Catfish Air, Chapter 1. · The Wordsmiths’ Guild

Shawn Helgerson

20d • General discussion

Catfish Air, Chapter 1.

After I finished my last non-fiction book, I promised myself I'd focus on fiction. And I did.

I spent a lot of time developing the outline, working on worldbuilding, character development, and story arcs.

Let me know what you think.

Chapter One.

Balad Air Base, Iraq

Technical Sergeant Virgil R. Mason set his coffee cup down next to his Rubik’s cube and wiggled his computer mouse to wake his computer. The large, black mirror glowed to life. His desk was cluttered with papers in loose piles. The office he shared with Master Sergeant Edmund Erwin was in an old Iraqi military building. There was no way to know why the Iraqis built, or what it was used for. But it was ideall for this small Air Force detachment.

“Don’t forget we have the assignment brief at zero-nine,” said Master Sergeant Erwin. “I think she’s sending us to FOB Colfax this week. I heard her mention it to Captain Carlisle the other day.”

Virgil’s computer came fully to life and he double-clicked the Outlook icon. He remembered years before they used to say that if you wanted to beat the air force, all you’d need to do is shut down the phone system. These days it was Outlook.

“And if you want to do the half-marathon, let me know,” said Sergeant Erwin. “I haven’t done any distance like that in ages and I could use the running buddy.”

Virgil nodded and grunted quietly, slowly sipping his coffee. This morning he was having Starbucks’ Veranda – the one with the little hummingbird on the bag. Previous teams who had been through this office set up a collection point for coffee from care packages. If he had to guess, there was maybe seventy or eighty pounds of coffee – mostly Starbucks. His favorite was the Veranda, and he was running low. There was plenty of the Pike’s Place and whatever other dark or medium roast coffees they made – some bags of whole bean and some ground. One thing that hadn’t come in a care package yet was a grinder, so the bags of ground coffee, especially Veranda, were under his personal protection.

His Outlook dinged the reminder for the zero-nine hundred meeting. His inbox scrolled full of blue, unread messages: heat advisories, USO movie announcements, reminders to hydrate and get electrolytes and avoid too much caffeine, and dogs were not to be kept as pets, and there was an upcoming bench press competition, and the Technical Sergeant promotion list.

“Did you look at the Tech promotion list yet?” he asked Erwin.

“I did. I don’t know anyone on the list. Do you?”

Virgil scrolled through. A few names seemed familiar until he got to Staff Sergeant Gabriella Cummins. “Woah,” Virgil said. “Cummins made it.”

“Yeah?” said Erwin. “How do you know her?”

“I was in Korea with her. She was a Senior Airman then – had just sewn it on. She had some crazy stuff going on at home – I never really knew what – and she would get wasted every weekend. Seriously wasted.”

“That’s how it goes in Korea,” Erwin said.

“For a few months there,” Virgil said, “Every Friday night, me and Staff Sergeant Cribbs would walk her home from the clubs. I hate clubs, but wanted to make sure she got back safe. Everyone else on the team usually got blasted, too. Me and Cribbs were the only ones usually sober. The guys over there – they swarmed like deer flies out for blood on Friday nights when the females were drunk.”

“Was she a good Airman?”

“Yeah. One of the best. She was one of those Airmen, you know, that make the job look easier than it feels.”

Virgil remembered the night Cummins grabbed his shirt and kissed him after he’d gotten her back to her room. “You always look out of me,” she said with her Bacardi accent and breath. “My husband’s an ass hole. He doesn’t look out for me. Kiss me!” Thankfully, Cribbs had been there as a witness and they got her into bed, standing by the door until she was asleep. But Virgil kept this memory to himself. He couldn’t remember if he’d met Melissa already by then. He knew he’d met her on his mid-tour trip home, but didn’t remember if Cummins’ drinking was before or after that.

“Woah!” Erwin said. “Virgil, look at this!” He turned his monitor to share.

Virgil squinted and looked closely. The image was mostly black with lines and blotches of gray. Some of the blotches looked like little fingers, and one looked like a profile of a person with a huge head. “Is that what I think it is?”

