The Journeymen

Graduation Day

It was hot. The dress that her mom and dad chose for her was uncomfortable and the lady she was sitting with smelled weird. The colonel's wife was nice but Anya felt like she was too nice. The officer's wife always either hugged her or kissed her on the cheek and Anya did not like unnecessary touching. Especially from old ladies that she barely knew that wore weird perfume.

Anya felt as though she did not need to sit with the kind but overbearing woman whose own children were now grown. She was nine after all. That is plenty old to sit by herself at the graduation ceremony. Especially since she had already sat through several.

Normally when she attended the Paris Island Marine Corps Boot Camp graduations, she at least got to sit with her mom. She still had to sit in the box with the colonel's family and their guests, whatever important people that came to the graduation. She still had to endure the hugs, the uncomfortable dresses and fancy shoes, the "oh she's so adorable" comments from the ladies, but at least she could count on her mom being with her.

Today however, Anya knew her mom was busy. Her mom and dad tried not to talk about it but she could tell that her mother's cancer was worsening. She looked weaker every day and tired quicker, always seeming to fall asleep whenever she sat down. Her mom always attempted to be there for anything she could for Anya's father, the sergeant major of the training battalion at the Marine Corps base at Paris Island, but the stubborn woman had a treatment scheduled that day and would be unable to attend the graduation.

While her mom was sitting in a chair undergoing a chemotherapy session, Anya sat with the colonel's wife. Her father had arranged for another noncommissioned officer's wife who was close with his wife to take her and sit with her through the treatment and he had arranged for Anya to still be there for the graduation ceremony. She knew her dad was probably overwhelmed between his duties as the senior noncommissioned officer at the base and with the difficult task of caring for his sick wife and young daughter but it never seemed to bother him.

"Look sweetie, it's starting," the gray haired woman said in a sickly sweet southern accent. The ceremony was in fact beginning, the loud recording of the triumphant music playing over the speakers as the young, exhausted recruits who would soon be able to call themselves Marines. The young men and women had suffered through the boot camp, their drill instructors shaping the recruits into warriors and were now marching out in front of their family and friends who were in attendance.

Anya always felt proud that her dad was responsible for these recruits. Even at her young age, she was aware of the gravity of what occurred during these ceremonies. The importance of course did not lessen the boredom that she felt. She had long resigned to the fact that being an only child of a Marine meant lots of moving, few friends, and plenty of boredom.

As the graduation went on, she watched, sitting in a begrudged silence, clapping when it was time to clap, enduring the occasional pats on the back from the colonel's wife. She occasionally reached a hand up to push the overly long bangs from her eyes as they were dampened with a light sweat. A few minutes in, Anya noticed that a man in the sharp dress blues of a soldier in the Army was escorted into the box by a young private.

She watched on as the young private snapped a smart salute at the older man. Anya saw that the man had a silver oak leaf on each side of his collar. She was unfamiliar with the names of the Army ranks but she knew he was no junior officer. The man's chest was filled with decorations and medals. Whoever he was he must have been important. The private who saluted looked as though he was interacting with someone who was famous.

The man removed his hat as he sat down, revealing light brown hair cut into a neat high and tight style. His face was clean shaven and his skin had that reddish color that looked like he was always blushing. Anya saw a deep white scar that ran down his cheek, from outside his left eyebrow all the way down his face and wrapping down under his sharp jaw where it ended close to his neck.