Mrs. Wrong Last Name

Chapter Sixteen

She was never good at jet lag. I would take her a couple days to get on a schedule and then a couple more when she got back. He told her she needed to go to sleep since it was night over there, but to her it was mid afternoon and she just couldn't make herself do it.

He sulled up after their cry and couldn't seem to shake it. He brought her some water and rubbed her hair until he thought she was asleep then posted himself on the couch just physically unable to be near her right then.

After he was out and she received the texts from Federale she laid there quietly and thought about a strange series of events some 25 years ago, and how that moment when she was just fifteen years old had led her here to this place.

A lifetime ago she was a pretty high speed kid at a great little German Texas high school that produced ivy leaguers and service academy prospects every single year. She attended at a high school career night when a United States Senator sitting at the US Naval Academy table caught her eye.

She went over to talk to him and he asked about her SAT scores. Once she delivered them, he was very interested in adding her to his list of potential appointments. He gave her information about a summer math, science and engineering camp they held on campus at Annapolis and cautioned her it was pretty difficult to get into. "They have three sessions, 300 kids each, taken from your class nationwide," he said. "They lean heavily on your SAT math score, and I think you are sitting in a pretty good place right now."

"My counselor says I should maybe take it one more time, later this year then not again," she said.

"Yep, sophomore year is when most of the students on your track top out," he said. "I agree with your counselor. Take it one more time and let's see where your math score winds up."

It would end up in the top 1%.

She applied for the camp and waited to hear back, not really knowing what it would be or if she was even really interested in the Naval Academy. A few weeks went by and a letter came in the mail- she was in.

There was a packing list, info for how to meet the airport shuttle to campus, and a daily schedule. She had choices of classes to pick from, including all kinds of things. She circled systems engineering, cryptology, German literature, and aeronautics.

Annapolis was a beautiful eastern seaboard town with cobblestone streets and building after building dating to the 1700s. Arriving on campus, which was built atop the site of a revolutionary war fort, she was ushered to her room and introduced to her two roommates. One was from Delaware and the other was from Oregon. There were 300 students at this particular session and she and her roommates were the only three females.

They did PT every day at 5:00am, very difficult pt. They had obstacle courses to run, classes to attend, and the cafeteria was marvelous. Steak and eggs for breakfast every single morning. One night they had a special assembly where the featured speakers were the crew of the space shuttle that was about to launch... they were ALL Naval Academy grads. One of which was female. She was completely in her element and absolutely ate it up.

About halfway through the week she was running the obstacle course and while jumping a trap landed wrong and broke her ankle. David Robinson's old college roommate (yes, David Robinson graduated from there too) took her to the hospital to get checked out. Lt. drove a Supra and it went VERY fast. She was in a whole new world of possibilities and everything looked so bright.

While they were waiting in triage a group of men filed by. Lt. completely changed his body language and immediately seemed very nervous. She watched the spectacle and wondered what in the world about those men were getting to him that way.