.

The mere thought of her brought a smile to his face. She hadn't forgotten him when he went to boot camp or war. She was always interested in the things he was doing, she'd remained silent when he told her about the things his girlfriend had done. Never once did she say anything negative to ruin his fantasy. She supported his decision to go to the war and now she was on her way to him.

Renaud stomped the sandy wooden floor to frighten away the vermin before reaching beneath his bed and grabbing the laptop he'd brought to Iraq. Everyone had told him he was throwing away over a grand but he didn't care, he'd have gone insane long ago without the computer. Every day he spent at least fifteen minutes to keep a journal. Every moment he'd spent since leaving the states written down, though most days he said what he was going to say today.

Day 144

Guess what I saw today. Sand. Yup there was sand when I woke up and there was sand. And it's hot, very fucking hot.

He started to write about Nikki, about the letter she had sent him and his feeling for her but he couldn't bring himself to do it. It wasn't something he liked to admit to himself and definitely didn't want anybody else to read it. Especially not the ex, Katherine, who still managed to haunted his dreams with her smile. More often than he would care to admit he woke from a dream wishing he could just hold her and be near here. He knew how pathetic it was, knew that he should move on like she had. "Loves bitch." He muttered opening the bottle of ice-cold water and drinking a swallow as he shut the computer down making certain to stomp again before reaching into a box filled with books.

He'd long since lost track of how many books he'd read. Everything by John Marco and Michael Cricton, the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy, three of the Left Behind books and every Maxim, Stuff or FHM released since he'd left the country. Literally thousands of pages devoured, bored by day on end with no work. It was also a bit of a race in Kuwait since it was so hot the bindings of the books would begin to melt if you weren't careful and quick. Right now he was in the middle of his very first romance novel, something he'd sworn never to read. He rationalized it would improve his own writing abilities but in reality he'd just run out of other options.

Seventy pages later the lead character, a French businessman had left his unhappy marriage behind and traveled to Hawaii to pursue a girl who'd once bought him a frappachino. She was however betrothed to marry some shmuck from Mt. Wannahakaloogie or some equally ridiculous village. The entire plot line was hilarious but the characters were well developed, something Kris took note of.

"Renaud!" Someone shouted from outside the tent.

"What?"

"Evening chow, you comin?"

"Yeah, gimme a second." He pulled on his blouse and ran out of the tent towards the vans.

"Renaud!" The Captain had shoved his head just far enough out of the Head Shed to shout at him.

"Yes sir?" He asked slowing to a trot.

"Make sure you bring back hot plates."

"Aye sir!" He said without turning to face the officer. "Still don't understand why these fuckers can't get up and get their own food." He said as he climbed onto the bus and took his usual seat.

"What's for dinner tonight?"

"I think its breaded shrimp." Someone replied quickly.

"Shit has it been two weeks already?" Dinner on this base went through a regular cycle of foods regular you could almost set your calendar to it. Shrimp day was also payday for instance and on chicken day, baked or fried, you went to church.

The sun was setting as they drove toward Tent City, taking the worst of the daytime heat with it. It was never cold or even cool in Kuwait but a drop to the low nineties was a welcome reprieve at the end of the day and Corporal Renaud appreciated it every time it happened.

He also enjoyed the seemingly endless expanse of stars visible in the Kuwaiti sky. It wasn't like San Bernadino, a tiny city just outside of Los Angeles where he'd grown up and the only the best and brightest of the stars could be seen. On Riyadh every single star could seen and counted. Many nights were spent just staring up at the stars they would never have seen back home.

Once at the chow tent he went through all the usual motions, being rude to the always-polite chefs, balancing the tray with one hand as he piled on various fruit juices with the other.

He was scanning the tent for the rest of the Ordies when he saw her, his heart nearly stopping when he did. His legs were like jelly as he just stared at the soldier picking slowly over her food. Renaud wanted to call out to her, or walk over and say something suave but he could only stare at her, glued to the spot until her eyes moved up from her plate.

