RUINED

Breeze flows over my skin its ambience relaxes these sensitive pores. I feel the concrete under my feet warm, course like sandpaper. I believe that its surface is more porous then my membrane. The kids run and jump in what is cold water to them. I say, “They don’t know what cold is.” They will realize what it is to be cold when they swim in a Colorado river when the frost piercing feeling overwhelms them. This swimming pool will do just fine for the present so they share the experience with the calm, cool water. My children are spoiled they both wear lifejackets to swim and without them they would drown. I blame my wife for that.

When I was a kid I was thrown into wavy Lake Michigan and told to doggy paddle. The dark, deep, blue water wanted to swallow my body as I fought against it to reach the concrete platform with the steel seaweed wall. Struggling to live by swimming I have never forgotten that moment. After the couple of times my brother had to save me out of that tormenting water I started paddling better and better with every time he threw me in. 

But what is being spoiled? It means not disciplined, a child who runs around disobeying their parents when told to sit down. I’ll keep enforcing what I feel is the key for my children to excel in life. I want to jump in the cool blue pool, it’s inviting but I feel that it might rain. Oh! There is a sprinkle of water that just fell on my paper. I’m going to stop writing now, so this composition doesn’t get ruined. Ruined like the issues people face everyday from giving up.

SEVEN MINUTES AFTER

Head-eyes looking forward, mouth shut, arms straight to the side with clenched fists, heels together standing erect is the position of attention. I stood at this position sweaty fisted and nervous. Twenty other recruits and I waited to swear on defending our people of the United States of America. After the ceremony was over I walked to where the television was located.  I was simply pacing around the lounging area, while I waited for further instructions to fly to San Diego’s Marine Corps Recruit Depot. Gray smoky fire emitted from the tall tower and I stopped on a dime, frozen to the view. The newscaster said that a plane flew into the building. A scene from an action movie came to mind, of a suicide pilot flying a white plane headed towards a busy crowded city. It was really happening, a building on live television was on fire. There were no oohs or ahs heard in the background. Only pale, sad, angry faces and confused distorted expressions were present. Out of the corner of my eyes, I looked at the recruits around me and could see sorrowful, sour postures. Everyone was stuck in a fixed position like flies on shit waiting for orders on what to do.  Our line of sight and hearing was pulled by an unseen magnetism coming from the tube.  Terrorized by the events unfolding we wallowed in disbelief to the scene. 

Expectations of what would happen next, then boom! The second twin tower was struck, like lightning abusing a strong massive tree. After its collision, the plane united with that building similar to dust thrown at dirt. My mind was asking itself, “Did a plane full of passengers just vanish into that skyscraper?” Chicago Military Entrance Processing Station was like the silence of a midnight gloomy cemetery. The towers stood at attention while crying out for help, just before collapsing uniformly one after the other. It looked like a controlled demolition was taking place. Images that I have not forgotten as if my brain kept them stored in an infinite library.

I swore to defend my country, this beautiful land that I was born into. The flights were cancelled and none of us flew to boot camp that day.  Nothing went according to plan. Some of the recruits had asked me if I was having second thoughts of enlisting. It seemed that they were afraid. That day was the first time I had seen a plane crash into a structure, humans jump out of buildings, and two towers crumble to rubble on live broadcast. I had sworn in about seven minutes prior to the impact of the first tower and there was no turning back now.