Escaping Boredom

Nine

Sid and Franky waited in line for the medic’s tent for a long hour. The recruits went into the tent in groups of fifteen and were out within ten minutes.

“Next group!” a nurse called from inside the tent, sticking his head out.

Sid, Franky and eight other young men stepped forward into the white tent with a plethora of emotions blending in the air.  The stood in a straight line with their hands folded behind their backs.

One by one, the doctor went down the line and checked the boy’s hearts, lungs and overall physical abilities.  He had them bend their joints and stretch out their arms. They were told to touch their toes, take deep breaths as every part of their body was inspected for imperfections.

Next, the doctor asked down the line about medical history in the family. “Did you parents have anything?” he asked Franky, ready to write down every word.

“I don’t know, Sir,” Franky responded.

The doctor looked up from his clipboard with a curious appearance. “Explain!” he demanded.

“Me parents died when I were a baby. I has been livin’ on me own since then.” Franky wasn’t ashamed that he never knew who his parents were or anything about that. That was just a part of who he was.

The doctor arched his eyebrows, but without saying another word jotted something down in his notes about Franky. This was not the first time he heard of children not knowing about their parents and being orphaned at a young age, and he doubted that it would be the last time.  

Taking a step towards Sid, he asked the same question. Sid answered him with, “Mum died of Terbiclousious and Dad...donno, bet he’s still alive just donno where.”

“Sorry, your mum died of what?” The doctor had stopped writing anything down and looked up at Sid with confusion, trying to comprehend what he had just heard. “Do you mean Tuberculosis?”

“Yeah, sure.” Sid waved the question away with his hand, trying to hide the fact that he had no real clue about the disease that killed his mother other than it started with a ‘T’ and sounded like what came out of the doctor’s mouth.

The doctor took a long deep breath in and let it out slowly. “Sorry for your loss,” he said tightly.

“Thank you, Sir.”

After Sid and Franky made it through the doctor’s inspection, they were handed a document, congratulating them on now being an official part of the United States Army.

“Jeez, can you believe this?” Sid asked waving his document. His smile stretched

Franky responded dryly with; “Yeah, real exciting.” He tried to conceal the distress from his voice by keeping a smile on his chapped lips.  He stared at his document, that rattled in his shaking hands. “It says to report to Fort Hamilton on November 21st, 1901 for trainin’,” read Franky from his sheet.

“That in...”Sid thought, “nine days.” He counted the days out on his fingers.  

Franky shifted his head away from Sid, eager to hide his true emotions about putting his name in the lottery. Under Franky’s breath, he muttered, “Get ready to die.”

***

“Look at us, boys; we’re the real American dream!” Sid boasts to Pat and Bobby, stuffing the document that confirmed his admission into the army.

“Wow...”Pat muttered in awe, grabbing the document and examining it closely.

Bobby looked over Pat’s shoulder and scoffed. “When you dies, can I have your coat?”

Franky, who was watching the whole interaction, took deep breaths trying to calm himself down in front of fearless Sid. The more he thought about what he had just done, the worse he felt. The worse he felt, the more he wanted to vomit. The more he wanted to vomit, the more he regretted his actions.