Sunshine and Lilly

Chapter Four: Alias' P.O.V

Training has been kicking my apparently very sensitive ass.

It has almost been twelve weeks since I have been a Private of the Marine Corps on base and the drills and learning the ropes of military life has been an adjustment.

I am in awe of the strength and determination that surrounds the camp and even the barracks. The Sergeants and Corporals have not let up on us since the first week and I have had to quickly become accustomed to the intensity and rigidity of early morning drills, muscle burns, and Marine training. It's been a lot and I know I'm sounding like a weakling and complaining but anyone would feel the pain of homesickness and having to lose their precious curls. I'm kidding... about the hair... not the missing home part.

I miss Dad and Mom so much. I miss my bed. I even miss the mechanic shop. I know. I miss Emma. I miss Aunt Maria's cooking and her teasing presence. But I especially miss my Sunshine. I miss her teddy bear hugs. I miss her smile and day-brightening laughter. Some days I've thought about our departure and all the things we left unsaid, and regret not holding on a little longer. I supposed that's what her letter was for. I got her letter with a violet printed into it. A few months ago she sent her first letter and a few days ago, another came in the mail with a lily on it, but I haven't read it yet. Is it stupid that I'm both excited and scared to read it?

I don't know what it is. We're best friends. She promised we would write to each other and yet there is something in my chest that makes me miss her more than any other person in my life and every time I read her words and how proud she says she is of me, I feel myself wanting to give up and run home to her.

Solaris has always been my sun and my North Star. I first met her when she was this red squiggly thing a week old and home from the hospital. My three-year old mind was intrigued by the delicate creature that slept longer than I thought possible at the time. Aunt Maria was amused at my interest in Lilly and my inability to understand that she couldn't and wouldn't respond to my rant about Bugs Bunny, my childhood obsession.

Over the years, as I grew older, she did too, as is normal, but I thought it was only my rightful duty to guide and protect her through the stages I had already experienced that she would reach to as well. So I was there through it all.
'Al' was Lilly's first word and then came all the 'y' words that she would scream and giggle out to the top of her little toddler lungs.
She was almost three when Aunt Maria called Papa on the phone to tell him to hurry over because, "she's WALKING!" I heard her yell from next door, not even the phone speaker.
My small feet ran to see Lilly just in time for her to plop on her hind and giggle and clap her hands towards my flushed face. We'd all broken out in laughter over the thing. Laughter. It's what I associate with Sunshine. Laughter and Love; my Sunshine.

I sigh out as I look out at the setting sun out the window of the main hall. Today was a full day, everyday is, and I am exhausted. We graduate in three months and then get some time off, I can't wait, before we are deployed to our specialties.
A heavy hand comes down on my left shoulder and I feel my right hand flex and turn to grasp the muscled unknown before my eyes meet Charles as he chuckles at my reaction, it's the training. "Easy there soldier," he huffs out a laugh and sits next me on the bench. "Sitting here contemplating all those life choices you made?" he smiles and sighs before opening a ziplock bag of chocolate chip cookies. Ah the cookies. That was Charlie's icebreaker. He came up to me the second day on base with a hesitant smile and a bag of those delicious pieces of heaven. We hit it off, obviously. Charles has quickly become a great friend to me. A brother really and he is a huge motivator.

"What would you do if the world ran out of chocolate?" I ask him with a smile. He has an obsession.

"Watch your mouth! Don't say such things. I'd have to find a lab and make some more... I don't know.... Something... I just couldn't handle that... no," he shivers in contempt of my question and I withhold a howl of laughter before taking the cookie he offers me.
I swallow a bit and trying not to moan at the sweet gooey, warmth of nostalgia. Sunshine makes the best cookies. We'll need to make some when I get home.