Every time she blinked without seeing him it was utter agony, he wanted her to see him. Wanted her to say something, do something to free him from place he'd been frozen too but she seem content to stir the shrimp and rise around on her plate. He was less than ten feet away from her, close enough that he could see the freckles on her peeling sun burnt nose and the light reflecting from her beautiful jade green eyes. He could have counted the individual strands of light red hair and the subtle lip-gloss she wore. He could see her rank, just a single chevron that in the Marines would identify her with a Private First Class and lower than that her nametapes. The one over her heart read Army and over her right breast was her name, Turner.

Mercifully her eyes finally moved over him and met his eyes. The recognition ignited in her eyes as she jumped up from the table and ran over to him hugging him around the waist. "Come on don't just stand there!" Still unable to find his voice he just followed as she guided him to the table with the rest of the soldiers. "Its really you isn't it?" He nodded blinking as he continued to stare at her.

She was even more beautiful than he'd imagined. He wasn't certain if it she'd lost weight or changed her hair or if it was just the desert. There was something about being one of a few hundred women on a base of thousands. "Hi." He managed setting down his food and starting to eat. His heart was racing; he could feel it banging against his ribs. It was amazing that nobody around him could hear it thundering inside him. "I never thought I'd get to meet you."

"It's a small world." She replied over her plate.

"This the jarhead you've been goin on about?" An older man with graying hair asked. Renaud let his eyes cut to the side. He hated the Army more and more every time he had to deal with them. Stupid under trained spoiled little kids. Then he could never read their ranks, just had to guess that is was close to what it looked like. This one was like an upside down black teardrop. His name was Carlson.

"Yes its him!"

"You know she talks about you all the time. You're like the second motherfucking coming or some shit." A hand was extended and taken. The two squeezed for a moment acknowledging each other for a moment. "All she's been able to talk about since Riyadh is how she hoped to see you while she was here. I kept tellin' her not to get her hopes up but she did looking all over this fucking place for you. Where in the hell is Ordnance?"

"Way out in the middle of Podunk nowhere. "How'd you get on base, you come through the north gate, with the dogs? Or was it west gate, with the towers?"

"West gate."

"Aight. When you came on you drove straight here, but if you'd stopped at that destroyed Kuwaiti bunker and taken a left down that road you would have gotten to the ASP. They keep us separated from everybody else, encase the shit blows up you know?"

"Yeah I see."

"When are you guys moving on?"

"Be here for until tomorrow afternoon. Gonna catch a C-130 from here to Kuwait International and head home from there."

"Lucky bastards."

"Yeah I don't envy you, your gonna be out here till when?"

"They tell me June but probably like September sometime."

"That's rough." Renaud shrugged as he looked back to Nikki who was staring at him with a huge smile. He caught her gaze and lost himself taking until Carlson cleared his throat managing to get a grunt and nod out of Renaud.

"Where do they have you stayin?"

"They have some tents up on the north side."

"One sixty three's old spot. I know where that's at."

"Corporal Renaud, come on we're leaving." He turned his head slightly toward the LCpl Garcia who was already finished with his meal and heading toward the open doors of the tent.

"Shit I gotta go. I'll be back. Meet me by the flag pole at 2100." Renaud said as he stood giving her one last smile as he stepped out of the tent following the rest of the Ordies to the van.

"Eh Renaud, I saw you checking out that army brat." Stevens started as soon as they sat down on the bus. "Can't believe you were talking to her man. You starting to wonder if you joined the right service man?"

"You need to watch your mouth fucker. Just cus I have higher standards than you mom doesn't mean I'm not proud to the best. Just means I know that the best trained women obviously aren't the best looking. Hell weren't you looking at that Air Force ho last week?"

"Wow. That one hurt but you know my mother doesn't date darkies."

Kris smiled slightly at the comment. It never ceased to amaze him the things that people could say to each other in the Marines. Before he joined he would have knocked a man out for saying half the racist things he heard on a daily basis here. With a slight grin he turned toward Corporal Jason Stevens and narrowed his eyes. "You're momma don't fuck nigga cus she's from a Podunk state where its acceptable to fuck your own brother. If she wasn't so addicted to daddy dick she'd be hooked on deez nuts."

