I guess I could just start my story by telling you a little about myself, and what led me to where I am today.
My name is Mike Davis. I was your average kid growing up. Not the top of the class, not the bottom. I was smart but I also had common sense. I went to an average school in a medium sized midwestern town, where I played receiver on the football team. Why receiver, mainly because of my height and speed, but I had good hands. I was very friendly, and most people in our town all knew me and we got along really well.
In high school our biggest rival was Southern High. They really did not like us. Me to be exact. Like most high schoolers, I have been known to occasionally, toot my horn, but in this case, it is true. Two years running, I had caught the winning pass with no time left on the clock to go ahead dropping Southern from making the playoffs. Trust me when I say, that in high school, doing it once makes you a celebrity, doing it twice, makes you a god!
Like all stories, there is always a bad guy. In this case it was Tom Harris. Tom was tasked with that job to cover me during our games. As a result, he and I did not get along. At all. He hated my talent, and I hated him. In our Senior year, as I had done in previous years, I had shown him up. By the third quarter, I had already 114 yards receiving yards and 2 touchdowns.
He tried everything to stop me. Blocking, but I was faster. Holding, but I was stronger, and eventually just talking pure smack to me to try and piss me off. First it was how he was going to fuck my girlfriend, Betty. Didn't even phase me. We had been together for 3 years as boyfriend and girlfriend, and friends since we were little kids, that was not going to happen. Next, he tried to go after my mom. He hit a sore spot, that got to me.
You see, my mom was a Captain in the Army. She flew Blackhawks and was shot down and killed in action over Iraq in February 1991. She meant everything to me. When Tom started talking shit about her, it was all done. Needless to say, I got a very well deserved 15-yard penalty and an ejection for putting him in to the ground and stomping on him.
We ended up winning the game anyway without my help. However, Tom finally knew he had finally won against me. He has done something to me personally, and he enjoyed that feeling he got from beating me. You could see it in his face when he left the field that night.
As I said, Betty and I were an item in high school. Everyone knew it. We had been going steady for many years. We went to Prom together, and even discussed losing our virginity to each other that night, but opted instead for doing that on or wedding night.
Eventually we graduated and Betty and I moved on to different colleges. I wanted a degree in Civil engineering, and she was happy to get a business degree at a more local university. WE ended up about 200 miles apart, but we were able to keep our relationship going. Clearly, it was not as strong as it was in high school, but we did talk at least once a week on the dorm phones.
Like all long-distance relationships, we had our ups and downs. Sometimes, I would feel like we had lost some steam, but each time we got together for break, it was like we never left each other. To us, it was a sure thing that we would be married after we both graduated, have kids and live happily ever after.
Even our friends and family never disputed this from being written in stone.
However, in life, things don't always work out the way that you plan. As a freshman, I had signed up for Army ROTC as a way to get closer to the memory of my mom. I figured; I would spend two years learning about what she did before she was killed in action. Signing up for only the first 2 years of ROTC allowed me to participate without having to give a military obligation (once you did the last 2 years, you were in for 4 years of service). This also allowed me an option at the reserves if I wanted to go that way.
Then September 11th happened.
I had just entered my third year of university, and I quickly made a decision that I would continue with my service and join that Army as an Officer. I signed up without a second thought. Later, I called my father, my brother and sister and they could not have been prouder of me. Following in my mom's footsteps.
The country had called, I was ready to answer.
Betty was not so happy. Our conversation was not pleasant. When I told her what I did, she yelled at me for not calling her before I made the decision. We did not have cell phones or internet back then, so everything was still done according to Ma Bell.
I told her of my decision and the first thing she had to say, was, "What that fuck did you go do a stupid thing like that for?" I was shocked. I explained to her, that the country would need officers like me, and it was a part of who my family was and who I am. She scoffed and said, "just because your mom was dumb enough to go off to a desert and her herself killed, I did not have to follow her." I was shocked that she had said it. I just looked at the phone for about 10 seconds, and nothing. No apology. No taking it back. Nothing. I hung up on her after that, and we did not talk till we had both graduated college.
It was 2 years later when I did eventually talk to Betty again. I was sitting in a local bar waiting on my high school friends. We were going to tie one on the night before I left to go on active duty to Afghanistan. I had a flight the next afternoon, and who better to spend it with than your closest friends.
I was a little early, so I grabbed a stool at the bar and ordered a beer. As I was waiting, an old high school friend, Dottie plopped down next to me. Dottie was a cute little thing. 5 foot 5 with short blond hair, and a very pleasing smile. She was a year behind me in high school and we had been casual friends for years. Nothing more, because we tended not to hang in the same circles.
We got to talking and she offered to buy me a beer for my service. I accepted and we talked about old times. After a few beers, she flirted around the idea of us getting together for a date int the future, until I told her that I was shipping off the next day.
I thought she would back off, but it only intensified her attention towards me. It was like she was on a mission, since it was probably the first time we had ever talked for more than 5 minutes in our life.