Secrets From The Med

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

March 1989 Aboard The USS Invincible

Tabitha Sherfey glanced at her wristwatch: 4:30 am, it read. That meant she had an hour of solitude before reveille. She preferred getting up early to take a shower and get into her uniform, that way she didn't have to stand in line to use a shower or a sink. She tucked her dungaree shirt inside her dungaree pants, then ran a comb through her freshly washed, shoulder length, thick dark hair. She was glad that her hair was growing fast. It had hung halfway down her back until last September when she'd had to get it cut just below her chin before leaving for boot camp. She fully intended to let it grow that long again.

Tabitha pinned her hair up above her collar, grabbed her small bag of toiletries and stepped out of the head and into the berthing area. The lights were turned off, so she had just enough light to see to tiptoe to her rack and locker. One person was snoring loudly and someone else was grinding her teeth. As usual, the place smelled like a mixture of smelly socks and apricot scented air fresheners, as if someone were using the air fresheners to stifle the scent of the smelly socks. This morning Tabitha was getting a whiff of something else too. She knew it couldn't be, but it almost reminded her of a dirty diaper mixed with day old blood.

She carefully opened her locker, put her toiletry bag inside, pulled out the photo album that she had haphazardly put together the day before she left for boot camp, and climbed on top of her rack. This was another reason she liked getting up early. It gave her time to look at the pictures in her photo album and remember that she used to be happy and that long ago now, it seemed, the world had been a beautiful place.

Tabitha closed her privacy curtain, turned on her reading light, and opened the photo album. There were two pictures on the first page. One was of her on her third birthday on January 20th, 1973. She was wearing a red dress and had a big red bow in her hair and was sitting at the table in her mom's cheery kitchen with bright yellow painted walls. In front of her on the table was a small round cake with pink frosting that had a single candle on top that was in the shape of a number 3. Tabitha wasn't looking into the camera, but seemed to be focused on the cake in front of her instead. The other photo was of her and her mom standing on the front porch of their Edinburgh, Kentucky home the day Tabitha started school back in August of 1976. Her hair was done in French braids and she was wearing a white shirt that had a picture of Raggedy Ann and Andy on the front. Her mom was standing beside her looking beautiful wearing a yellow shirt and a pair of jeans that showed off her slim figure. Her long, dark "Farrah Fawcett style" hair, as her dad used to call it, was hanging well past her shoulders. Her left arm was wrapped protectively around Tabitha and she was trying to force a smile, but Tabitha could see tears in her eyes and she knew why. The youngest of her three children was starting school. Tabitha's oldest brother, Brad, had started the sixth grade that year and her other brother, Kevin, had started the fourth.

Tabitha slowly flipped through the pages of the album. There was a picture of her and her best friend, Penny Monroe, barefoot and giggling as they made mud pies underneath an oak tree in Penny's parents' backyard. She guessed that the picture had been taken sometime during the summer between the girls' first and second grade year. Tabitha vaguely remembered having to let her hands soak for two hours to get the dirt from under her fingernails. She also smiled to herself as she looked at the photo, thinking about how she and her friend used to spend as much time at each other's houses as they did their own. Tabitha even referred to Penny's parents as "Mom Alice" and "Daddy Daniel." Likewise, Penny referred to Tabitha's parents as "Mom Kathleen" and "Daddy Paul."

The next picture she came across was taken on a night she remembered well. It was March 27, 1978, the night that the University of Kentucky men's basketball team defeated Duke and won that year's NCAA title. In the photograph, Tabitha was sitting on top of her dad's shoulders as he did a victory dance in the middle of the living room, which was decorated with blue and white streamers and balloons. Both she and her dad were wearing wildcat blue University of Kentucky basketball t-shirts and their mouths were wide open with excitement. They had no idea their picture was being taken, which was exactly the way her mom had wanted it. Tabitha recalled that her mom had made mini homemade cheese pizzas that night for them to eat while watching the game, and she and her brothers had been allowed to stay up late even though it was a school night.