Chapter 4

Let the Journey Begin

Well, all of the children were secured snugly in the backseat of our wonderfully sturdy blue 2001 Honda CRV.

My daughter, Alyssa, was strapped in her gray-and-blue Greco car seat with a three-point harness. While the car seat was design to support the body, as well as the head, her brother’s booster seat was not quite so sturdy.

Seth was in his wonderfully useless booster seat. I say useless because basically these booster seats just boost the child up. You still just use the seatbelt to hold them in place. There is no back or neck support, and no three-point harness to support the child from flying forward in the case of an impact. It seems to me that a book would accomplish the same damn task, but of course books are not approved by the NHTSA, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. My son’s booster seat happened to be a dark gray color with red blotches all over it.

Both of my wonderful children were wide-eyed and full of wonder at the fact that they were going away from Pensacola, Florida, and getting to see this big wide world. My daughter was a bit too young to understand; however, my son acted like we were going on some big adventure. Of course, it took them a while to get out of their whiney state and into the state of euphoria that they were currently experiencing. They stayed this way for about the first forty minutes and then they were out like lights.

As we pulled onto the eastbound lanes of I-10, I couldn’t help but wonder how my kids could sleep in the contorted positions that they were in. It is really hard to explain, but picture trying to sit up in a three-point harness while in the fetal position, with your head cocked back and turned almost ninety degrees. They looked a bit like they were possessed. It reminded me of a horror movie I watched one time.

I turned away from the backseat and looked at my wife. She was very quiet and appeared to be simply concentrating on the road, but I knew enough to know that she had just as much anxiety as I did. Of course, why wouldn’t she? She was, after all, going to be taking on the roles of homemaker, mother, and father by herself. I just stared at her for a moment. She had such beautiful flowing brown hair and fair skin. I wondered how Alyssa could have red hair and Seth had blond and neither me nor my wife had either color anywhere in our family bloodline.

We sat in silence for an hour or so, both of deep in thought, me thinking of all that is to come and my wife thinking of, well thinking of what women think of, I suppose. I will never pretend that I have unlocked the secrets to a woman’s thoughts, especially my wife’s. I learned long ago that trying to read a woman’s mind and thoughts is akin to looking in to the blackness of an abyss. You just do not know where the woman’s mind is going. With that thought out of my head, I just sat watching her intently, knowing that this ride would be the last for a while. I wasn’t sure just how long, but a while nonetheless.

After a while of watching her, my wife turned to me, smiled, and said, “What are you looking at?”

I said, “Nothing.”

“Quit staring at me, it’s weird.”

“I’m sorry, what are you so quiet for?”

“Nothing, just driving and paying attention to the road. Kind of wondering if this is going to work out.”

“Things will work out. Being a trooper has to be better than working for the Sheriff’s Office, I’ll make more money for sure. Besides, this will get us out of Pensacola, and we will get to see a new place.”

“I hope so. I’m just tired of moving.”

“I know and I’m sorry.”

“You need to stay here okay, no more damn moving.”

Again, silence, I was not in the mood to argue, and I knew for sure that anything other than agreement would result in the start of an argument. I am sure everyone has heard the saying, “Happy wife, happy life.” No truer words have been spoken by men, in the history of mankind. Anyway, I deduced that in order to keep this little adventure happy, I should probably keep my mouth shut. She knew as well as I did that I could be sent anywhere in the state of Florida, but to say this would just be stating the obvious. This would probably result in me receiving the silent treatment for a couple of weeks anyway.

After another hour or so, I saw the silhouette of the academy building in Tallahassee, Florida, coming into sight. By this time the sun was coming up and you could clearly see the massive three-story compound. The compound consisted of two buildings of identical exterior architecture. The building was constructed of red brick on the exterior with beige painted trim and moldings. The roof was the old style flat tar roof with drain holes to prevent rain water from pooling on the roof. The two buildings were separated by a crudely fashioned courtyard.

The courtyard landscaping, pretty much consisted of a grass and weed mixture. There were three concrete walkways leading from building to building and they crossed in the center of the courtyard.

The area around the exterior of the compound was old black and gray asphalt, grass was growing from some of the numerous cracks throughout the asphalt drives and parking areas.

The recruits had a special parking area off to one side of the compound. This area was composed of grass and dirt with several large oak trees that boasted copious amounts of moss-covered branches. They made absolutely wonderful shade trees. The parking area was surrounded by an eight-foot chain linked fence with a lockable chain link gate.

My assumption at the time was that the fence serves a double purpose.

The first, to keep undesirables out of the parking area since we are not in the best of areas. The compound is surrounded on all sides by low-income housing areas, consisting of older rundown homes and roads that are in need of terrible repair. Potholes and cracks are prevalent on every street corner. This is not in any way to say that the neighborhoods themselves were bad or that the people living there were less than kind and stellar members of the community, although I do believe that some of the residents could probably use a course in manners and etiquette. I am only insinuating that maybe this part of town could use a little care and finesse on the part of the city of Tallahassee.

The second, to keep us from slipping off campus after lights out at night. This is just a guess, but I would wager my first year’s total income that I am correct. I mean my income is not great, but I am sure it would be enough to make someone happy.

As we pulled in to the fenced parking area, I was caught off guard by the number of new recruits that was standing around outside their vehicles. I guess I must have counted fifty or sixty other recruits standing around. Most were males. I counted five total females.

We pulled in to a makeshift parking spot. There were no painted lines defining actual parking spots, as this was a grass parking area after all.

My son said, “What are all those people doing here?”

I replied, “They are going to be in school with me.”

“Is your school just like mine?”

“A little different but not by much, buddy.”

“Be careful, Daddy. I love you. Don’t leave.”

“I love you too, buddy, but I have to go. I will be home on weekends I promise.”

My daughter said, “Wah wah wah.”

“Don’t cry. Daddy loves you.”

My wife said, “It’s almost time. I love you.”

“I love you. I will be back for my stuff as soon as I get the chance.”

The whole time that I was talking to my kids I was also mentally taking stock of each of the other recruits, as I am sure that they were doing the same.

How tall are they and do they look to be in better shape than me? What are they wearing? Did they shower and shave this morning? Those were just some of the questions that I asked myself as we all stood around.

It is inevitable that some of us would not graduate, and I damn sure was not going to be one of those recruits.

Most all of the recruits seemed as nervous as me; however several of them appeared to be in much better shape than myself. One in particular seemed to be approximately six foot three inches tall, and maybe 190 pounds. He was the epitome of fit. I learned later that we also had a marathon runner in our class. There were several prior law enforcement officers in the class as well as a couple of marines.

I say marine because once a marine, always a marine, am I right? I learned long ago that a marine will correct you quite promptly if you refer to them as a former marine. They are a very proud bunch.

Well it was time to leave my family and go mingle with the rest of my classmates. I kissed my family and left them sitting in the parking lot. I approached the group of individuals that would become as close as family and I was about to start a conversation with two of my classmates when suddenly the conversation was abruptly halted by the worst possible sound ever.

RING, RING, RING. The academy bell went off, followed by a message over the academy loud speakers. The sound was scratchy and full of static, but that is understandable considering the speaker system and all of its components were thirty or more years old.

“Would all recruits please report inside to the muster area at this time. I repeat, all recruits please report to the muster area, located inside building two.”