Castles Burning Part Two (2 page)

I followed him down the smoke deck, further from the direction we had come, over a landing that was iron, the wate
r visible below our feet. At the end of the smoke deck we entered a door, and went down a ladder well for four decks, before we came through a water tight door into the galley, or cafeteria. There were sailors eating, and some just sitting at the blue and gray tables talking, some were playing cards, others talking loudly in groups. There was a row of red lockers down one side of the passageway, on the opposite side of them there were soda machines, Tyler gestured to them.

“These are ours too, where we keep the SCBA’s
.” He tapped one of the red lockers as we passed.

Sel
f Contained Breathing Apparatus; I remembered instantly from my training in school. We continued down the passageway, past a salad bar and another small area of tables and people eating and chatting. To my right was a red door. Tyler gestured at that too.

“This is one of our repair lockers, where we store our supplies. There are several on the ship, here on the second deck, in the hanger
bay, and on the officers level. We are all assigned one, if the bells and whistles go off and they call for GQ, report to your repair locker immediately, and you’ll be instructed.”

“Ok.”
I said.

He laughed at me again and we went past another repair locker, and through a door, taking a left, it smelled overwhelmingly of Irish Spring body soap. I found out why when a man came out of one of the doors to my right, in only a towel and flip flops carrying a shower caddy. I looked down at my feet until he was gone.

“Yeah, sorry about that. This shop is right by a male birthing.” He said.

He opened
a water tight door to our left, and there was a ladder well, we went down three decks, and entered another shop through a water tight door on the deck, only the manhole was open. When we reached the bottom of the stairs, to my right was a red door with CHIEFS OFFICE printed on it, to my left LPOS OFFICE, straight ahead was a shop with lockers and shelves and shelves of tools. We entered the shop and a small door to the right, which lead to an office that had three desks and three computers, with seven or eight chairs.

“This is
the CBR shop, Chemical Biological and Radiological warfare. This is where we hold most of our division meetings if we all need to be there and can’t meet in the hanger bay since it’s so large. Every morning at zero seven hundred we muster in the hanger bay, and then we go to cleaning stations.” He said.

“Okay.”

“I’ll show you your birthing after we go get your things from my shop. Looks like you’re going to be in Fixed Systems with me. So you’ll go straight there with me and the rest of our shop in the morning after we muster in the bay.” He continued.

He handed me some papers and stood up. “This is to help you learn to read the tack numbers on the bulkhead so you don’t get lost.”

“Bulkhead?”

“The walls.” He winked as he patted the steel metal plate beside him, which served as a wall. Now it made sense why it was called a bulkhead. I never could remember that one in boot camp. I nodded
at him and smiled.

“Let’s go get your stuff, it’s almost twenty two hundred and we still need to get you checked in to your birthing.”
He said

“Okay.”

My birthing was just one level above the hanger bay, and not even a hundred feet from our mustering place, which made remembering where I lived much easier. I was put in a cubicle that had 4 girls instead of 6, though there were still 6 racks. It was a tiny space. Six feet by six feet, but with our racks there was only a couple feet of space to maneuver around in. I tried to quietly place my things in my small stand up locker, closing it softly. Then opened my rack, which was a bottom one, right on the floor, the thin mattress on top of it slid a little as I opened it up and placed my uniforms and personal items in the compartments below my bed. I folded my sea bag and tucked it in the corner of my locker, pulled out some sweats and changed, closing it softly once more before crawling into my rack.

When my head was on the pillow, I looked up at the bottom of the rack
that was above me. It was about three inches from the tip of my nose. There was a small lamp for reading built into it, and thick blue curtains bunched up between the lockers and my rack. I yanked the curtains free, and slid them closed as the other girls who were fast asleep had done. It did provide a sense of privacy, though not much.

I closed my eyes, willing sleep to come to me. Aden’s blue eyes, his hair falling boyishly over them, flashed behind my closed lids,
he was so young and full of life. I brought my fists to my eyes. Pressing on them as the tears burned and threatened to spill. I yanked open my curtains and rolled out from my rack. The bathroom in our birthing was at the other end, there must have been eighty beds in the entire birthing. When I entered the head, there was a woman in there that looked like she was in her early forties, she was Hispanic and had a giant butterfly tattooed on her neck, she wore glasses, and a ton of makeup, which she was removing with a thick cream and a washcloth.

“Hey there.” She said, friendly, but as if she
was exhausted.

“Hi.” I said as I entered one of the three toilet stalls. When I was sitting on the toilet I finally noticed the gentle sway of the ship. It was comforting. I decided a hot shower would be best to get my mind right before trying to sleep. I returned to my rack and got my shower caddy, which held my shampoo, body wash, loofa and toothbrush and toothpaste. I took my towel from the hanger on my locker and reentered the bathroom. The woman was gone, and there were a pair of feet in one of the stalls, but in th
e other half of the Head, where the three shower stalls were, there was no one.

I stepped
in and removed my clothes, inspecting the fresh scar from my stab wound below the rose vine tattoo on my shoulder. It was thick, knotted pink and red raised flesh, it looked horrible. I turned away from the mirror and put on my shower shoes, and stepped into the shower stall. The communal showers in boot camp hadn’t had curtains, let alone stalls. I was grateful, I actually felt like I had some privacy.

I let the hot water run over my face
for a few moments, relaxing before I collected myself and washed my hair, and body before turning the shower off and stepping out.

“Oh excuse me!” Someone
said behind me as I bumped right in to her.

“Oh, God, I’m sorry. I should have been watching where I was going.” I said
, steadying myself by grasping the shower stall.

