Mason was an awkward fresh-out-of-highschool kid. She'd always been shy and withdrawn and never really spoke to anyone. Little did she know that it was all going to change when a group of soldiers return home from the war in a small military town in...
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There is a small town up in the state of Alaska. Separated from the rest of the world it seemed, and riddled with forests. I sat on the horizontal branch of my favorite tree, deep in the woods. I had my headphones in and plugged into my phone as I scrolled through the repetitive social media that I unfortunately had with the friends from my high school. It was summer. I had just graduated and I was 18 years old. While all of my friends were out partying and enjoying "adulthood" I was here, in the woods, just blasting music in my solitude. I sighed and swung my legs around and hopped down off the branch. I stuck my phone in the back pocket of my skin tight jeans and started walking back to town. My flat black loafers crunched the dead leaves under my feet. When I finally got to the road where the trail ended, one of my friends ran up to me.
"Mason! There you are! Oh my gosh you have to see this!" Peter said jumping up and down, he was small and honestly kind of scrawny and awkward. He didn't have many friends, but I enjoyed his company from time to time. Peter grabbed my hand and started pulling me to the town's center.
"What? What Peter? What could possibly be so amazing that you have to drag me out of my quiet place?" I groaned. We stopped abruptly and Peter turned to me and grinned, pointing in the direction of a formation of Army men in uniform. There was a crowd of women and children all with tears in their eyes, waiting anxiously. The men were released and suddenly, most of them were running to each other and hugging and sobbing. That's when it occurred to me that these men had just returned home from the war. Peter was swaying back and forth in awe.
"Isn't it beautiful?" He said smiling. Peter was obsessed with all branches of the military. An obsession I never understood but was able to tune out when he droned on about the history of the Marines or whatever he had been studying that day.
"It is." I said and stared as a man dropped his ruck and a pretty young woman jumped into his arms.
"Soon, I'm going to be one of them." Peter dreamed out loud, and maybe it wouldn't be such a far off dream if he could ever decide what branch he wanted to join. I turned and looked at him.
"Come on, we shouldn't be invading in on this ceremony. Neither of us have any relation to the Army." I said and shoved my hands in my pockets and started to walk back in the direction of home. Peter stood there looking a little offended for a moment but soon turned and started walking with me.
"So, I think I probably will join the Army. Maybe for about four years and then I'll serve in a different branch." He said.
"Good luck. But I'm sure if you go now, they accept you right in and ship you off to the war." I said bluntly. It had been a bad year. There were a lot of military deaths because of bombings in Europe. Some terrorists decided they didn't want our military installations over there.
"A guy like me probably would not be fighting on the frontlines. I see myself as more of a military intelligence person." He said. I rolled my eyes. None of the soldiers were getting out of this one. It was getting worse by the day. I decided not to burst Peter's bubble. He kicked the sidewalk beneath us. I walked silently. "Hey Mason, are you okay?" He asked randomly.
