“So, Kip, you know I have to ask,” Annie said. Kip sat back in his chair, savoring the flavor of the beef. He raised his eyebrows at her.
“Why the hesitation about going to Afghanistan?” Annie asked. “With that speech you gave me on the helicopter today, I would have thought you would have jumped at the chance to go sing for the troops.”
Kip leaned forward and sawed at another slice of steak. “I would have. I just, I just have issues with going back,” Kip said, raising his eyes to her.
“Are you going to tell me why?”
Kip took another bite and leaned back again. “Are you going to eat your steak? It’s delicious. Once you’ve eaten it, no other steak will every compare, trust me.”
Annie plopped the steak into her mouth and closed her eyes. The flavor was unexpected. This truly was the best steak she had ever eaten. Kip smiled and raised his eyebrows at her, nodding. “Did I not tell you?”
“You’re right again, Kip,” Annie said between chews, slightly embarrassed about talking with her mouth full in a place as classy as this. Then Kip’s features darkened and he became serious.
“I was on a mission and it went south. Four of my friends, two of them I went to boot camp with, were killed. I was hit several times with AK47 rounds. When I came to I was in the basement of an old warehouse with bandages wrapped around me and tied to a bedspring mattress. All of the covering had been ripped off. The metal was stabbing me in the back. Later I learned I had been there unconscious for 6 weeks before I came to. But then I had no idea how long. I was bleeding all over my body from where the rusty springs had pierced me.”
Kip raised his arms to demonstrate where, even though his shirt covered him. His fists were clenched tight.
“It’s why I have the tattoos on my back and arms, to hide the scars. Just like with the tattoos of bullets to hide my gunshot wounds.” Annie nodded in understanding.
“Anyway, when I came to a doctor was there. He had been treating me, trying to save my life.” Annie nodded.
“No, he wasn’t a good guy. He was keeping me alive because my captors wanted information from me. He was no humanitarian. Shortly after I woke, he was helping them to torture me. In some of my more sane moments when I wasn’t being tortured I called him ‘Kevorkian’.
Anyway, I was kept there for 3 months. I would not speak to the animals. Finally, they gave up torturing me and left me to rot strapped to that bedspring. I was left there for about 5 days. No one came in; no one gave me food or water. They just left me to die, I thought. I had beaten them. I was giddy at the thought of it. I remember laughing there in the dark like a crazy man. Oh, I knew I was going to die, but I was in so much pain by then I was welcoming it. But I was happy that I had withstood the test. I had beaten them for sure. They never got a scrap of information from me other than my serial number.”
“Then, in the middle of one of my maniacal moments, the door to the basement opened and four ragheads came down and unstrapped me from my wire prison. They dragged me upstairs and shoved me to the floor on white sheets. When I looked around I saw that I was in front of a camera on a tripod. Kevorkian was behind it and running it. Then the four men and another man who wore a hood gathered behind me and they started speaking into the camera in Arabic. I had no idea what they were saying, but I knew that I was about to be killed on video. Kevorkian, the doctor, was just watching. Aren’t doctors supposed to help people?”
“Anyway, now you see my problem with going to see the doctor about my deep cut from the bullet?”
“I understand,” Annie said, half in tears at hearing his story.
“So, the hooded guy, who I assumed was the guy in charge, finished his speech to the camera and came up behind me. Kevorkian stepped from behind the camera and handed him a scimitar, that’s a long ceremonial sword and was about to cut my throat, behead me.”
“Just then, flash bangs went off and then building filled with smoke. I was knocked unconscious again. When I came to Navy Seals were standing over me and the four men who had dragged me up from the basement and the hooded lunatic were lying around me, dead. But the doctor wasn’t there. He had gotten away in the firefight. Believe it or not, I was wounded in that firefight too.” He pointed to a spot on his right shoulder.
Annie sat there with her fork halfway to her face. This was the best steak she had ever tasted and she could not bring herself to put it in her mouth. Her eyes were welled up and her beautiful mouth hung open.
“My God, Kip. I never knew!”
“Of course not. That’s because I don’t like talking about it. And it’s why I have some reservation about going back to Afghanistan.” Kip took another bite.