In a Book Club Far Away(33)
In the silence, Regina continued. “Because Jasper, your partner, Sophie, smeared my husband’s reputation, which resulted in his reassignment to another duty station much earlier than expected, thereby leading to the end of my marriage. That’s why.”
From the window, Sophie snickered.
Adelaide’s head began to pound as she tried to keep up with the conversation. What she needed was two seconds to jump in. “I…”
“You think this is funny?” Regina’s voice echoed through the room.
“No, just inaccurate.” Sophie turned back from the window. “Your marriage ended because your husband cheated on you and got caught, and then he was moved after you had Miko. That was what changed your life’s course. I didn’t cause it. You needed a scapegoat, and you picked me. You were so intent on blaming me, that you refused every apology I tried to make, even refused packages sent to you for Miko’s birthday. As far as I’m concerned, as much as you want to, quote, ‘have at it,’ you might find that your take on history is revisionist.”
Adelaide shut her eyes against the noise, against this fight. She just didn’t have the physical energy. She could barely form the words to explain the reason why she had called the both of them here.
Exhaustion had taken up every cell in her body. What pulled at her was sleep.
One nap. One nap was all she needed and she would tell them straightaway.
So Adelaide did what she’d done so well the last decade. She shut her eyes and told herself that she was fine, that everything was fine.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Regina
Day Before Thanksgiving, 2011
Regina knew her body, and something wasn’t right. The last couple of days, she’d felt alternately full, then nauseous, then starving. When she got out of bed that morning, her belly grumbled and her legs felt like they were tied down with bricks. And now at her daily 6:00 a.m. unit physical training, bleary-eyed and in her matching Army gray sweats, beanie, and black gloves, she hoped this sickness would simply pass. It was the day before Thanksgiving, and there was going to be some major eating at their combined book club and Thanksgiving dinner to discuss The Passage, and she intended to enjoy it.
“So what do you think? Should I go out with him?” Next to her, First Lieutenant Cynthia Kelkirk jogged in time. The formation had been broken up into running groups, and she and Cynthia had naturally partnered up because of their similar mile pace and because they shared an office cubby.
Regina woke from her hazy trance. “Oh, who?”
“You’re not listening! And we’re not even going fast. Porter and Gaines got ahead of us half a mile back.”
Porter and Gains were the slowest soldiers in Charlie Company, but at the moment, Regina didn’t even have the energy to care. “Sorry.”
“Pshhh, you’re not sorry,” Cynthia said in jest, then did a double take. “Are you sick? You’re looking pretty ragged.”
“Gee, thanks.” Regina grinned, or tried to, anyway. “I don’t know. Maybe I’m coming down with something.”
Cyn snorted and exaggeratingly placed an extra foot between them. “Well, don’t give it to me. I’ve no time to be sick. T minus sixty-eight days before I’m out of the Army, thirty-eight days if I decide to use up my leave. I’ve got appointments up the yang to prep me for my transition out.”
“You’re making me sad. There’ll be no one to complain to about the weather.”
“Yeah, I’m not going to miss Upstate New York.”
“What’s the plan, then? For after?” Regina licked her lips, and then cursed herself because her lips felt even colder.
“Anything. Everything.” Cyn smiled. “But seriously, I’m meeting with a headhunter after work on Tuesday—he’s got leads for a couple of government contractor positions.”
Grunting a greeting, they passed a walker, a soldier with an injury. The pause allowed Regina to take a deeper breath. She wasn’t lying to Cyn when she said she was sad. She was just getting used to the deployment routine, and one of her comforts was having Cyn, at work, to chat with.
“Don’t worry, you’ll get there, too,” Cyn said. “What did you and your husband decide on? I know the two of you were discussing what’s next.”
“We’d like to PCS out of here at the same time to the next duty station—that’s, like, the priority. So far, so good. We’re supposed to move this summer. Assignments branch is working on the logistics now. There might be jobs at Fort Benning for the both of us, and I have my mom, who lives right down the road in Columbus, and his parents are in Savannah.” Regina coughed against a tickle in her throat, to keep herself from delving into the fact that these decisions had not been easy to come to. She and Logan had fought through most of it, tooth and nail. Regina wanted to head to duty stations where she’d never been to, whereas Logan wanted familiarity. But she also knew that the dual active-duty life required negotiation. “Do you ever feel guilty?”
“About what?”
“I don’t know. For wanting to leave the Army?”
“No, not at all. We’re serving now, Castro. Here’s my thought on the matter: it’s better to run to something than run from something. So I say, have a plan, and if that plan sounds better than what you’re doing now, then go for it.” Cyn spared Regina a glance as they turned the corner. “You know that you can’t own and operate a food business while on active duty, right?”