Loving Seiko

Leonard

"Where the hell d'ya run off to last night, Lenny?" Charles asks as he chews on his breakfast sloppily. I shrug in response.

"It's Leonard. And I was just checking out something," I say. "A woman was crying. Rough night." Before I even finish answering the men I was eating with busted out into laughter, nearly spilling their breakfast in the process. What fell on the ground, the dogs ate, snarling at each other and fighting for the scraps of fallen sausage.

"You got a lot to learn man," they cackle, slapping me on the back a little too roughly. "Bitches are up crying all night, every night. You'll learn to ignore them."

A man named Edgar pipes in, "Just don't go running off every time you hear someone drop a paperclip and you'll do fine here, sonny boy." Charles stabs his eggs with a fork, failing to make it stick on. He gets angry and eventually gives up on the whole meal, tossing it to the dogs.

I was disgusted with their attitudes, with their blatant disregard for human life. Then again, what I'm doing here goes against any moral code I have. It's my military obligation and I have no choice but to be here. That doesn't mean I'm going to treat the people like animals, like these fools do.

To protect myself I say, "It was my first night here. I won't make the same mistake twice," which was a lie. I was going to be discreet about it next time.

"I got somethin' to shove in your ears if it gets too annoying. Most the guys here use some," a man named Roy explains. "Earplugs are best thing that's happened to this place come night time." He laughs, his voice raspy and unhealthy sounding, making it obvious he must have been smoking since the age of eleven.

"Thanks," I mutter, trying to hide my disgust. My appetite is lost, so I set my plate on the ground and let the dogs clean it before standing and heading off to my next destination. My duties for the duration of my stay here would include food distribution and security. By day I'm handing out bowls of soup, and starting tonight I patrol the grounds and keep in check any escape attempts or fights; things of that sort.

But honestly, I wouldn't trust myself with either of my jobs. Even after my first day, I have been chastised for giving too large of portions to people. There is so much food left over that we just throw away, and these people are starving. As for the security...I don't support keeping people trapped in these camps, so enforcing that law myself is going to be very hard. I'm already morally corrupt for just being here.

For the rest of the morning I'm doing basic chores until my shift is scheduled to start. I take inventory of the food rations mid-morning, in between breakfast and lunch. Then I serve, and after that I patrol the perimeter until nightfall. I try to focus on my duties, but I find her face wrapped around my mind like a sloth to a branch.

She couldn't be any older than I, yet still seems so burdened.

This is one of my worse qualities; I become too easily attached to people. Joining the army was not exactly an ideal situation for me, nor was coming to this camp. But, I didn't have a choice in the matter, because when it came down to supporting my mother, this was the only financial option I could afford to accept.

Ma was injured a few years back while working at her factory job, but she's the kind of lady who just doesn't go down without a fight, so she worked for a solid year with a bad wrist. That ended up making things worse for her in the long run.

My father died when I was young, right after my brothers were born. Twins, Avery and Joseph, are ten years younger than me. They're back home taking care of Ma while I'm away, both now fifteen years old. A sturdy pair of twins. They were a beautiful gift to our family after my mothers miscarriage only a year earlier. Despite the blessing of their lives, she has never fully recovered from her earlier loss. My brothers' name would have been Thomas. Avery and Joseph were raised to know him, know the brother they almost had. We don't think about it much anymore; we just take care of Ma.