"If you ain't careful you're gonna wake up getting tea bagged."

"I'll straight cute your shit off if you put it near my mouth." He smiled. "I need you to do me a favor man."

"What do you need Renaud?"

"Need you cover for me tonight. Tell everybody that I went to deal with squadron. Getting inventories straight or some shit aight?"

"Not a problem. You gonna go get some tail?" He raised a brow. Renaud smiled and nodded in response. "I got your back. You gonna take a Hummer?"

"Get one if I'm lucky. I just gotta get out as soon as we get in. I told her to meet me at the flagpole at 2100. Figure if I bring out a flack and Kevlar for her and kinda prop it up in the back I can get away with out an A driver. I just need to get in, and if I take the side way into tent city they won't check for ID's so I should by ok right?"

"Yeah." As soon as they pulled into the compound they were getting out of the bus. Normally Kris would have followed the rest of the group to watch a few episodes of Buffy or Family Guy of whatever series had caught their attention that night. Instead he pulled his Kevlar helmet and flack jacket on and stepped out of the van and headed straight to where the Humm V's were parked. A moment later he was on the road speeding along the dirt roads bouncing happily over the bumps in the road.

He loved when he got to drive the Humm V without anybody around. In the darkness you didn't even see most of the bumps until you'd lifted the first two wheels off the road and jarred your teeth. There was a speed limit of 15 miles and hour but he was going nearly 40 through the open desert towards the western gate slowing down just before coming into view of the gate.

The guard held up his fist to for him to stop. "What's your business in tonight?" The guard asked shining the light in Renaud's eyes.

"I have to pick up some Marines from the phone center." Kris grumbled bringing his hand up to shield his eyes. "My A driver is in the back now get that light the fuck out of my eye Lance Corporal. Shit."

"Sorry Corporal wasn't thinking." Lowering the light to aim at his chest now.

"Not a problem man, just be glad I wasn't some hot shot lieutenant looking to cause some trouble. Anyway I gotta go we have work to do."

"This late?"

"Ordnance, need to take some missiles n'shit down to the line so the birds can leave at zero dark thirty." The guard nodded pretending he understood what had just been said and motioned him through.

She was already waiting at the flagpole when he arrived. Bundled tightly in a green gortex jacket and a black beanie that seemed out of place with her beige and brown trousers and matching boots. Pulling up close to the pole Renaud smiled over at her. "Come on get in, there's a flak and Kevlar sitting in the back for you." He reached back gripping the green plastic helmet and held it out for her.

"It's really you isn't it?" She asked pulling the bullet proof-vest on and sitting beside him. "Do you know how long I've dreamed of getting to meet you?"

"Probably about as long as I've been dreaming of getting to meet you. Ever since the first time I saw your picture I knew I wanted you." He couldn't keep from glancing between her and the road; even completely bundled up in a uniform she was still a sight to behold. Her light red hair fell down around her shoulders now, released from the bun she'd worn earlier.

"Yeah I remember. You told me I was cuter than you girlfriend."

"It was true at the time." Kris replied smiling slightly. He was already past the gate and headed back towards the compound.

"Where are we going?"

"To my spot. If I only get to spend one night with you I want it to be special."

"Oooo if I didn't know better I'd think you were planning this all along." She smiled and leaned over closer gripping his arm and resting her cheek on his shoulder.

"From day one. Joined the Marines cus I know one day the girl of my dreams would meet me in Iraq." He replied pulling into the compound and parking the Humm V. "Keep the stuff on until we're in the cells. I don't want anybody seeing you here, not supposed to have anybody without a top secret clearance and all that kind of mess." Turner nodded pulling the collar of her jacket up a little as she followed behind him. Past the bullets and rockets to his missile where he sat down and finally pulled his own stuff off and tossed it into the sand.