Alice's Part 5

The alarm screeched in his ear. Two hours. Ray turned the alarm off, leaned over and picked up the phone. He dialled the help line.

‘Hello?’ a young woman answered. ‘G.I. Help Line.’

‘Say I go AWOL?’ he said. ‘What are my options?’

A big yawn. ‘Well, you can go home to your family, change cities, or there’s Canada.’

‘Canada?’ Ray had only heard that the winters were even colder there than those at home. He had heard people skied to work, and lived in igloos. He kind of wondered about the igloos, though. Canada wasn’t that far north.

‘Yeah. There isn’t any guarantee that you can stay, though. And you can never come back.’

‘I’d never be able to come back?’

‘Well, you could, but you’d get some time in prison, and will have difficulty finding work with your dishonourable discharge.’

‘Hmmm. Ok.’ Canada felt like a long ways off. It wasn’t going to open its arms, and he would never be able to see his mother and father again. ‘I’ll think about it. Is there any support up there?’

‘Yeah. Got a pen?’ she asked. ‘Good.’ She gave him the number, and told him to ask for Michelle, who would guide him through the process if he decided to go.

‘Thanks,’ Ray said. ‘Goodbye.’

‘Good luck.’

Ray checked the clock. He had an hour and forty minutes before he would be missing, and he still didn’t know where he was going. He got up, showered and packed a small bag of things he would need. Once he had dressed, he walked out the door.

As he walked down the street, he knew it would be the last time. He stopped by the diner, and ordered a muffin and coffee. ‘Alice, can you put honey in that coffee?’

‘Sure’

Ray tried to pay, but Alice would have nothing to do with it. He went to sit down in a booth. He looked at his hands--the scars he remembered getting, and the few he couldn’t. He ran them through his hair.

Alice brought his coffee out to him. ‘How are you, Ray?’

‘I’m … doing better,’ he answered, cradling his mug of coffee in his hands.

‘Don’t you ship out this morning?’

‘Yes,’ Ray said. He paused. ‘No, I think I’m going …I am going to go to Canada.’ His voice cracked, and he coughed to cover it up.

Alice smiled. ‘You know what, Ray? I think it takes a lot of guts to do what you’re doing.’ She gave his shoulder a squeeze. “I’m proud of you.” He watched her walk back to the counter, then finished his coffee.

He waved goodbye to Alice, walked out the door, and down the road. He heard a car in the distance behind him, and put out his thumb.