4

That evening Jon found he had left his wallet on one of the SUVs that had taken us to the beach. He dealt with the personnel at the front desk in order to arrange getting it back, and to ask how he was going to get around without his ID.
I waited in the hall as Jon did his thing. Joe walked up to the counter and demanded better service for his friend. As they left the counter, I got up from the chair I was waiting in and Jon told me some more details and asked me what he should do.
I told him to email his bank and let them be aware he didn’t have control of your card this instant, but would the next morning. _Best to be responsible, cover your bases, so you can relax,_ I said.
_But I don’t want them to cancel my card._ _Say that in the email._
_Maybe I should just call my Mom._ It caught me off guard when he said that. I forgot people had Moms.
Joe walked up, obviously pissed. _That fucking incompetent b-tch of a specialist .._ he said.
Jon stole a look and a knowing smile at me as Joe went on.
A brown-skinned Sergeant First Class, the Specialist’s boss, happened to be walking by and said, _I heard that._ She smiled, as if she thought it was funny, but Joe didn’t.
I told Jon that when they had medevac’d me to the hospital for my spider bite, they sent me Naked -- no ID card, no ID tags, etc. They wrote out a memo for me to use as ID, so I could get around.
Jon went back to the counter to ask them about that. When he came back he said, _They sure aren’t happy with Joe._ and smiled.
Joe blew up, cursing and exclaiming. All I could do was laugh, so I did, because I thought it was funny.
Joe didn’t like that at all.
Jon tried to be conciliatory, _But I don’t understand, I had it, I was talking to them just fine, then you walked up like a bull in a china shop._
_I was trying to help my friend!_
In my mind he was just out of control, wanting attention, wanting a fight, wanting drama, causing it.
He reminded me of myself, back in the day, so I was more patient with him, while Jon and Tank simply let him be and moved on.
He was infantry and had been deployed three times. I knew what trauma was like, and gave him the benefit of the doubt. I tried to always keep the conversation in the context of joking around.
When we got to our bay, Joe finally said, _Fine, well, maybe I’ll just stop talking altogether, how would you like that._
_I don’t believe you could do it._ I said, and got a big laugh.
The plan was to go to the gym and go swimming. We got dressed, grabbed our stuff and was about to go but couldn’t find Joe. When we did find him, he refused to speak, and just walked away.
Jon and I looked at each other, and finally had to go on without him. On the bus ride to the pool, Jon said _There’s always one guy like that, wherever you go. Always with the Drama._
_I know, I’m always relieved by people who come on strong like that, who do all the talking, you know. But in the end, it’s best to feel people out. The ones who don’t tend to be volatile._
_Yeah,_ Jon said, _I’m the same way. He was always talking so it made it easy._

__________

　
I red a review in Entertainment Weekly, somewhere on the way to _____.
It was on the movie Precious, about an overweight African American girl who was being beaten and sexually abused by her mother and raped by her father.
The critic praised the movie and wrote the review in a way that pitied her and admired her strength and sense of humor. _How can someone’s life be so bad?_ he wrote.
I was insulted by his ignorance. Where has he been the last twenty years in America? I felt guilty not being the abnormal one in our group. Joe was taking that role. I was fitting in, even though I didn’t deserve to, because of my story.

__________

　
When we got back from swimming, we looked for Joe. Jon somehow got him to chill out and come with us to the USO to meet up with Tank and our three drinks apiece. We went bowling.
Joe seemed okay in general except that he was more aggressive with me. The four of us were always joking around, teasing each other, even play fighting, but with me Joe seemed to be teetering on that line between playing and not playing.
The next day we went on the water sports trip. They take you out on a traditional Arab fishing boat, followed by a speed boat for tubing and two jet ski’s.
Joe was back in his element. He knew jet ski’s and tubing well. Jon did too, had grown up with both, but he didn’t make a big deal out of it.
I’d done neither and had a blast. Joe seemed back to normal, even with me, but I knew he could turn at any instant, so the ease of our friendship was gone. I thought about K___ and if he had gone through this with me.
Joe seemed to resent Jon and mine’s private conversations so he seemed to be all over Jon, like he was competing with me.
I hung out with Tank, who, like an old man, just dangled in the water all day in a life jacket. I pegged him for a stoner and was right. He laughed. _I’ve decided after this deployment to become a hippie,_ I said. _I’ve got plenty of notes, I know which psychodelics to knock out, what kind of weed is the best, I looked into the biking mecca, the rock climbing mecca, and the Big Lebowski mecca, I’ve been getting my never-enduing-hippie-play-list together, what would you suggest?_