Julie tried to summon pride in his decision, but settled for mild respect for his resolve. She wished, not for the first time, that Pilots helped with executive function as well as attention and multitasking. There was still no way to rush good choices. He left the rainforest ahead of her, tall and strong and smart and young and dumb.
• • •
She attacked everything for the next several days. She attacked the drive back from the aquarium, attacked it so hard Val insisted she pull over and switch seats. She made Sophie cry when they got home, insisting she hadn’t promised to take the kid to a friend’s house when she knew she probably had. She wished it weren’t the ugliest day of the ugliest month, wished she could weed, or mow, or build something or hit something. No wonder David wanted to go to war. It must be genetic, this desire to do violence. Her desire was limited to plant life, but she understood how it might combine with testosterone in a more dangerous mix.
The recruiter agreed to see her more easily than she expected. She had wanted to show up at his office armed for battle. Instead, he suggested meeting at a coffee shop, maybe under the same theory that had inspired David to make his announcement in public.
She arrived exactly on time and scanned the room for uniforms. Shouldn’t a military officer be punctual? Maybe he wasn’t going to come and had arranged this to demonstrate what little power she had in the situation. He’d gone to David’s school and derailed eighteen years of hope and planning and he didn’t even have the decency to say it to her face.
“Mrs. Geller?”
She scanned the room until she found the speaker. The man at the corner table had risen from his chair, a welcoming smile on his face. He had a deep tan over an already-tan skin tone and white, white teeth. He looked like a movie star. Maybe that was how he sold children on war: you too can be a movie star if you sign on the dotted line.
“You aren’t wearing a uniform.” Good start, Julie. Play your hand early so he knows you’re hostile.
“I don’t like to wear it when I’m meeting with parents. It can be intimidating. Plus, this saves me on dry-cleaning bills.” He brushed a hand down his body with a self-deprecating air. His polo shirt and pressed khakis were as much a uniform as anything else he might wear, she realized; no creases in sight.
“I’m sorry, that was rude,” she said, then wondered why she was apologizing to the enemy. She grasped for level ground. “But you haven’t introduced yourself.”
“Sergeant First Class Fuentes, US Army. I thought you knew since you were the one who called me. And you’re one of David’s mothers?”
How much had he and David talked already? She nodded. He came to her side of the table and pulled out the chair for her.
“Do you want something to drink? On me.”
She stood again. “I can order for myself, thanks.”
No way would she let him buy her anything; she didn’t want to owe him. She walked over to the counter and ordered a large black coffee. She preferred cream and sugar, but she felt like the black coffee lent her extra mojo in a situation she was still trying to get a handle on. She didn’t order a pastry, to spare herself the indignity of eating in front of him.
She warmed her hands on the mug while she waited for Fuentes to return. He slipped back into his seat a few minutes later, dropping a plate with a bagel and cream cheese on the table and scattering poppy seeds. In his other hand, he held a mug of hot chocolate topped with a whipped-cream mountain, chocolate sprinkles, and cinnamon. Apparently he hadn’t gotten the memo that his order might have significance in their encounter. There was a bowl of packaged creamers and sugars on the table beside theirs, and she reached over to steal one of each. Not a defeat if he didn’t know they were playing.
She waited until he’d taken a bite of bagel. “So, what do you want with my son?”
He chewed for a moment, then smiled. “That was direct.”
The poppy seed stuck to one of his perfect teeth gave her courage. “I don’t think we have anything else to discuss, so there’s no point to small talk.”
“Fair enough. I’ll be direct as well, then. We want your son because he’s exactly the sort of man we’re looking for.”
“He’s a boy.”
“He’s eighteen. He’ll be a man soon whether you want him to be or not.”
“He has plenty of time to be a man,” she said. “I wanted him to go to college, have a few more years to figure out who he wants to be.”
Fuentes smiled again. The poppy seed had vanished. “Is that what he wants? Maybe he knows who he wants to be already.”
She shook her head. “I don’t buy it. None of us know who we are at eighteen. We’re just full of ourselves enough to think so.”
He smiled again, but the wattage had dimmed. It seemed more genuine. “Fair enough. How about this? Maybe he doesn’t know what he wants, but he’s actively looking for it, and he doesn’t think he can find it in college or we wouldn’t be sitting here having this discussion. He didn’t check off the ‘send me more information’ box; he signed up.”
Julie was dumbfounded; she tried to hide it by sipping her coffee. It burnt her tongue, but she held the mug there anyway, buying a minute. David had already enlisted? He’d said “I’m joining,” not “I’ve joined,” which she’d assumed meant he’d made the decision but hadn’t done the thing yet. She didn’t know whether to act like she had known that, or to drop her facade.
“Why
