So fall was coming on strong, and the war was in full swing. I had a meetup with Daria when I was out east visiting my publisher. She was surprisingly candid about her opinions on the war.

 

 

She wasn't one to be insubordinate. She followed orders to the best of her ability, always. But she also didn't see the point of what she was doing.

 

"Lost too many friends already," she said. "I just don't know what they are dying for."

 

 

"My leftist education would tell me it's for moneyed interests," I told her.

 

 

She didn't find this funny. She did tell me a humorous story about a new recruit, though. This guy AJ joined up, and he hadn't been overseas yet, so since she'd already done a tour, she took it upon herself to sort of mentor him. Kid literally just turned 19 like a week before, so there was a lot in life he hadn't done yet, but he was excited to be serving.

 

 

Daria didn't try to get all cynical on him, she wanted to encourage him.

 

 

But she also pointed out to him how young he was and how much he hadn't experienced yet. Her advice to the new recruits was always make the most of your time at camp before you get shipped out, because you never know what will happen.

 

 

When he confided in her he was a virgin, she sent him over the river to Newcrest. She said, "Visit the Russians before we ship out. At least get that experience under your belt."

 

 

He was 19, so the idea was obviously both exciting and terrifying for him.

 

 

But he followed her advice, and used his next off-base time to visit the Russian brothel.

 

 

Daria said she woke up the next day to find an actual thank you card next to her bunk.

 

I was kind of hoping for some romance time with Daria, to be honest, but the vibes weren't there, so we said goodnight, and the next day, I used some of my old connections to get some background on how the war was going and what the morale of the troops was.

 

 

I didn't get much, which was my first inkling that there might be a story here worth telling. But I didn't think it was ripe, yet. So I filed it in the back of my mind as a "come back to this" sort of topic.

 

I was still engaging in my usual self-destructive debauchery. Besides visiting Daria, while I was out east, I visited the new casino in Newcrest. It wasn't exactly fancy. They had just legalized gambling, and this was built in kind of a hurry to take advantage of it. As expected, I quickly lost my money.

 

 

Then I ran into a stripper I recognized from Picante, I guess she was doing some moonlighting as a bar whore. So I lost some more money, out behind the casino against the brick wall.

 

 

Anyway, I was in a bit of a holding pattern, and I think I probably only blew all that money on roulette and that hooker because I was feeling a little dejected that I didn't get down with Daria earlier that evening. But later I found out there was good reason. She had been hooking up with one of her platoon mates that was on tour with her. They both suffered losses together, and shared their commiseration. I can't blame her for that.

 

 

So I had to accept there was a chance my relationship with Daria would be professional going forward. That was fine. I had so many different places to dip my wick, I wasn't going to get blue balls. But still, she was one of the special ones.

 

But then, as soon as I got back into town, Aiyana came over. Remember her? The hot little neighbor across the way?

 

She had some news.

 

 

I was not sure how I felt about it.