Carla
She sank into the bed with exaggerated deliberateness to her every move.
Looking at the smooth ceiling, her mind began to wander as she contemplated her course of action. The cellphone in her hand glowed with the number pad, just waiting for her to dial the number to Fort Stark.
Colonel Mara had arranged it all. She knew that much. Major Von Kemp wouldn’t have her discharged this quickly unless the colonel had told him to do so.
Her chest rose and fell slowly with deep breaths as she fought to reassert control, both to ease her anger, and to prevent her from having a breakdown. They had just ripped her family away from her without giving Carla a choice, let alone a personal notice that she was being discharged. Instead they’d just had it mailed and couldn’t even have the courtesy to get the address right, so it was days and days after she should have gotten it that it finally made its way to her.
They probably thought she was okay with the decision, since she hadn’t protested it until now. Her fingers moved across the digital buttons, until she finally hit the green phone symbol.
It began to ring.
“Colonel Mara,” she said tightly when it connected her to the base communications center. After reciting who it was, she was transferred.
“Hello Ms. Giannone.”
“Corporal Giannone,” she growled. “Hello, Colonel. As you’re maybe aware, I just finally received your package.”
“My package?”
“Don’t play fucking games with me. You went to the major and had him discharge me. I’m not stupid.”
There was a short pause. “Yes, I did. What of it?”
“What is the meaning of it?”
“You’re not in the military anymore.”
“Like hell I’m not. I’m going back to my unit. Get it figured out.”
“No, Carla, you are with Thorne now,” Colonel Mara said emphatically.
“Listen to me, Colonel, and listen good. Thorne is great. Amazing, really, other than getting me into this situation in the first place. But if you think I’m going to abandon my unit and my job for him, then you’re wrong. Dead wrong. I’m coming back. If you want us to be together oh so badly, then assign him to Fort Banner with me. That way we can be together.”
Colonel Mara sighed. “Look—”
Carla ground her teeth together, interrupting the colonel. “No, you look here you—”
“That’s enough, Corporal.”
The icy tone of Colonel Mara’s voice warned her to stay quiet.
“I’m aware you do not like the decision. However, the decision has absolutely nothing to do with any sort of personal vendetta against you. There are larger, more important reasons behind everything that I do. Reasons that you may not be aware of yet, but they are there.”
Carla seethed in silence, wanting nothing more than to reach through the phone and throttle the upstart little colonel.
“Maybe these reasons will come clear to you one day. Maybe they won’t. I do apologize for the inconvenience it is causing you, but if I had to make the decision again a hundred times, I would do it the same. Trust me or not, Carla, but I do not enjoy doing this. I’m not proud of myself for being the bad guy here, but I have a job to do, and I’m doing it the best way I see fit. One little girl’s desire to fire guns does not outweigh the potential future of the planet. Am I understood?”
Clenching and unclenching her fist she stayed lying on the bed, staring up at the ceiling without speaking.
“I said is that clear?”
“Yes, Colonel.”
“Good. The reasons will come clear in time. But for now, you are with Thorne.”
“It was just a joke.”
“Was, Corporal. It was a joke. Now it’s more than that.”
She stabbed the red button on the phone rather than listen to Mara speak any more, hanging up. Tossing the phone to the foot of the bed, she slammed her head back into the pillows over and over again.
It wasn’t fair. It wasn’t right. Carla needed to be back with her unit. She’d trained hard to be one of the best, and they couldn’t afford to have her on the sidelines. Not now at least. This war was going to need the best of the best if they were going to save Earth, and dammit, she was one of them! It was her duty to be there, and now Colonel Mara had stripped it from her, simply so that she could fall in love.
How was that fair to all the people that would die because she wasn’t able to help defend them? Carla couldn’t understand how that was the right thing to do. In her mind it was the most morally, ethically, and intelligently wrong thing to do.
What was so wrong with her that nobody was willing to see this? To give her the chance to prove she was worthy of being on the front lines. It was like her childhood all over again, being bullied into doing things, without anyone to listen or intervene, and it cut her deep. The military had been there for her when nobody else hadn’t, and now it too was being ripped away from her without her consent.
Why does this always happen to me? Am I destined to never have what I want, and always be forced to do what others wish?
She closed her eyes, the action forcing warm liquid down her cheeks to splatter softly over the down duvet, turning the light gray material dark as more tears joined them.