Holes

Every morning on my way to lunch I walk past a sandy hill of dirt that has a large hole in it about the size of a peach. And every morning I wonder what lives inside of it, perhaps a snake or a rat, or maybe just a few field mice. I wonder how far down the cavern goes. Although every other Marine walks right past it, maybe even on it without giving a second thought to it, every morning I get the urge to have a glimpse of what’s inside - like a moth to a flame. I considered sticking something in the hole to drive the inhabitant(s) out. I also considered dumping a bottle of water inside it, but realized this would probably be appreciated by the inhabitants. So I do nothing. But the curiosity is killing this cat, or it was until late last night…

It was a typical Al Asad evening, clear, starry night, 80 degrees, helicopters flying in the distance testing their flares, like fireworks at a summer carnival. The bus ride home was no different. We swap bus drivers every week and each has their own style of music on their ipod. This allows for quite the variety of musical selections depending on who is driving, from 2-Pac to 2 Live Crew, Pink to Pink Floyd, Alice In Chains to Alice Cooper, Billy Ocean to Billy Joel, Bob Dylan to Bob Marley, Jack Johnson to Jack Ingram (I’ll stop before Dorothy yells at me “Alright Rose! We get it! Different types of music!)

ANYWAY, I arrived at the Barracks at precisely 0138, so goes the 8 minute trip, and my short walk to the entrance in the dark was accompanied by a strange noise. I stopped for a moment, but continued on as strange noises are somewhat commonplace out here. I entered Barracks 207 and greeted the duty as always. He was watching a DVD on his computer, like most do at that hour. I slowly opened the door to my room, so as not to make a noise and wake up my roommate, and began my nightly routine. In this exact order: I first took approximately 6 steps over to my bunk in the dark, avoiding the Yankee Candle kept on the floor next to my shoes (we light it to keep the room smelling good). I then click on the headlamp to create a small amount of red light just over my rack. I take off my gun and holster, undo the laces of my shoes and place them in the other corner, take everything out of my uniform (flashlight, ID, sunglasses, pocket knife, Listerine Spray, ipod and headphones and uniform cover), then take off my uniform, then socks and t-shirt, which go into my laundry bag hanging on the wall, then I put on my favorite tee-shirt (an old beat up grey jersey I got in San Diego), then head to the bathroom to continue my nightly routine (I’ll spare you those details).

On the way back from the bathroom (located outside the barracks) I again heard a noise, as if something was moving in the dirt 10 feet away from me around the back of the building. I stopped and with my superpower hearing (my friends will tell you I have freakishly good hearing) I listened, but heard nothing. I shook it off to reassured myself that Michael Meyers or Jason wasn’t about to come around the corner and kill me and I continued back inside and back in my room. I crept into bed trying to slowly increase the amount of pressure to the bedsprings to avoid them making a really loud squeak that causes my roommate Clint to stir a bit. I turned off the headlamp and laid there in the dark listening to the sound of the air conditioner making its obnoxious buzzing/humming sound.

15 minutes later, in a half slumber, I heard a disturbing noise. Throughout the night my brain hears hundreds of noises and filters most of them out (helicopters and jets flying overhead, the air conditioner changing gears, the door opening and closing, my roommates getting ready for work, etc.), but occasionally, a noise occurs that you know doesn’t belong and your brain recognizes this and alerts you to it – like being certain that you’re alone in the middle of the woods and hearing a twig break on a full moon, camping by yourself on Friday the 13th or something. Anyway, MY noise was coming from straight ahead of my rack, near the A/C. It was a bang that caused me to immediately open my eyes wide and listen close. Then, a second later, I heard it again, only this time it kept on making noise. To describe it is to describe taking several piles of dirt in your hands and slowly letting it drop to a hard floor in a quiet room, but this wasn’t just a shift of the A/C, or a random occurrence, in fact, there was nothing random about this. It started, then picked up, then I heard a scurrying sound coming from the A/C unit, then more dirt dropping on my floor, then a piece of cardboard falling to the ground. At that moment, I knew something was trying to break through my window into my room!

As the noise persisted, taking a second or two pause every now and again, I yelled out to my sleeping roommate, “Yo, are you hearing this????” He said “Yeah”, but being that he was on the other side of the room in the opposite corner of the A/C, he was much less worried. I on the other hand, was on the same side right up against the A/C. I knew I had to take action. My flashlight was too far above me to reach, and my gun was also out of reach. I sprang from my bed and ran to the door to turn on the lights! As the lights went on, the sound stopped, and all over my storage bin and the floor was dirt that had come through the A/C, piles of it! And one of the pieces of board that blocked the A/C from the back of the window was on the ground. I knew at this instant that either a large rat or a snake was trying to burrow its way into our room through a hole it had made. I had to act fast, but didn’t want to go near the window, so I took a broomstick and banged the A/C, trying to draw the creature out, but to no avail, there was dead silence. Well I knew I couldn’t just go back to bed, especially with a hole there, and my roommate wasn’t concerned, so I took a sheet and stuffed it all the way in the hole to block any entrance into my room and went confidently back to bed.

This morning on the way to lunch I once again walked past the hole I see every day. I paused momentarily to forge a truce between me and the inhabitants of the hole. Just as I was curious what was inside their hole, they were curious what was in the hole they found last night. But our truce is, as long as they let go of their curiosity and respect my boundaries, I will let go of my curiosity and respect their boundaries. We’ll see tonight if they uphold this truce…

In other news, it was reportedly 120 degrees today in the shade and 138 in the sun. It feels like the earth is burning. It’s very hot.

Finally, I want to wish my best friend Jan Good Luck and Godspeed on her move tomorrow from Bloomington, IN to Philadelphia, PA! Be safe and have fun Jan!