“It’s Rebecca’s first ultrasound. It’s still too early to tell if it’s a boy or a girl. I think they can find out next month.”

“What are you guys hoping for?”

“We already have three boys and two girls, so a girl would even things up.”

“I don’t know how you do it, man,” Virgil said.

“After the second one it gets easier. My mother said that if you do a good job raising the first one, the rest of them take care of themselves.”

“Is that true?”

“It seems to be so far,” Erwin said. “Jennifer is almost eleven and I’m not sure Rebecca could do it all without her.”

“Is your mom still going to stay with them?”

“She is,” Erwin said. “She had to take care of a few things at home, but she should be there by next week. It’s good they get along. Shoot, sometimes I think Rebecca married me because she liked my mom so much.”

“I can see that,” Virgil said. “You are kind of an asshole.”

“Only with you, and only when I need to be,” Erwin said, smiling.

“Agree to disagree,” Virgil said.

Captain Carmichael came in, shaking a plastic jar with a protein shake. His pecs stretched the buttons of his blouse. “Don’t forget the zero-nine, guys,” he said.

“Is she in there yet?” Erwin asked.

“Not yet,” he said. “She had a meeting at the Group this morning. It’s kind of bullshit. Colonel Usher has nothing to do with us, but she kisses his ass anyway.”

“He’s a Colonel,” Erwin said. “What choice does she have?”

“She could tell him to get fucked,” Carmichael said.

“That’d be a great strategic move in case we need anything from the Group,” Virgil said.

“That’s what I’d do,” Carmichael said.

“Sure,” said Erwin. “I’ll look you up when you’re a Lieutenant Colonel and see how many full bird colonels you’ve told to get bent.”

“I’m hoping it’ll be all of’em,” the Captain said. “Make sure you bring those maps. You said you’ve got FOBs Jordan and Emerald done, right?”

“They're both done,” Virgil said, tapping a long roll of paper on his desk. “I plotted them last night.”

“Cool,” said the Captain, still rattling his protein shake. He glanced at Erwin’s monitor. “What the fuck is that?” he said.

“That…is my child,” said Erwin.

“Jesus. How far along is she?”

“How long have we been here? Two months? So, probably three. I found out when we were still at Combat Skills Training. I thought I told you.”

“You might have,” said Carmichael.

Virgil said, “You don’t remember that? It was all anyone could talk about for almost a week. Everybody was like, ‘Can you believe what happened to Sergeant Erwin?’, ‘At least he knows it’s his’, ‘That sucks he going to miss the pregnancy’, ‘He ain’t missin’ much – my wife was a raging bitch the whole time’. You don’t remember any of that?”

“Probably blocked it out. I had to get all your clowns through CST – one of us had to be paying attention to the mission.”

“He did have a lot of meetings, Virgil,” Erwin said.

Virgil shrugged.

“Speaking of meetings, we gotta go,” Carmichael said.

Erwin said, “Virgil, I want you coming with today. This isn’t just the regular weekly huddle. She’s giving our next mission brief.”

In the conference room, Master Sergeant Reynolds was already at the table. Erwin sat in the seat next to the head of the table, and Virgil sat at the far end. Second Lieutenant Wainwright sat at a side table, operating the laptop. The projector already displayed the day’s slides.

“Room, ten-hut!” someone said as Lieutenant Colonel Worthington entered. Everyone stood.

“Take your seats,” she said. “I’d like to make this quick this morning.” She set a large, green, metal travel mug on the table with a clank, and put on her reading glasses. She opened her large notebook to a marked page and ran her finger over her notes. Her hair was pulled back in a tight bun and her uniform looked fresh and clean.

Captain Carmichael came through the conference room door carrying his protein shake. Lieutenant Colonel Worthington looked up from her notebook.

"Thanks for joining us, Captain."

"Sorry, ma'am," Carmichael said. He walked behind Erwin's chair and quietly handed him his Common Access Card. "You left this in your computer."

Erwin looked down at it, sighed, and slipped it into his pocket.

Worthington waited until Carmichael sat down.

“OK,” she said. “Any alibies before we begin? No? Last minute thoughts? No? Alright. Lieutenant Wainwright, the floor is yours.”

