Chapter 19 - The Horizon Ahead
Three months later, the spring thaw was just beginning to touch the rolling hills around the military post. The morning sun broke through the gray clouds, casting a golden, brilliant light across Gate Six as the shift change took place.
I stood by the guard shack, watching Private Dewitt hand over the visitor logs to the incoming morning detail. My uniform was immaculate, the gold Sergeant Major rank insignia gleaming brightly on my collar. Two weeks prior, General Albright had personally pinned the new stripes on my shoulders in a ceremony attended by my children, my platoon, and the entire battalion.
Davis walked up beside me, holding two steaming paper cups of black coffee, handing one to me without a word.
"You know," Davis said, sipping his coffee and looking out toward the perimeter road where a long line of civilian sedans and delivery trucks was waiting orderly for clearance, "the Pentagon is awfully quiet these days. Word has it Vance took an early retirement and moved to a very quiet farm in Montana."
I took a sip of the hot coffee, feeling the familiar, comforting warmth settle into my chest. I reached up with my left hand, lightly brushing my fingers against my cheekbone. The skin was completely smooth. Not a trace of the bruise remained, and the memory of that day—the slap, the dirt, the fallen cap—no longer carried any pain. It was simply the foundation upon which everything else had been built.
"And Dewitt?" I asked quietly.
"Lost his pension, lost his civil suit, and last I heard, he's working as a mid-level consultant for a defense contractor in Ohio where nobody knows his name," Davis said with a faint, satisfied smirk.
I smiled, looking down the long asphalt road that stretched out toward the horizon, where giant C-17 transport planes were lifting gracefully into the bright blue morning sky, their silver wings catching the early sunlight.
"Good," I said softly. "The gate is secure."
May you like
Davis raised his coffee mug in a silent toast. "Hooah, Sergeant Major."
"Hooah, Sergeant Major," I replied, turning back toward company headquarters as the morning muster bugle began to play across the post, its clear, ringing notes carrying far beyond the perimeter fence into the bright, open world beyond.
