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“Your test results are off the chart, Ezequiel.” Sergeant E.J. Craft smiled at him behind the government-issue desk with the look of a man who’d just reeled in a prized fish.
“Call me Zeke.”
“Sure, of course. But I’d rather call you Private,” Sgt. Craft said with a laugh. Zeke imagined he probably used that little joke on everyone who came through his door. He was in his late forties, the fatherly type, but still buff. Sgt. Craft could be the poster boy for good clean military living. “You’re all set to go. Drug test, background check, it all came back good. Now, shall I show you what Uncle Sam has to offer a bright young man like yourself?”
“I appreciate the time you’ve put into this, sir, but I’m afraid I’ve changed my mind. I won’t be enlisting after all. I was going to call, but I felt it was something I should tell you in person.”
Sgt. Craft leaned forward in his chair. “What happened? Did the navy sell you a bill of goods? I can top just about anything they might have offered you.”
“No, sir, I’m not joining any of the other service branches.”
“I don’t get it. Just a few weeks ago you came in here all hell bent on seeing the world, saving up money, going back to school on the GI bill. What happened?”
Zeke thought about politely brushing him off. What happened was none of Craft’s business, but he liked the guy. Sure, he was a little pushy, but he had to be in his line of work. He’d been good to Zeke and he deserved to know the truth.
“My grandmother was just diagnosed with a heart problem and she’s my kid sister’s legal guardian. It isn’t a good time to be far away from them.”
“I see.” Craft frowned, like he hadn’t expected that answer. “And there’s no other family around to help?”
“Our mom died six years ago. And…yeah, that’s all the family there was.”
“No dad in the picture?”
Zeke felt his right eyelid twitch. He forced himself to take a deep breath. Just thinking about Sam Grant made him want to punch someone.
“Nope, just my grandmother.”
“How old is your sister?”
“She’s thirteen.”
The sergeant sighed heavily. Zeke could only imagine his frustration. All that paperwork for nothing. “That’s a tough break, son, but I understand. I admire you for putting your family first. If the situation changes, let me know. I’ll be happy to do up the paperwork again.” He stood and they shook hands.
Zeke was out the door and ready to put on his helmet when he spotted the silver Toyota Corolla pull into the strip mall parking lot. Talk about Kismet. He knew that car. It belonged to Mimi Powers, ironically enough, the inspiration behind this whole enlistment idea.
He hadn’t seen Mimi for almost four months, not since she’d broken up with him in January. He’d never intended to have a girlfriend. Girls were fine on a temporary basis. But more than a few dates and they started to think about the future and that was something Zeke wasn’t
ready for. Not until he first noticed Mimi Powers on that warm September evening in the bowling alley parking lot.
Mimi was only two years younger, but she was still in high school, which should have automatically made her hands off. But the instant she’d turned to look at him and they’d locked gazes, he’d been hooked. It wasn’t her looks that had been the attraction. She was pretty, but he’d been with prettier girls. She was smart, and sweet, and he hadn’t meant to ask her out. But he did. And she’d said yes. Which had surprised him. Seventeen year-old virgins (and it was obvious she fell squarely into that category) didn’t go out with guys like him unless they were looking to rebel, and Mary Margaret Powers didn’t seem like the rebelling kind. Not that he was a bad guy. But he wasn’t boyfriend material.
So they went on a first date and then a second, and before Zeke knew it, she was all he could think about. When he was with her he didn’t feel like Zeke Grant, pot-smoking surfer mechanic semi-loser. He felt like Zeke Grant, guy who could do anything he put his mind to. And the sex? It had been just like her—sweet and hot at the same time. And it only got better the more they saw one another.
He’d even introduced her to Buela, the Cuban grandmother who’d raised him and Allie after Mom died. Buela instantly loved her, of course. Because who didn’t love Mimi Powers? She was sunshine and warm air and all the rest of that sappy crap people wrote songs about. He stopped smoking pot and starting thinking about going back to school. He’d been planning to tell her that he loved her when one evening out of the blue, she broke things off.
“I’m going away to Duke and you’ll still be here, so it doesn’t really make sense to keep seeing one another. Does it?” Her blue eyes had been misty, like she was ready to cry at any minute. But that didn’t mean she regretted what she was saying. She was just the kind of girl who would feel bad about hurting someone else’s feelings.
Zeke sure as hell didn’t want her feeling sorry for him.
It had taken everything he had not to beg her to change her mind.
“You’re right, I guess it doesn’t make sense to stay together,” he’d said stoically.
She’d stood on tiptoe and kissed him goodbye on the cheek and whispered in his ear, “Do something big, Zeke. I know you have it in you to be so much more than what you are right now.”
The girl knew how to gut a guy, that’s for sure.
In the four months since he’d last seen her, he’d not only given up the dope, but he’d managed to save most of his paycheck. He’d looked into student loans and the military, and in the end he’d chosen the military because it was the fastest way to get to where he needed to be. Only, this thing with Buela had come up and he couldn’t abandon her. Not when he was all the family she and Allie had.
