On Sturdy Legs

Away From Home

The next morning I woke up at precisely five thirty as I always did. My body apparently hadn't gotten the message that I couldn't go for my morning run as I usually did. Instead, I took the time to relish in the anxiety that was quite foreign to me. Tarq took notice almost instantly and came to sit on my lap; he shoved his big nose in my face as if to ask what was wrong. I ran a hand over his back and scanned the remnants of my room; everything was sealed in boxes except my clothes for today and the sleeping bag I had been using after my bed was shipped. Allison tried to set me up on the couch, but I had been unable to sleep in the slightest, so it was back to my room for the remainder of my nights here.

My plane didn't leave until a little after noon. I had plenty of time to be nervous; however, that wasn't terribly productive. I made Tarq get off my lap and got dressed in a pair of cut off shorts that probably could be considered too short; I really didn't care since I was quite proud of the legs--I had spent so much time working on the, and besides, it was too hot anyway. Despite not going for a run, I put on a sports bra--I may not have had the same big boob problem as Allison but there were some issues in that department--under my team's cross country tank tops for our last season; it consisted of our school logo, name, a cartoon person running away from zombies, and said on the back I run better than the government and because this was a military base that the school was on, the shirt was army camouflage. I had to consider the possibility that my mom would find my shorts too short or tank too revealing since it didn't quite cover the straps of my bra; however, it was doubtful. If I didn't get in trouble with it on a military base then I was quite sure that no one in the state of bomb testing could possibly have a problem. Because it was logic, I matched my socks to my bra and laced on my shoes.

"Tarq, walk, walk," I called softly to him as not to wake up Allison any earlier than she wanted to be up and got his leash from the kitchen. We headed out the back door because it wasn't as loud as the front one was.

On a normal day, I would take off at a run and with Tarq easily keeping up and do circles around our residential side of the base until the sun was up. The probability was high that it would never happen again. I buried the sadness at that prospect and let go of the leash so Tarq could run in circles around me as I walked.

I only made it around my street's block of houses once before sunrise and had to apologize to Tarq for such a short walk when we let ourselves back in. By the sound of running water, Allison was clearly already in the shower; I had to wait my turn. That could take some time since Allison had a tendency to take forever as she sang through songs from various musicals from before I was born. The good NPR programs were typically on in the morning, and I turned on the kitchen radio and then got started on breakfast for us both.

Even though I wasn't running any more, I was still doing plenty of other work outs and didn't have to give up my usual diet of nearly my bodyweight in protein. Because we had gone grocery shopping more recently, I actually had all the ingredients required for our usual breakfast smoothies: two bananas, two cups of strawberries, two cups of almond milk, one cup of oats, two teaspoons of honey, and a big handful of ice cubes that went into the blender. Right as I turned it on, the shower shut off and Allison was out in a minute with her hair up in a towel and her body wrapped in her robe. Allison gave me the clear order to move it or lose it; as my last morning there, she would be the one to cook breakfast.

"Extra pepper," I told her with a smile, as if Allison needed to be reminded that I liked lots of pepper on my eggs.

Tarq stayed with her in the hopes that he would one day get a scrap of food and I got my towel from my room to take my own shower. My knee brace was waterproof, which meant that I did not need to plastic wrap it for showers. I did have to dig my special shampoo and conditioner out of the box I put it in due to not planning ahead and fetched my brush since brushing my hair in the shower made for less disastrous curls when my hair dried. The shower was fast to warm up as I stripped; Allison was always conscious not to use all the hot water--just most of it.