Cowboy Casanova

2

The academy was tough. It was endless days of torture. Half of us were expected to leave before we graduated our plebe year. They used whatever means to mess us up, fair or unfair. They wanted to expose every single one of our weaknesses and use them against us. I imagined it was to make us better, stronger. By the end of the first day 2 people in our group had already quit. The first time that Bradley and I were separated was when we had to go to our barracks that afternoon. "This is where you live, children! This is Poopie-ville! Girl Poopies to the left, boy Poopies to the right!" I smiled at Bradley before we went to our rooms, the only other girls in the same room as me. The names on the door were Collins, Daniels, and Mitchell.

"I'm Jada Daniels." One of the girls introduced herself as she unpacked her bag. She was taller than me with short red hair. She kind of reminded me of Ginger Spice, but I didn't say anything.

"Kelly Collins." The blonde girl around my height introduced, smiling at the two of us. She had taken the top bunk, making sure that everything was in order with the regulations.

"Nicole Mitchell. Nice to meet you all." In my locker, I tape a picture of my mom, a picture of me with my dad, and a picture of me with Bradley. My family. I stow the rest of my gear in the locker before I see Jada place a photo of a baby in her locker. "Is that yours?" I ask her. She smiles at the photo.

"Yeah, my son. He just turned 4. I'm doing this for him." She turns back and looks at me and Kelly. "What about you two?"

"Navy brat." I answered, shrugging. I had grown used to the nickname over the years of being called that.

"I'm a service brat, same as you. Mom was in the Navy, dad was in the Marines." She showed us a picture of her dad. "He died a few years back." We didn't press her for details and she didn't give them.

"Fall out!" Heathcliff yells, getting everyone's attention. "Fall out!" We rushed out of our rooms, freshly changed into our uniforms, running out of the building to where we were supposed to line up. I don't see Heathcliff but he walks up from behind us. "Hit the deck and give me fifty push ups." He orders all of us. "On the double." We all drop to the ground and start doing pushups. We're only about twenty pushups in when one of the men next to me starts to fade. Heathcliff looks down at him, shaking his head. "Looks like you need a little work on your upper body strength, Jones." He puts his foot on his back, getting him to work harder. "You'll thank me one day, plebe."

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We were taken to a large room with an indoor pool, somewhere on base. We see a mechanism called the Dilbert Dunker, which shoots at a high speed down a steep incline inside a cage-like contraption, painted red. The first one up is Kelly. I pat her back as she puts on the helmet and is put into the dunker. "Heads up, Collins. When you hit the eater, you might get the wind knocked out of you. Don't panic." He instructs as the dunker is pulled back up to the top of the conveyor belt. "You've got a second and a half before the cage is completely underwater and it flips upside down." Kelly nods, giving Heathcliff a thumbs up. "Go, Joe." Heathcliff orders and the dunker rushes down the belt, flipping upside down as soon as it hits the water. We wait in anticipation as Heathcliff talks. "The most important thing is to watch your bubbles. When that catch flips upside down, you're going to be disoriented, you're not going to know where your bearings are... like Collins down there." She still hadn't surfaced and even though it was an exercise... well, people have been known to die in exercises. "The bubbles will determine which way is up."

"Holy shit." Bradley mumbles under his breath.

"Alright. Time's up. Go down for her, Jason." A man in a scuba suit jumps off the edge of the pool to grab Kelly. "This is what happens if you panic. You can die down there, children, and this is only a swimming pool. Out there in the Pacific, you won't have a frogman to save your ass." Jason brings Kelly to the surface, and she coughs up water, sending everyone a thumbs up that she's ok. "Totally unsatisfactory, Collins. Back of the line. Do it again. You only have two more chances to make it or you're out." I could see the panic in Kelly's eyes as she got out of the pool and took off the helmet. Heathcliff looks around and his eyes land on me. "Mitchell, since you're our hot-shot of the week, you're next." Bradley pats my back and I send him a smile.

"Aye aye, sir." I take the helmet from Kelly and strap it on, getting in the dunker. They put a backpack on my back, much like one that I would have when, not if, I get into the Navy. As soon as I am strapped in, I am suddenly shooting at high speed down a steep incline. Wham! I hit the water at neck-wrenching speed and go under a swirl of bubbles. The goddamn cage is turning somersaults! I wait for the turning to stop, study the direction of the bubbles, before unfastening my harness and pulling myself out of the dunker. When I reach the surface, I see Heathcliff give me a thumbs up and I grin. I look over at Bradley and shrug as I hand the helmet to the next person in line. "Think they'll let us do that again?" Bradley gives me a look. "What? It was fun! I can't help it if I'm awesome." I whisper to him.

"You never know in this program what's going to trip you up. It could be the grades or some flaw in your character that comes out under stress. If you're anything like your father, it'll be your arrogance." I smirk. Probably.

"Does this thing hit with the same impact as an actual plane?" Bradley asks Heathcliff.

"This is nothing compared to a plane."

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"Bernoulli's equation gives us the total energy contained in the air flow." I sat next to Bradley in the class, staring at the chalkboard. I felt like I had been transported back to before whiteboards were invented and it was the worst. I hated that squeaky sound of the chalk writing on the board. "P is static pressure in pounds per square foot. Rho is air density in slugs per cubic foot. And velocity is in feet per second." I tried not to let my boredom get to me as I drew something silly on the corner of my notepad. "Two thousand pounds per square foot for your static pressure. An air density of one, which is sea level. A velocity of 100 knots. Solve the total amount of energy in the air flow." Bradley had gone to college in Virginia and studied poly sci, so every once in a while, he would glance over at my work and see how he was doing compared to me. This felt familiar to me, I knew that right now I wasn't the best, not by far because I struggle with math, but I grew up hearing about all of this, learning and understanding all of this. I just wanted to get my hands on a plane. But that wasn't even allowed until flight school.

Which was years away.

We had to graduate first.