"Hell. You know. Sulfur? Fire and brimstone? Bad smells?"
Again, she grudgingly let go of a laugh, once she got it.
After chuckling she said, "I moved out here with my husband four years ago when he got orders to the Air Station, but since, you know, I've let a lot of things slide. Like the water from hell situation."
Until a few minutes prior, he didn't know her name, but he did know her husband had been killed in a training accident during what was called WTI or 'Weapons and Tactics Instructors Course, a complex, six-week exercise held at Marine Corps Air Station Yuma, Arizona, twice a year.
WTI was the Marine Corps's equivalent to Top Gun or the Air Force's Red Flag exercises held in the Nevada desert. Craig didn't know any details, but he did know she'd lost her husband a little over two years ago.
Craig had been in the Navy, and generally understood what each branch of the military did, but he was very sketchy on the details beyond his own specialty. He'd been a SEABEE for six years, and more specifically, a 'UT' which stood for Utlilitiesman.
Most SEABEEs were 'BU' types, where the BU stood for 'Builders'. But there were many other rates, the Navy term for what the Army and Marines called an MOS or Military Occupational Specialty. Some served as electricians, others learned masonry or any other trade needed to put up a building, a tent city, or pretty much any structure.
In essence, there was someone who could do pretty much anything when it came to constructing a facility of any kind as well as related issues like water purification.
Craig had learned about Reverse Osmosis technology in the Navy, and had cut his teeth on something called the LWPS or The Lightweight Purification System. He'd become an expert with ROWPU systems in general, with that acronym standing for Reverse Osmosis, Water Purification Unit.
Many of the guys he worked with referred to any osmosis system as a 'ROWPU' (pronounced ROW-poo), and one base commander had started calling then-Petty Officer Second Class Johnson "ROWPU Guy', and the name stuck until he left active duty just nearly three years ago. Now Laura called him 'water guy', and all of it was in good fun.
Like most officer's wives he'd ever met, Laura was a very attractive woman. He assumed she had to be somewhere in her mid-30s, but she looked younger than that. She was the best thing about the temporary job he'd taken in order to pay his bills, and every time her office was on his delivery list, he looked forward to seeing her.
She had mid-length, nearly-black hair that had a natural sheen to it along with the most beautiful blue eyes he'd ever seen. Her smooth, clear skin made her pretty face look young, and she had an amazing smile that always made his day. He did his best not to stare, but he always got in a look (or two) at her very shapely body that was clearly kept in very good condition.
He'd never actually considered asking her out, because he knew she was widowed and quite a bit older, but it wasn't because he wasn't her equal in the looks department.
Craig was 5' 10", 170 pounds, and in superb shape himself. He swam for close to an hour every morning and ate a very healthy diet. He, too, had great hair and a smile to match Laura's, so it wasn't as though he could only ever dream about dating someone that attractive. It was more that he was getting ready to takeover a business while working full time and still working out. So he dated when he could and took care of business the rest of the time.
Like most smaller, military towns, the number of younger, single males grossly outnumbered the single, available females. Then after one sifted through those someone like Craig Johnson would find attractive, the proverbial pickins were pretty slim. And that made Laura Krimmer all the more interesting to him.
He'd spent a couple of months in Yuma his last year on active duty, doing work in several months in advance of the WTI in which Laura's husband was killed, and fell in love with the climate. He'd been there in January and February, two of the best months of the year, and decided to move there when after being discharged.
During his temporary duty assignment, he'd met a retired Marine Master Gunnery Sergeant who owned the company he was about to buy. They first met when a civilian from California came out to provide instruction on a new ROWPU system the SEABEEs would be installing to provide fresh water. The retired Marine pulled some strings with an old friend still on active duty, and was able to sit in on the training.
Craig looked him up when he moved to Yuma, and the retiree let him know he was getting ready to retire a second time. He jokingly said something about Craig taking over the business, and after that the conversation got serious.
The owner was old school and had never moved beyond salt-based systems. Those worked just fine, but required lifting and dumping heavy bags of salt on a fairly regular basis. He knew about solar salt and reverse osmosis but never branched out. Even so, his customer base was loyal and fairly large, so that alone was an incentive for Craig who intended to meet every one of them and see if they might be interested in upgrading to an RO system.
After spending hours talking with the retired 'Master Guns', who was brutally open and honest about running a business, as well as doing as much research as he could, Craig made the decision to buy On-Tap Water. He also got his dad onboard and lined up a small-business loan from the Veteran's Administration.
Since then, Craig had learned first-hand about the heat in Yuma. The summers were brutal with the temperatures occasionally hitting 125 degrees, with most days being a 'balmy' 105-112. And he'd learned early on that once it got over 100 or so, it didn't matter that it was a 'dry heat'. It was still like walking around with a man-sized hair dryer blowing in your face all day long. But the cost of living was low, he loved the desert, and all in all, it was a pretty good trade off.
And now, at 27, and taking over the business in less than a week, he was too busy to think about dating anyone, let alone a class act like the woman he'd just learned was named Laura Krimmer.
"I uh, I heard about the accident, and I'm very sorry for your loss," Craig said quietly.
"Thank you...Craig," she said, trying to smile. "I'd have moved back home, but our daughter was in school and had made quite a few friends, so I stayed, and now I'm actually learning to enjoy it here."
She made a face then said, "Well, I'm still not wild about July and August, but I'm getting there."
"The good news is the worst of it is behind us," he said more cheerfully, even though September was almost as bad. "For another year anyway."
Laura laughed politely then wished him the best of luck with the new business.
"Thank you. And if you know anyone who wants to transition from hell to heaven where their water is concerned..."
She laughed again then promised she'd let her friends know.
"Okay, I guess this is it, unless I bump into you at the mall," Craig said, trying not to smile.
The 'mall' in Yuma was about a third the size of one wing of most normal malls, and one could see 'all of it' in five minutes or so.
"Right. But as humongous as that place is, and with the throng of people there, it seems pretty unlikely we'd ever just run into each other," she just as seriously.
"Well, a guy can always hope, right?" he said, the smile returning in full bloom.
"Right. I mean, what nice-looking guy like you wouldn't be on the look out for a middle-aged widow like me?" she said in a way that made him wonder if she was being self-self-deprecating or actually believed that.
He tilted the dolly back, smiled at her, then said, "Exactly. I know I'd hate it if I ever ran into someone as beautiful as you, Laura."
His comment surprised her to the point she didn't have a comeback, so she stood there watching him until he started pushing the dolly away.
