No Way

[GameChristopher]

 

 

No Way

C. J. Teuton

 

 

 

A few days ago, one of my very good friends left my life.

Keep the indicator between the lines. Speed limit on this road, forty-five.

June 1st is the beginning of hurricane season. Last year Hurricane Katrina formed over the Bahamas and was the sixth-strongest Atlantic hurricane in history. After crossing Florida, Katrina went into the Gulf of Mexico.

His name was Cody.

In the Gulf, Katrina grew stronger and stronger until it hit Southern Louisiana. Because of its size, Katrina was the costliest hurricane in history. It caused devastation along Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama, among other places.

Remember that song by Led Zeppelin? It happened, on Lake Pontchartrain in New Orleans. Eighty percent of the city was flooded, along with nearby parishes.

The rebuilding has already started in New Orleans.

Just today, two CBS News reporters were killed during a wave of car bombs and shootings in Iraq.

Cody's family lived in Mississippi before Katrina.

Eight car bombs exploded in the capital of Iraq today. Paul Douglas, a cameraman, was killed. A soundman, James Brolan, was killed.

The CBS crew was patrolling with the 4th Brigade Combat Team. The 4th Infantry Division. Six more American soldiers were injured. An Iraqi interpreter was killed. His name has not yet been released.

The day Cody left, an unnamed US Marine was killed "due to enemy action" in the Anbar province, Iraq.

Since the war started, there have been 2,464 deaths.

The day after Cody left, I was driving my truck past his house. My breath smelled like cigarettes and my clothes smelled like my job. I had bags under my eyes because the night before I had drank three too many beers. The day after he left, I saw the new tenants already moving into his house.

Hurricane Katrina destroyed almost everything it touched. It killed 1,836 people and cost over $75 million in damages. And yet not even a year later, Cody's family is moving back.

One in every ten soldiers that were sent to the American-European hospital from Iraq, they were sent there for mental health problems. Ten percent of 12,000 soldiers from the Iraqi war, treated at the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, had "psychiatric or behavioral health issues," according to Col. Rhonda Comum, the hospital's commander.

More than one thousand soldiers were evacuated for mental problems.

And yet, still more and more people are joining the military. They know the risks. They know the gamble. They want to feel alive.

Maybe this is why Cody's family is moving back right before hurricane season starts. They ran the first time. This is redemption.

Or maybe they just have balls.