“It’s ok, your sea legs will come in a few days.
It’s always the hardest to judge stepping over things, that’s when you notice the sway more.” She smiled and held out her hand. “I’m Jessica.”

“Amber.” I said, shaking her hand.

She had thin, flat, blonde hair, and very large teeth. Her eyes were a pale greenish blue. She stepped into her stall, and closed the curtain as I began to brush my teeth at the sink directly in front of the showers. I dried my hair and put my pajamas on, before Jessica finished with her shower.

“What Division are you in?” She asked
as she pulled out a long piece of floss from her shower caddy.

“DC.”

“Me too!” She cried turning to face me. “Oh, thank
God
I won’t be the only female anymore. Those boys are so rowdy!” She smiled hugely at me, and I couldn’t help but grin back at her.

“You’re the second person I have met today, and you both are in my division.”
I said.

“Really? Who else did you meet?”
She asked smiling as she dragged the floss through her teeth.

“DC2 as I was walking from my car.”

“Which DC2?”

“Um...
Harlen or something.” I said, a bit embarrassed for not remembering Tyler’s last name.

“Oh! DC2
Harlow, yeah he’s really great.” She said as she inspected her huge white teeth in the mirror.

“Yeah,
Harlow. What shop are you in?” I asked her, hoping we would be together.

“I’m in CBR. They put you in fixed systems I think.”

“Yeah they did.” I said, a little disappointed.

“Ah well, we will still get plenty of time to chat. Do you like to work out? I’m nuts about it. I’d love to have a buddy.”

“I love to run, when do you workout?”

“After working hours, then I go to dinner. Want to join me tomorrow? I can meet you in Fix.”

“Yeah, that’d be great. I haven’t worked out in a few weeks it feels like.” I said.

She glanced at me nervously. Opened her mouth to say something, but then hesitated.

“What is it?” I asked.

“I sort of read your file.” She glanced at me,
and then fluttered her gaze back to the mirror.

“What?”

“Your file.” She stopped flossing, placed her hands on the metal sink, and looked right at me through the mirror. “I’m really sorry, I am so nosey, I have a habit of doing this sort of thing.”

“It’s ok. I don’t really care.” I laughed
, she was so serious about it, I couldn’t help but find it comical.

“Well, I feel bad because I read about why the Captain gave you additional time before you checked in. I’m really sorry about what happened to you. If you ever need someone to talk to, I’m a good listener, I’m nosey, but I’m not a blabber mouth.”
She said.

I smiled. “Thank you. That means more to me than you know.” I said.

“So we’re cool?” She asked.

I nodded, “yeah.”

“Cool. See ya in the morning for muster.” She said picking up her caddy and leaving the Head.

It was refreshing to be aro
und someone so light and cheery. When I climbed back into my rack after putting my things away I felt much more relaxed than before. I closed my eyes and imagined what the ocean must look like in the middle of nowhere, stars sparkling on the water, as beautiful as deep blue cerulean eyes that drank in my soul, and filled it up in return.

***

              When an alarm in the birthing beeped and rang loudly somewhere on the other side of the birthing, my eyes popped open. I looked at my cell phone; it was a quarter to five in the morning. My alarm was set for six. I groaned and rolled over, closing my eyes to go back to sleep as whoever it was climbed loudly from their rack and began to dress for the day. When my alarm finally did go off, I rolled out of my rack with a groan. There was a girl standing folding her blanket and placing it on the end of the middle rack across from me. She smiled at me quickly before leaving the small space and allowing me to change into my uniform. I went into the head with my shower caddy and towel and washed my face, and pulled my hair up into a tight bun, after I brushed my teeth I put on some chap stick and deodorant and returned my things to my locker.

             
The woman from the bathroom the night before with the butterfly tattoo, came in through the birthing door suddenly.

“Hey kittens, momma
Maria brought some breakfast, come and grab it.” She said, tossing a box of donuts and a basket of bananas, apples, and what looked like wheat muffins onto the table across the leather bench that served as a couch. She smiled at me before heading back out of the birthing, the door slamming behind her.

I grabbed a banana and ate it on the bench. Two girls came in with bags and started to dump laundry onto the se
cond table in front of me, I finished my banana and helped them fold the coveralls. As we did so, girls came and went, grabbing their uniforms and sometimes others who shared their cubicle, and placed the uniforms on their rack. When we finished I made my way down the stairs to the hanger bay for muster.

I saw
Jessica standing next to a short, but bulky man who had dark brown hair and glasses. They were laughing, there was a Chief standing before them, he was very tall, and well built who was also enjoying the conversation. He rolled back on his heels as he laughed charismatically, his distinguished chin covered in stubble already. I came to fall in line next to Jessica, whose coveralls read Johnson. She had one chevron on her collar which meant she was a rank above me, a third class petty officer. I stared out at the other end of the hanger bay and watched as about a dozen guys in blue coveralls approached. They fell in line in front of and behind me chatting with one another about computer games they’d found for deployment and coffee stashes. I looked ahead at the Chief; he had thick black hair and blue eyes. He was older, maybe thirty eight or forty, but he was astonishingly attractive. His khaki’s read Hudson, and I was mesmerized with his handsome smile until I heard a familiar voice behind me.

“
Pst! Sonny!” He whispered.

I turned and saw Tony
Cravats. He had been in school with me, after boot camp. He’d been friends with Jarred, who I’d dated for a few months while in Chicago.

“
Cravats, holy crap you’re on this ship? I’m so glad!” I really was, he was a really nice person, and even more nice to have on your side in a tough situation.

He nodded and smiled at me, “Yeah I’m glad you’re here, you’ll like our division.”
He whispered loudly.