The Recruit: A Jack Noble Short Story (2 page)

“Noble, get the frig back
in bed,” Hardwood said. He was the old man in the group at age twenty-six. We
called him Pops. He’d been the only friend I’d made after eight weeks in this
hell hole.

“Going to the head, Pops”
I said.

“Hurry the hell up,
Noble.”

I walked toward the head,
turned to the right and stopped in front of the door leading outside. I put my
ear to the door. Heard nothing. Inside, the room remained still. Quiet. No one
was up, except for maybe Hardwood, but I had no reason to worry about him. I
grabbed the handle and turned it, slow and easy. Pulled the door open wide
enough to squeeze my body through. I shut the door, keeping the handle turned
until completely shut so the latch wouldn’t make any noise.

It had cooled off to a
sweltering and humid eighty degrees. The thick air created an instant layer of
sweat that covered my body. I looked up. The clouds had disappeared. A thin
sliver of the moon provided no light. To my right, artificial post lights lit
up the end of the barracks. I pressed my back to the wall and moved to the
left, where it was dark. Every few feet I stopped and listened. As I neared the
corner I heard voices. Too far away to make out, though.

I rounded the corner and
moved toward the back of the building. Stopped at the end of the wall.
Listened.

“I can’t believe you,
Logan,” Kaszlaski said. “Here we give you the chance to beat the shit out of
Noble, and you let him kick your ass.”

Bear said, “I didn’t
know—”

“Didn’t know you couldn’t
fight?” Kaszlaski said.

Bear said nothing.

“What are you, six foot
six?” Kaszlaski said. “I didn’t know they made pussies that big. Holy shit,
Logan.”

“I didn’t think he was
going to come back from that first hit the way he did,” Bear said. “Just give
me another chance to—”

I heard a slapping sound.
Peeked around the corner and saw Bear standing with his back to the building.
Kaszlaski stood in front of him, arm outstretched, inches from Bear’s face. The
big man stood there, mouth open, shoulders slumped. I didn’t know if he was
going to try to kill Kaszlaski for slapping him or cry about it.

“Don’t you ever touch me
again,” Bear said.

“Or what?” Kaszlaski
looked back at the other D.I.’s. They laughed. He twisted his body fast and
whipped an open hand across Bear’s face.

Bear’s head snapped back.
When it returned to its normal position he said, “I warned you not to do that.”

Kaszlaski squared up and
leaned in toward Bear, dwarfed by the massive man. “What are you gonna do about
it?”

Bear said nothing.

“That’s what I thought.”
Kaszlaski punched him in the stomach.

This time Bear reacted.
He stepped forward and brought both his arms up, driving them through the drill
instructor’s torso, lifting him off the ground. Bear tossed him at least six
feet through the air. Kaszlaski hit the ground with a thud.

The two other D.I.’s
lunged at Bear. They fought to restrain him, one on his back, the other at his
side. Kaszlaski got to his feet. Pulled something from his pocket. I squinted
and leaned in to get a better look. He moved toward Bear and swung his arm. The
object in his hand crashed against Bear’s head with a thud.

The big man’s knees gave
out a bit and he dropped a few inches. The two D.I.s held him up.

“Look at the big bad Bear
now,” Kaszlaski said. “Look at me, maggot.”

Bear lifted his head.

“The way this will go
down,” he swung the object again hitting Bear in the midsection, “is that your
platoon turned on you after your pussy showing this afternoon.”

The D.I.’s let go of
Bear. He fell to his knees. He kept his body straight and his head up.

“My suggestion,”
Kaszlaski paused and pointed at the other D.I.’s, “our suggestion, is that you
should be rolled back.”

Bear brought one leg up
and started to move the other.

Kaszlaski responded by
driving the object over Bear’s head again.

I stepped out from behind
the wall. “Enough.”

The three D.I.s turned to
face me. Bear’s head swung to the side. No one said anything.

“Leave him alone,
Kaszlaski,” I said.

“What the hell did you
just call me, Noble?”

“You heard me.”

Kaszlaski held his
position. The other two D.I.s started moving out to surround me. One slipped
past my peripheral vision and the other stopped at the edge of it.

“You don’t want to do
this,” I said, moving a few feet away from the wall.

“This is even better,”
Kaszlaski said, his face breaking into a smile. “You see, we found the two of
you,” he pointed at Bear and I, “outside fighting. You wouldn’t stop. So we had
to get involved, and once we did, you two started swinging at us. We had no
choice but to fight back.”

I said nothing. Didn’t
move.

“Yeah, now you’re not
getting rolled. You’re getting court marshaled.” He looked toward the other two
D.I.s. “Hit each other a couple times. Make it look like we got into it with
them.”

Bear quietly got to his
feet. Looked over at me. Nodded.

Kaszlaski must have
spotted my slight nod back. He swung his arm and caught Bear on the side of the
head. Followed it up with a blow of his fist.

The other D.I.s were busy
trading blows to make it look like we attacked them.

I decided to make my
move. I moved toward Kaszlaski. He squared up to face me, his arm drawn back,
waiting to swing at me with the weapon clutched tightly in his hand. I led with
my head and waited for him to bring his arm down. I ducked, slipped to the
side, and came up next to him. Delivered a blow to his back, just under his
ribs. His body twisted and he dropped his weapon. I grabbed the back of his
head and slammed my knee into his face.

Kaszlaski grunted and
went limp.

The other two D.I.s
stopped trading blows and ran over.

I glanced at Bear. He
struggled to get to his feet.

The D.I.s split up. One
headed toward Bear. I tried to land a blow on him, but the second D.I. tackled
me. We hit the ground hard with him ending up on my back. I felt my head and
neck pulled back as he wrapped his arm around me in a choke hold. I watched as
the other D.I. stood over Bear, kicking him in the chest and head. The big man
swayed on his knees.

