Sunday, September 19, 2004

Drunken Dreams
Reality

Buzz! With a startle I awake to semi-conciousness. I hurridly stumble across the room bumping

into things as I go. Desperatley, I instinctively fumble for the alarm. As my eyes fix on the my

angry red numbers flashing 4:30 on my alarm clock, I nurse a bruised shin. After a moment to get

barings, I quickly dress. My clothes are thick cotton sweats with heavy hiking boots. One final

check of the time and I head for the door.

The early morning breeze is cool against my face as as I stretch for the morning jog. A dog

barking down the street tells me of my friends getting closer. I wait quitely for their arrival.

When the first one walks into the light, I see a young Hispanic man in a dark green, long sleeve

T-shirt, and black pants almost hiding his black running tennis. Then his brother, a mirror image

of him, enters the light.

"Hey ya'll," I say in greeting.

"Hey," Mike replies as Leo says, "Hey man."

With a quik check to see that we are ready, MIke sets a pace, and the three of us start

runnning down the street. The sound of dogs barking follows us as we rythmically stomp the ground.

We soon turn on to sixth street and head out of town. The scent of a feed lot crosses the road

and makes me gag. Mike pulls up his shirt to use as a mask, and Leo picks up the pace. But quickly

the scent disipates. Our path vanishes aas a cloud covers the moon. My only comfort is the steady

breathing of the guys next to me. Beads of sweat cover my face as we push forward on our run.

Headlights in the distance tell us of a car heading for us, so we move over to the side of the

road. When it passes we spread out again. The road turns into dirt just after the moon comes back

out. The light allows me to see a rabbit in a nearby ditch. What I thought was a dry ditch turned

out to be a foot full of water. The rabbit had been running next to the edge. Too late to do more

than land, I splashed down into the ditch. My friend's yell comments and laugh as they keep up

with me from the road.

The rabbit gets away while I stumble trying to gain balance. My friends have gotten ahead of

me, so I climb out and rush after them. Our rhythm is runied by the squishing sound coming from my

boots. with every step I felt the suction in my boots and the slosh of my toes, as I carried a

little pond in each boot. A strange smell comes over us as we run. After a couple of minutes I

figure out what the smell is.

The water from the ditch! I can't even get away from the stench. My friends are far enough

away that they can't smell it. I can't ignore the sour smell with it right under my nose. To add

to my discomfort my feet are being rubBed">Bed">Bed">Bed">Bed">Bed">Bed">bed raw. But I know I must perivere the Marines will be

harder than this. Finding a small comfort in that, I repeat it regularly.

Soon, We reach the crossroad that tells us to turn around. With half the trip done we can take

a short break. Looking up at the sky we see the first glimse of dawn.The dark-blue night's sky is

just turning a shade lighter. With this to spur us on, our rest is a short one.

The run back zaps all my strength. I start to slow down but a man in green fatigues comes up

from behind me and laughs at my attempts. With reinforced determination I chase after him,

desperate to beat him back to base. The sandy shore is tough to run in,but I manage a quick pace.

Soon, I find myself beside him, rushing forward at full sprint. Vaguely, I hear voices calling my

name, but I pay no heed. All my thought is on keeping my pace and beating C.O. back to base. I

won't let him leave me behind. I want to be a Marine too much. I can't lose. Suddenly someone

grabs at my arm and turns me around.

"Hey! Hey man. Stop!," Leo yells at me at my right side as I see Mike getting out of my car.

Taking a look at my suroundings, I find that I am on the west side of town. I don't remember

running here, but all at once waves of exhaustion hit me. Stumbling back, I find a place on the

curb to sit.

Mike comes up and laughs, "You left us behind on our way back to town man. We couldn't keep

up. Thank God you left your keys out by your car when we ran, Kyle. We would never have stopped

you!"

Even as exhausted as I am, I have to ask, "Did we improve our time?"

Leo replies, "yes by..."

BUZZ!
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