Deployment, Day 1 – The Things He Carried
We carried his things to the airport in a caravan. One digital camera. Several books. One iPod with headphones. One Hp laptop. One case containing movies and games. One gaming console. Three pair of boots. Several uniforms. Underwear. T-shirts. Khaki shorts. Pantene 2 in 1 shampoo. Act Restoring Mouth Wash. Toothbrush. Toothpaste. Immodium and Motrin. Peroxide. A comb. Bars of soap. Roughly 50lbs of body armor. A black plastic case the size of a small kayak, filled with foam and the smell of sleek oiled metal. One recent school picture of our son. Sunglasses. One coin given to him by a military official who told him to wear it as if it were a shield.
Two police officers, to search through the weapon case. One woman in the straight navy blue dress of her airline and shining black shoes. Four fat army green bags. Two members of TSA.
One eleven year-old boy, awkward in his age and body, standing there grinning like an idiot because he did not know what else to do.
One woman wearing a brave, smiling face that I saw disappear as the escalator took her away from her husband’s departure gate.
I followed her not long after, slouching under the weight of the 365 days I carried.
**
Blog Title and this post inspired by Tim O’Brien’s “The Things They Carried” – an excellent example of the use of concrete detail in a story.
Tags: books, deployment, details, O'Brien, war, writing
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