I reached up and found
the face of my attacker, pressing my thumb into his eye. It didn’t take long
for his grip on my neck to loosen and I managed to swing him over my shoulder.
I scrambled to my feet and lunged at the man standing over Bear. My shoulder
connected with his midsection and I lifted him into the air and then slammed
him into the ground. A few feet away I spotted the weapon Kaszlaski had used on
Bear. A black, hard rubber sap, or blackjack as it is more commonly referred
to. I scooped it up and got to my feet, my back against the concrete wall of
the barracks.

Bear used the wall to get
to his feet. Blood ran down his face from an open wound on his forehead.

Kaszlaski and the other
two drill instructors grouped up.

We faced off like gunmen
at the OK Corral.

I looked over at Bear. He
turned and met my stare. A wicked smile crept across his face and he nodded.

Kaszlaski and the D.I. to
his left moved toward Bear. The other D.I. came toward me. I charged Kaszlaski
and swung the sap, hitting him in the abdomen. He dropped to the ground in a
ball. His buddies followed suit quickly. We stood over their limp bodies like
triumphant gladiators.

I turned to Bear. “You
OK?”

He nodded. “Sorry, Jack.
I misjudged you.”

I shrugged. Said nothing.

“You had nothing to gain
by helping me out here.” He held out his hand. “I got your back now.”

I shook his hand, nodded.
“We should get inside.” I started to toward the stretch of grass between the
barracks. “Got a feeling we’re going to be visited very soon.”

***

We cleaned up and sat on
Bear
’s rack, waiting in
silence for the MPs to arrive. It took longer than I expected, but once they
entered the barracks, it went exactly as I expected.

“Noble, Logan,” a voice
called from outside the barracks. “On your feet.”

We stood in the empty
space between the two long rows of racks where our platoon slept. The lights
flicked on. Groans erupted throughout the room. By this point in recruit
training, we were well aware of how long our seven hours of nightly sleep
lasted.

The MPs entered,
handcuffed us, and led us out of the barracks. We were marched across base.
Four in the morning and it was shaping up to be another scorcher. The air was
still and thick. My bound arms prevented me from wiping the sweat from my brow.
It ran down my face and burned the cuts and scrapes from the two fights. I
looked up at the sliver of moonlight light penetrating through silver clouds.

“Stop here, recruits,”
the lead MP said.

We stopped. I looked over
at Bear. He shook his head.

The MP walked out of
earshot with his handheld radio.

“What you think they’re
gonna do with us?” Bear asked.

I shrugged. “Promotion?”

Bear laughed. “Stop
messing around. We’re in deep shit, Jack.”

“Guess we’ll find out.” I
nodded toward the MP walking toward us.

“Let’s go, recruits.”

We continued and stopped
in front of the main administrative building. It looked dark and deserted from
the outside. The MP led us into the lobby. Another MP met us halfway, led us to
an interior set of doors and unlocked them.

“What’s back here?” Bear
said.

I shook my head. I had no
clue.

They led us through a
maze of halls. We stopped in front of a glass walled office. On the door was a
sign that said
Brig. Gen. Keller,
Parris Island’s Commanding Officer.

“Sit,” the MP said.

We sat on a bench, arms
cuffed behind us, and waited.

“We’re in deep shit,
Bear,” I said.

He laughed.

“Shut up, recruits,” the
MP said. The short bastard had the gumption to place his hand on his pistol as
he said it.

I sat back. Sighed.
Looked down the hall and at the office across from us, but there wasn’t much to
see.

Lights flickered on and
footsteps echoed through the hall.

Brig. Gen. Keller
appeared. He glanced at me, then Bear, then lifted his eyes up toward the MP.
“See them to my office.” He turned and walked past us.

“Get up,” the MP said.

We stood and he let us
into the office. He unlocked the handcuffs and removed them from our wrists.
“Sit.”

We did.

He waited in the doorway.

“That’ll be all,
Corporal.” The glass door shut and Brig. Gen. Keller took his seat across from
us.

It sounded like Bear had
stopped breathing. I looked over at him. Sweat covered his wide face, which had
turned red.

Keller looked down at the
papers on his desk, sighed, and looked up at us. “Recruits,” he snatched the
papers up and straightened them out by tapping them against the desk, “what the
hell happened tonight?”

I sat up straight. “Sir,
we—”

“Shut up, Noble,” he
said. “Am I to believe that the two of you got up in the middle of the night,
left your barracks, went behind the building and started fighting?”

We said nothing.

He stared at us for a
moment, then reached into this pocket and pulled out a pack of cigarettes.
“Smoke?”

We both nodded.

He lit three cigarettes,
handed one to each of us, then took a long draw on his. He exhaled and sipped
on his coffee. “Did either of you need coffee?”

Bear nodded.

“Yes, Sir,” I said.

“Corporal,” Keller said.

The MP opened the door.

“Get these two some
coffee.” He turned his attention back to us. “Kaszlaski’s a piece of shit.” He
paused. Pointed at us. “Don’t quote me on that. But he is. He blamed this whole
thing on you, Noble.”

“Sir, with all due
respect,” I said. “He’s a friggin liar.”

Keller shook his head. “I
know.” He leaned back in his chair. Took a long drag on his cigarette. “I
served with your father and uncle, Jack. Know what kind of men they were. Know the kind of
man your dad raised you to be.”

I nodded. Said nothing.

“The news of your uncle's death
hit me pretty hard,” Keller said.

“Me too, Sir.”

Keller smiled at me. “Was
excited when I saw your name on the recruit list. Been watching over you, so to
speak.”