Talking To The General

No one died. No one’s hurt. Just because I got the hots for Ogden, don’t mean I can’t fuck his dad. It was just a bit of a shock meeting him that way. Ogden is 29? I thought he was much younger. But that means he’s not Jesse’s peer. Which makes him more fuckable. We are consenting adults after all. We will be anyway.

I didn’t tell Ray I was Jesse’s mother. It didn’t feel right talking about it. I don’t mix sex and Jesse. I did wonder if I shouldn’t catch a ride with Ray to the prison to see Jesse but decided against it. I wanted to go home and change. So Ray, sweet guy, dropped me off at the park before he went on his way.

Once I was settled in front of my tent, Sam came by.

“Hey, you recovered yet?” she said.

“From what?

“Last week.”

“Oh. Almost. And you?”

“It was mostly my hands that got bleached. But I’m okay. Liz come home yet with the new baby?”

“Yeah, hadn’t seen much of them. They’re their usual quiet selves. What’s new with you?”

We were just catching up. I told her about meeting Ray and she was laughing like a crazy person when a man walked onto my site. He was in his fifties, real stern looking, wearing a black suit. He must be the man who was looking for me last week. I had forgotten about him. When he got close, I said,

“Hey, looking for me?”

“Would you be Mindy Batten?” he asked.

“That’d be me.”

“Are you be married to Mitchell Batten?”

“That’s me.”

“Mrs. Batten. I am from the Army Reserve, 11th Brigade. I am the home officer in charge of the squadron that your husband Mitchell was assigned to. My name is General Sydney Glover.” He stuck out his hand to shake mine. Then he turned to Sam and said, “You must be a friend of Mrs. Batten’s. Hello.” He shook her hand too. He was a real gentleman despite the grim look on his face.

“That’s a striking hair colour you have, Mrs. Batten. May I call you Mindy?” he said.

“Sure, everyone else does,” I said.

“Mindy, I’m making a duty call to you today. I’d like to take you to our office in the city so I can relay some information to you. If you have family or a close friend you’d like to bring, we could accommodate that as well.”

“What’s going on? Is this news about Mitch? What’s happened to him?”

“Or I can relay the information to you here if you prefer, Mindy.”

“Tell me here. Sam is my good friend. She can stay for this. Saves me telling her later.”

“Mindy, the news I have to deliver is not good.”

“Oh crap! What now? What’s Mitch done? Oh for chrissake.” I put my head in my hands. Sam started rubbing my back, saying,

“It’s okay, it’s okay. Let’s hear what the man has to say.”

“Mindy, I came to look for you as soon as we knew. But you weren’t here last week.” He reached over and took my hand. “Mindy, Mitch was killed in action. His body arrived in the city yesterday. I would like to make arrangements with you to come identify the body.”

Sam gasped in spite of herself.

“What?” I screamed. “What do you mean killed in action? What kind of action? Mitch was a cook. A cook in the army. How could he be killed in action? He never fought in the field.”

“Mindy, I know this comes as a shock to you. I’m so sorry,” said the General. He was still squeezing my hand. I shook him off.

“Are you sure it was him?” I said.

“We made a positive identification. He had all his ID on him. His battalion ID’d him. But we also want you to come to identify him. When you are ready, of course.”

“What happened? How did he get in the field?”

“Well, he wasn’t quite in the field.”

“Where was he?”

“He was in the camp kitchen.”

“You guys got bombed?”

“No. Mitch had an accident. He fell.”

“What? How? You better tell me what happened.”

“Mitch had a little too much to drink. He argued with the new chef.”

“What? He was killed by…by one of your chefs? Someone on his own side?”

“No, no, no one killed him. Mitch argued with the chef. That’s all.”

“What did they argue about that Mitch should die for it?”

“We are unable to verify that of course. However, there were witnesses who claim that they argued about whether real clam chowder contains tomatoes.”

“Mitch never made clam chowder at home.”

“That apparently was one of Mitch’s specialties. He put tomatoes in his.”

“So how did he die? What happened?”

“The new chef does not put tomato in his chowder. Mitch wanted to convince him clam chowder is better with tomatoes. Witnesses say they were both quite inebriated. The new chef stormed out of the kitchen. And Mitch set about making a chowder with tomatoes. But he was unsteady. The army does not condone alcohol of course, especially in Iraq, where alcohol is not permitted. We are not sure where Mitch obtained his whisky. We only know that he had quite a high level of alcohol in his blood when he died.

Mitch cut up tomatoes for the chowder. But like I said, he was unsteady. He dropped a lot of tomatoes on the kitchen floor. At one point, he slipped on the tomatoes and banged his head, quite hard. Actually, he hit his head on a large iron grill. He died immediately. Mitch did not suffer, Mindy.”

“What? How can someone die from a single fall?”

“Mindy, it’s rare, but it happens. Especially if you hit the back of your head, hard. Unfortunately, it happened to Mitch.”

“My god, I can’t believe it. I can’t believe this has happened. I can't believe you're telling me this. Now what? What’ll happen to Jesse and me?”

“We’d like you to come and ID the body, when you’re ready. Then we will return the body to you for burial. The army will cover the expenses of course.”

“Is that why there’s been no money coming into my account from Mitch?”

“I don't know anything about any arrangement Mitch may have made for you. However, once we take care of the administrative details, we will be able to pay Mitch’s pension and insurance money out to you. And because the death took place while he was on active duty, there will be additional compensation as well. I don’t know what the total amount of these payments will be. But I have arranged for you to see our administrative personnel to get the details and to sign papers to release the funds.”

Sam was hugging me and crying.

“Mindy,” said the General, “I will take my leave for now. I will come back this afternoon. If you are ready to go identify the body then, I will have a car ready to take you to our office. Otherwise, we can arrange for another time for you to come. Do you have other family or friends you’d like to be with right now?”

“No, no. I have no family near. I don’t want Jesse to know until…well until I see Mitch to make sure it’s him.”

The General left us. I was just stunned.

This was devastating news. My Mitch gone. How will I tell Jesse? I guess I should identify the body first, get whatever payments are coming, then go from there. My god, I am completely alone in the world right now.