Wainwright grabbed the remote, and stood, “Good morning, ma’am. Everyone.” His voice cracked a little. “We’ll start with the weather forecast,” he said.

“Lieutenant,” Worthington said, “Don’t tell me where we’re going to start. Just start. You’re briefing the group commander in two weeks. I need you to be better at this. Relax. It’s just us. You’re good at this.”

“Yes, ma’am,” he said, and started his presentation.

When he finished, Worthington said, “Thank you, Lieutenant. See what happens when you relax? Everything was smooth. Keep practicing that and you’ll impress Colonel Usher. Otherwise it looks like we’re in good shape. We got the new water bladders installed at FOB Jefferson. Nice work Master Sergeant Reynolds. I know supervising these projects is outside your lane, but I appreciate your dedication. It looks like we’re on track to finish installing the perimeter around FOB Applebee’s…honestly, who comes up with these names? Now, this week, we have a task at FOB Colfax. The Army has expanded their mission up there, and they need a larger sewerage treatment facility which means they’re putting in evaporation ponds. Major O'Connor has already worked with his joint commander up there to secure the field to the north of the FOB where we’re putting the field. Master Sergeant Reynolds, I need your EOD team to sweep that field for UXOs. It needs to be done this week. As soon as you're done, I’m sending Sergeants Mason and Erwin up to survey so the engineers can design the field. Can you make that happen?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Reynolds said. “I have Staff Sergeant Williams and Senior Airman Harkness standing by to help the Army with IEDs, and they don’t have any convoys this week. That should be pretty low friction.”

“Thank you, Sergeant Reynolds,” she said. “And Sergeants Erwin and Mason – I need you to be ready to head up to Colfax in seventy-two hours. Sorry, let me clarify. I want you on a plane and heading to Colfax within seventy-two hours. As soon as Reynolds’ guys are done, I need you to start surveying that field. I want five-foot elevations for a topographic map. I’ve seen photos of the site and it looks pretty flat, but there’s a ravine going through the middle. The engineers will need that for planning.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Erwin and Virgil both said.

“Once you get up there,” she continued, “Major O’Connor may have some other surveying and drafting tasks for you, but please do not work on those until this survey is complete.”

Erwin wrote something in his notebook and said, “Trackin’.”

“Good. Any last chances?” she said. “Good. Dismissed,” and she stood. The rest of the room stood, too. “Carry on,” she said, and walked briskly out.

Captain Carmichael was right behind her.

Virgil stood and stretched. "Do you think we can get a flight that soon?" he asked Erwin.

"I think so,” Erwin said. “My question is if Reynolds gets that field cleared in time. I don’t want to be stuck up there. Their gym sucks and their DFAC is crap."

“You’re thinking of FOB Jefferson,” Reynolds said as he left the room. “They have the shitty DFAC. Colfax is still on MREs.”

“Even worse,” Erwin said, tucking his notebook under his arm. “Let’s head to Catfish Air and book a flight. Maybe Cassandra'll be there," he smiled and shoved Virgil’s shoulder.

Virgil shrugged.

"C’mon man, she’s into you. She’ll hook us up."

“I’m married,” Virgil said.

“I know. I’m not asking you to leave your wife. I’m asking you to sweet talk the lady who books flights.”

The two of them walked back into the survey office.

Captain Carmichael was standing on Erwin's chair with a strip of masking tape between his teeth and pressing a giant print of the ultrasound on the wall.

"What're you doing?" Erwin asked.

Carmichael finished pressing the tape to the wall and stepped down.

"You left your CAC in your computer," he said. "I couldn't resist."

Erwin looked up.

Someone else had already cut out a little Air Force hat and taped it to the baby’s head and a paper cutout of a lit cigarette by the baby’s hand.

"What the hell?" he said, laughing. “When did you guys do this? I just got that this morning.”

“Me and Lt, we don’t fuck around when the shit’s this good. Figured everybody oughta meet the newest member of the Erwin family."

Virgil looked up at the oversized print.

"That's a big waste of plotter ink."

"Oh, relax," Carmichael said.

The plotter behind them made another loud chunk.

Everyone turned.