*Author's Note: The medical board is obviously fictitious. The proceedings and timelines aren't accurate, but they're 'close enough for government work'. :-)
****
"You're lucky. It was a clean break. I'd say you'll be out of the cast in four weeks. From there we'll reassess and see how long you'll need to be in a splint."
"So...no more jumping out of perfectly good airplanes?"
The Navy doctor laughed and said, "No. None. At least not for a couple of months."
He waited then looked at the young Marine lieutenant and said, "And the next time you do, try not to fuck it up, okay?"
The Marine laughed even though breaking his ankle on the last jump of his training wasn't funny. By virtue of completing this final jump at night (or what turned out to be very early in the morning), he'd earned the right to wear the coveted gold jump wings awarded to Marines who were in an ANGLICO unit which stood for Air Naval Gunfire Liaison Company. He was assigned to 2nd ANGLICO at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, and had somehow been blessed by the gods to get that very coveted assignment within two months of having been promoted to first lieutenant.
"I'll do my best, sir," was the sheepish reply.
"I'll send your prescription to the pharmacy, and a corpsman will hook you up with some crutches. And I'm giving you a no-duty chit for 10 days."
"Wait. No duty? Sir, can't it be light duty so I can at least go to work?"
"Oh, sure. Why didn't I think of that? I'm only a medical doctor who went through medical school, residency and specialty training, so what do I know, right?" the Navy Lieutenant, the equivalent of a Marine captain, said as he slapped the junior officer on the shoulder. "Just stay off that ankle as much as you can."
"Aye, aye, sir," the younger officer said, feeling like a fool for asking such a stupid question. Then again, anything that might keep him away from the job he loved was something he couldn't stand, and a no-duty chit fit the bill. And it meant he'd be taking copious amounts of shit from Marines of every rank for being a non-hacker. Enlisted Marines would be careful in the way they got their digs in, but no one escaped, and 1stLt Dan Knight wouldn't be an exception to the rule.
Just as the doc said, a young corpsman came in with the crutches a couple of minutes later and made sure they were the proper size.
"Okay, Lieutenant. You're good to go. Just stop by the pharmacy on your way out. Oh. And be sure to take this to your unit."
He handed him the dreaded no-duty chit, a true badge of shame for any officer, then walked out to take care of the next patient.
"Just freakin' great," Dan said as he carefully folded it up before putting it in his wallet then giving the crutches a first go.
He got back to the main lobby then looked at the signs until he saw 'Pharmacy' and an arrow pointing him in the right direction. He already felt a growing sense of shame as he hobbled down the shiny tile floor, hoping he wouldn't run into anyone he knew. Then again, if everyone in the unit didn't already know, they would by tomorrow morning. Still, not having to deal with anyone in person for now would be pretty nice.
He finally made it to the lobby of the pharmacy and realized he'd never used it before as he got behind two other people ahead of him who were waiting there turn to get a ticket.
"Just like the barber shop," Dan mused to himself as he looked at the machine to see how it worked.
The first person was an active-duty Marine who held his ID card under an infrared reader until it beeped then followed the menu prompts on the screen in front of him until it spit out a ticket with a number on it with the number indicating where he was in the queue. It looked simple enough, so he watched as the other person in front of him got ready to do the same thing.
This person was most likely a dependent as it was a woman who looked to be in her early 30s. She had a son with her, and as she got out her ID card, she couldn't get the reader to take it. She had it turned upside down, but Dan didn't want to embarrass her.
"Mom. Let me try," her son said. "I know how to do it."
He took it and turned it over, but it still didn't work.
"Hold on," the boy said before turning it back over again. He wasn't lining up the bar code on the back with the red light, but Dan didn't want to embarrass the boy, either.
"Maybe we should ask someone," his mother said as she looked behind her to see how many people she was holding up. Seeing Dan, she smiled then made her case.
"Sorry. We've never done this," she said to the young Marine on crutches, a helpless look on her face.
"May I help?" he asked.
The boy turned around and as soon as he saw they gold jump wings, his eyes got big as he said, "Cool!"
The wings had been pinned on by the unit commander as two other Marines helped him stand up after everyone had completed the jump, broken ankle and all.
Dan smiled at the woman then asked her son, "Can I maybe give it a whirl?"
The boy handed him his mom's ID card without asking, so Dan looked at her to get her approval.
"Yes, please! If you don't mind, that would be very nice of you," she said, a smile on her very pretty face.
He took it, turned it the right way, then held it steady at the same height the first guy had held his. The machine beeped and spat out another ticket. The noise scared the woman and she yelped while taking a step back.
Her son laughed, and her mom said, "It scared me!" before turning to Dan who was holding her card out for her to take.
"Thank you so much!" she said as she took it then told her son they needed to go find a seat.
Dan scanned his in about two seconds and pulled his ticket out then took a look around. The place was packed, and so he took the only open seat he could find and waited. After watching for less than a minute, he could see that he'd be called up once as a part of the process then told to sit back down and wait.
The first call came in about five minutes. He made his way to Window #1, showed his ID card and ticket then got half the ticket back and was told to take a seat by the civilian in the booth, just as he'd expected.
The information board said the wait was 45 minutes which probably meant at least an hour, but there was nothing he could do about that. He was in uniform, and active duty in uniform had priority, but so were a ton of other sailors and Marines who had priority over dependents and retirees.
When he went to sit back down, his old seat was occupied, but someone got up who was sitting next to the boy whose mom he'd helped, and he waved Dan over to sit next to him. Just as he did, his mom got called up for her first round and told her son to save her seat as she got up without noticing the young Marine who'd scanned her ID.
"Okay, Mom!" he replied as Dan sat down and got out his iPhone to kill some time.
He opened an app for a mystery puzzle game called 'The Room 3' and continued where he'd left off and started searching for the next clue to get to the next room to eventually escape.
"That's really cool," the boy said unaware he was being rude by leaning over and looking.
Dan was aware but didn't mind. The game had the best graphics he'd ever seen on any app and knew it was a magnet for any boy that age, or for a lot of men his age and older.
"Oh, hey. Yeah, these are great. Do you like puzzle games like this?"
"Uh-huh," the boy said as he leaned in closer. "What do you have to do?"
Dan patiently explained how the game worked and what was required to keep moving on.
"Do you get any help?" the boy asked.
"Yes. See this question mark in the upper left corner? When it lights up, it'll give you a clue. The first one is usually vague then you get one that's better, and finally they pretty much tell you where to look. But you can turn off hints if you're brave enough."
"So it's like Myst," the boy said.
"Ah, so you are a gamer," Dan replied, surprised a boy that young had heard of a game that came out many years ago. But there was a new version of it, so perhaps he'd seen it or even played it.
The boy beamed then said his dad used to play Myst.
"Oh, okay. Yeah, that was before my time, too."
"But they remade it," the boy told him. "And it's almost as nice as this game as far as the graphics."
His mom came back, and when she saw him leaning over, said, "If my son is bothering you, please tell me, okay?"
Dan smiled at her and assured her he wasn't.
"He's a real connoisseur," Dan told her.
When she laughed, the boy asked what that meant.
"It means you're kind of like an expert," his mom explained.
"Oh!" was all he said, a happy smile on his face before turning back to the man in uniform.
