Chapter 30

Chapter 30

The day had arrived when they had to say goodbye.

Julia was putting it off as much as possible, trying not to think about it.

She occupied herself as much as possible. When she first heard the news, she packed and re-packed her pack, as the first tendrils of anticipation gripped her body. She was anxious to get home after such a volatile time.

With so little time left of their tour, the Commander had scratched off all their names from patrol duties. It was great news and they had a weekend to themselves when they realised what the catch was to their no-patrol-holiday.

They had to help pack up the base and begin to shift the controls over to the AA; Afghan Army.

Julia was happy at first but it soon reminded her of Kazeem, getting patched up in a bombed hospital a few kliks away.

The injustice made her angry so she had been transferred from AA to inventory. She was counting the ammunition they had left, tallying it up with their expenditures.

At first she felt anxious, eager, to go home but as she got to know the children more she felt guilty.

She got to go home, which she was only mildly excited about, to a peaceful country where no one was bombing each other, but they didn’t.

Those who had parents still alive had been tracked down to a refugee camp near the border and were being returned to their family; a happy ending, at least as happy as they could get in a refugee camp.

However, those without a family were going to an orphanage.

The commander assured Julia it wasn’t in the capital but there was something in the way he said it that meant the place they were going to wasn’t much better.

Safia clung to Jules’s side; she was one of the girl’s going to the orphanage. The translator informed Julia that her parents had been shot for assisting the British Army. Julia hugged her close and they had been inseparable ever since.

Julia’s woman quarters were empty apart from her so she invited the girls into her tent until it was time for them to leave. Safia slept in the bunk beside Julia, often waking up in distress from another nightmare.

Jules got the sense that she had witnessed her parent’s death but she did not press the matter. She simply cradled Safia in her arms until she fell back asleep.

But soon those midnight hugs were going to vanish and Julia couldn’t bear to think about who would hug Safia when she woke up crying.

An idea was forming in Julia’s mind but it still had to come to fruition.

Carlos and Twitch also helped to distract her of the impending doom with their constant nonsensical arguments that seemed more hilarious to everybody else than themselves who took it completely seriously.

And Marc- Marc was brilliant. He did not complain that when he came to be with her, there was a small girl tucked tightly against her leg, refusing to budge.

She had been spending the last few days before their departure teaching Safia, and a few of the others, how to read and write.

Jules stole a wad of paper from command when no one was looking and pens from Carlos’s stash – the man seemed obsessed with every colour and style of pen under the sun; fountain, ink, ballpoint, marker. The list was never ending.

Jules did not realise how many types of pen there were until Carlos roped her into a conversation about them. That was thirty minutes of her life that she was never getting back.

And their sudden disappearance gave everyone a scene like something from a comedy when Carlos accused Twitch of stealing them and proceeded to douse him in buckets of water until he confessed.

Twitch, funnily enough, still protests his innocence to this day. It was something he and Carlos agreed to disagree on when the Commander had to get involved.

Marc, of course, had seen her execute the entire thing but he was too much of a gentleman to tell Carlos.

Julia didn’t know why. If it had been the other way around, Julia would have told Carlos immediately.

Maybe that was her own wish to see Marcus in a wet t-shirt though.

“Julia?” Marc called from across the compound, the sound of a truck hammering along the dirt road towards the base. It would be here in a minute.

“Jules?” Marc left the crowd of children and jogged across to her.

Jules spotted Safia in the crowd, her arm jutted out of the sea of heads, waving at her wildly.

Julia waved back just as Marc reached her, “What are you doing? Safia’s leaving in a minute, where are you going?”

“I’ve got to grab something,” Jules touched Marc’s arm, “Stall for me.”

“Stall?” Marc frowned but Julia had already turned, leaving him in the dust.

Jules didn’t have time to explain as she turned and sprinted across the base, muttering under her breath about incompetent traders and the disadvantages of trading through the black market.

“Where are you?” Julia searched the mess, the hospital and all the tents she could think of, her fingers growing twitchy as she heard the gates open in the distance, “Oh, where are you, you unreliant, selfish man?”

Jules had no better words at the moment, she was too busy trying to find the man she had made the deal with.

She had just left the building where they stored the ammunition when she heard voices coming from behind the bricked, half-bombed structure.

Narrowing her eyes, Julia stalked around the back, “Hustler? Hustler!”

Unsurprisingly, Hustler was slouched against the wall with a cigarette hanging from between his fingers.

He quickly threw it to the ground and stomped it into the sand when he saw her, “Boss.”

James Moore, more commonly known as ‘Hustler’ because he’s always hustling something, was an attracting man.

