Carrie picked irritably at a small piece of lint on her pristinely starched uniform. She would have preferred to wear civilian clothes but she knew the uniform was expected of her and Jonathon 'Jonno' Clark had deserved her respect.
She sat dry eyed and numb throughout the service, as the vicar droned on about the terrible waste of human life, the selfless sacrifice to protect human rights and finishing up with the predictable blurb about him now being in a better place. The vicar was doing his best but it was obvious he hadn't known Jonno, which is hardly surprising as Carrie had never known him set food inside a church unless it was for a wedding, christening or funeral.
She'd enlisted into the army with Jonno straight from school. Neither of them came from financially well-off families and they knew that if they wanted to go to university they would end up working their arses off in a bar, coffee shop or some other similarly mundane activity to fund their way and would probably still end up with massive student loans to pay off. The army however would sponsor them through their degrees while also paying them. A life in the forces also seemed quite exciting and they would get to see some of the world along the way, so they both decided that this would be a much better option.
They applied together and were both delighted that not only did they both get accepted but would be completing their basic training together. As they were both engineering students, they ended up spending much of their army careers in the same unit, helping and encouraging each other along the way.
That had been eight years ago and they had both achieved excellent degrees in engineering. Carrie had left the army as soon as her seven year stint came to an end and was now a successful, self employed civil engineer but Jonno had signed up for another stint; full of grandiose ideas about using his skills to rebuild the infrastructure that had been torn apart by war in Afghanistan -- shame the Afghani insurgent hadn't recognised his good intentions when he laid the land mine on the approach to the new bridge he was constructing huh?
She glanced across the aisle of the church to where his Commanding Officer was sitting in a wheelchair, both legs and one arm lost in the same explosion -- maybe Jonno had actually been the lucky one?
Having no intention of attending the wake and having to make polite small talk with senior officers with whom she now felt no sense of camaraderie she walked quickly from the church at the end of the service, stopping to gaze over the river that she and Jonno had swum in as kids, while she smoked a cigarette.
Stepping around a huge oak tree to shield her from view of the departing mourners she was startled to find a woman already standing there, her black clothes and red eyes testament to the fact that she had been at the same funeral.
'I'm really sorry, I didn't mean to disturb you.' and she turned to walk away. 'It's ok CJ, you don't have to leave.'
Carrie was startled. She didn't recognise the woman and hadn't been called CJ for a few months. Not since the last time she'd seen Jonno in fact as he was the only person who called her by that nickname.
'I'm sorry, do I know you?' 'You used to once but I looked a little different then. Imagine me 10 years younger, 4 stone heavier, black hair and with glasses an inch thick.'
The cogs were turning in Carrie's head. The voice sounded familiar and when she thought about the description she came to a startling conclusion.
'Susan?' she stammered, shocked at the transformation that Jonno's sister had made from ugly duckling to magnificent swan 'Bloody hell I would never have recognised you! How are you?' Susan shrugged, tipping her head toward the mourners exiting the church as if to say 'I've had better days'.
Jonno's sister was a couple of years older than they were and hung around with a very different crowd, so although their paths had crossed regularly they had never been friends. Susan was a Goth in her youth, dressed in black and purple and wearing enough dark makeup to effectively mask her features.
They spent most of their time hanging around the local dive bar where the Goth bands played or standing on street corners smoking weed, whereas Jonno and Carrie were more likely to be playing football or tennis, working out in the gym or off for the weekend climbing mountains or orienteering in Wales or Scotland.
Carrie had changed little during the intervening years; still slim, sporty and fit but with a few battle scars of her own gained along the way -- hers were mainly mental though.
Susan had changed beyond recognition. Her black scraggy hair was now a deep and luxurious chestnut and her chunky and rotund figure was now voluptuous and shapely in all the right places. The glasses and thick makeup had gone, revealing a pair of beautiful green eyes set in a face that while pained, was very attractive.
'Can I cadge one of those off you? This damn dress doesn't have any pockets and I left mine in the car.'
Carrie handed over her cigarettes and lighter, noticing how Susan's hands shook as she took the packet and tried to get one out. Looking at her face it was obvious that she was struggling to hold back the tears that were trying to break free.
'I thought he'd come out of the army when you did. You know he only joined up because of you? Why didn't he leave when you did?'
Carrie was shocked by this statement and also knew it to be false.
'Susan he didn't join because of me, we both joined to achieve a goal. We achieved that goal and I had my own reasons for leaving, just as Jonno had reasons to stay; he thought he could do some good out there.'
'Oh bullshit! He joined because he was in love with you and he didn't want to be away from you! What happened? Did you dump him? Break his heart? There must have been a fucking good reason as to why he stopped following you around like a puppy!'
Carrie had no energy for a fight right now and she didn't want to upset Susan further, equally she didn't feel that she had to explain herself to this woman -- she may have been Jonno's sister but she hardly knew her and it certainly wasn't her place to tell her things that Jonno hadn't told her himself for whatever reason.
Suddenly her uniform felt tight across her chest as if it was trying to stop her breathing and cut off her circulation. She had once promised herself never to wear it again and right now she needed to get home and get changed, so she turned on her heel and walked toward her car without looking back.
Once back home Carrie stripped out of her uniform and stood under a scalding shower for as long as she could bear, trying to rinse the day away along with the suds that cascaded down her body and swirled down the drain.
Eventually she towelled off, sat on the end of her bed and finally allowed herself to mourn the loss of the person who had been her best friend since she was 11 years old, the tears coursing down her cheeks freely until she sobbed herself into a fitful sleep.
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