Tears were already welling up in Trina's eyes as she watched her husband step onto the USS Curtis, a Naval ship on its way to Iraq. Like the rest of the Marines he was dressed in desert digital cammies which were a combination of light browns that looked to be straight out of an old style Atari video game. On his back was his C-Bag nearly as big as he was himself and another bag hung around his neck, the big guy was practically limping up the stairs. "Kevin I love you!" She screamed at the top of her lungs.
She wasn't sure if Kevin heard her cry out or not but the fact was that Lance Corporal Bernard didn't turn around to acknowledge his wife before disappearing through one of the doorways. "It'll be fine, they'll be back." Rena said wrapping her arm around the younger woman. "I've been married to the Corps for the last ten years and I can honestly tell you that it never gets easier to watch your man go, but he'll be back." Rena smiled and wiped a tear away from her cheek and smiled. Her light brown hair was twisted up into a bun at the back of her head. It was the way she always did her hair when she had to see her husband off at the very crack of dawn.
Trina looked up locking her light blue eyes on the browns of the woman she'd come to know as her sister. She opened her mouth to speak but Rena cut her off with a finger over her lips. "We can talk later, right now you just need to watch and hope for a final glimpse of your man. Six months is a long time." She smiled and leaned closer whispering in her ear. "I would suggest investing in a good vibrator." Trina smiled slightly and looked up to the boat.
"It's huge." She whispered to her friend staring at the boat. It was easily several times the size of her home.
Rena just laughed in response looking up at her husband, Staff Sergeant Copeland standing at the side of the boat. "This is a tiny boat, you should see the carriers, you could play football at one end of the boat and soccer at the other and still have room for the crowd. Now be quiet."
Just as she fell silent Lance Corporal Kevin Bernard came to the edge of the boat searching for his young bride. The smile on his face was wide enough that the women could see his teeth as he waved excitedly to his wife. It looked like he was screaming something but she couldn't make out any of his words. She could only see that the stairs were being pulled away from the dock as the boat began to pull away towards the distant horizon. Most of the men on the boat moved to the backside of the boat for one last look at the land and wave to their wives until they could no longer tell who was who.
"Now what?"
"Now we go home and get a drink." Rena sighed waving at the distant boat one last time before turning and walking away. Trina remained behind squinting at the boat until it too had vanished beyond the horizon. She'd worn his favorite dress, a yellow sundress that only barely came down past her ass and left her blonde hair loose exactly the way he liked it. Already her mind was traveling back to the night before, the last night they'd share for a long time.
He'd come home late, said he'd been caught up in loading the boat up for the voyage. It had to have been close to eleven when he finally crawled into the bed still smelling of pine and oil and gunpowder snuggling up against her.
"You know I love you so much." It had sent the same chills up the young woman's spine to hear him speak like that. She'd been so ready and willing to part her thighs as his lips had wandered over her body. Not a single inch of her body remained untouched from her forehead to the tips of her manicured toes.
"I love you too." She was almost too young to really know what love was, it was more like an overwhelming obsession she had with the boy she'd grown up with. At nineteen he was the only man she'd ever been with. Trina had reached down combing her fingers through his hair which at three inches on top was just barely within Marine Corps standards and a constant hassle from his superiors, or so she heard.