His skin was permanently tanned and his hair, the colour of white sand, was long and straight. A khaki scarf was wrapped around his neck and cerulean blue eyes shone out from beneath blonde eyebrows that sculpted his face perfectly.

Julia was convinced his plucked them but Hustler would never admit it.

Julia levelled his two companions with a cold stare, “Leave.”

They knew what was good for them and left.

“See you later, Hust!”

“Yeah, bye, Hussla.”

Julia turned and smiled at Hustler, “I’ll ignore the fact that you’re smoking right next to live ammunition,”

Hustler stood straighter.

“If you give me what we agreed on,” Julia narrowed her eyes.

“About that-” Hustler raised a finger, holding her off.

Julia looked back towards the gate, she could hear the children as they began to be loaded onto the truck.

“I don’t have time for games, James,” Jules tried to ignore that the sentence rhymed and upped her evil glare, “Give me what I asked for.”

“Alright, relax, geez,” Hustler coughed, whether from the dry air of the smoking, it was a toss up, “I’ve got it here for you.”

Julia rolled her eyes, “You’re late!”

“It took longer than I anticipated, it came in this morning,” Hustler reached into his sack that lay limp by his side, propped up against the wall.

“This morning!?” Julia shook her head, “Whatever, just give it to me. I need it.”

Hustler’s hand re-emerged from the bag, clutched around a brown bag, “I don’t know what you want it for anyway. I always took you for a knife-under-the-pillow kind of gal,”

Julia shot Hustler a look as she opened the bag and reached inside. Her fingers touched something soft and a smile came to her lips.

Pulling the object from the bag, Jules lost her smile and gained a frown when she saw the condition of the teddy bear.

It looked a few years old, its coat was less than shiny and it was missing an eye. It’s leg had been stitched up and it’s poor ear was bent.

Julia looked at Hustler but he simply shrugged, “What can I say the Taliban must have thought it was a threat.”

“Thanks,” Jules shoved the paper bag back into his chest and took off running back towards the gate, teddy bear in hand.

She had traded her chocolate and coffee for this.

Jules could feel the sweat breaking out on her back as her boots hit the ground with thumps, her arm waving wildly as she tried to delay the truck.

Marcus was talking with the driver when he spotted Julia. All the children had been placed in the trucks.

“Here she is!” Marcus thanked the driver before he turned to her, “You have two minutes.”

Julia nodded and jumped up into the truck, “Safia?”

“Julia!” Safia leapt up from the bench, her small face erupting into a big smile. It said that she didn’t think she was going to see Julia again.

Kneeling in front of her, Julia held up the teddy bear for her, “This,” Julia pointed to the bear, “Is for you,” Julia pointed to Safia.

Safia’s face beamed with love as she cradled the bear against her chest, “He’ll protect you.”

Julia wiped the sweat from her forehead.

A knock sounded on the truck, telling her to hurry up.

“Oh, here,” Julia nearly forgot. Digging into her trouser pocket, Julia removed a small bag that contained a wad of paper and a few pens, to Carlos’s dismay.

Safia stared at it in wonder and it hit Julia how such a little thing could make her happy.

“And here,” Julia handed her a folded piece of paper.

Safia stared at it in confusion.

“My address,” Julia pointed to herself, “And paper. So you can write me.”

Safia nodded, slipping the folded paper into the bag and holding it tight before she looked at Julia.

Her eyes were wide, like saucers, and sparkling with unshed tears as she said two words in almost-perfect English, “Thak you.”

Thank you.

Julia grinned, “You are welcome,” She replied in broken Farsi.

Safia and Julia shared one final hug, her small arms curling around Julia’s neck.

An angry voice shouted at Julia to get out of the truck, it was her commander.

Pulling back, Julia touched Safia’s nose with her finger making the young girl giggle.

“Go on, sit down,” Julia guided her back to the seat, “Take care, Safia.”

With a final last look, Julia turned and jumped down from the truck.

Jules saw the look on Commander Strong’s face as she turned and watched the truck rumble to life.

“The truck is guarded and shall take them to the airstrip. They’ll be flown to the refugee camp and the others will get taken to the orphanage.” Commander Strong informed Julia.

Jules nodded, trying to appear professional, when she saw Safia run to the back of the truck and wave goodbye.

Julia returned it vigorously and she watched her face grow smaller until it was nothing more than a blip on the horizon.

“A military base is not the place for children. They’ll be okay, Sergeant.” Strong sensed her connection to the young girl, before he turned and headed back into the base.

Jules nodded, waited for the trucks to disappear, waited a bit longer and then headed back inside the base with Marc by her side.