something to do with the rest of his life, but he didn’t argue. Henry and Mary were his only living relatives, and he loved them dearly. He could give them a couple of months, since he didn’t have anything else to do.
“Family,” he muttered as he turned away from the mirror. “I’ve learned that they can be taken away in the blink of an eye.”
The air force had given him a family with a bond that most people would have difficulty understanding. He had purpose in his life, a reason to feel good about the job he did, and then three of his team members were gone—killed. He and the other three kept in touch, but it wasn’t the same as working with them.
Just like that. He snapped his fingers and left the bathroom to get dressed.
Even after more than two years, the memory of helping carry those flag-draped caskets off the plane brought tears to Elijah’s eyes. He’d lost three members of his family, and he mourned for them even yet.
He wiped his eyes and reminded himself that today began a new session. He’d settled into the routine fairly quickly from the beginning, when Henry had brought him to the camp the day before the summer session began, sobered him up with coffee and good food, and told him exactly what his job was. For the first couple of days, Henry helped him get acclimated to the regimen, and then he stepped back and turned it over to him.
By the end of July, he could see progress in the nine girls who had been sent to the camp, and he’d felt a sense of pride in what he had accomplished. He decided to give himself a year before reenlisting. More than seven sessions later, he couldn’t imagine being anywhere else.
A glance at the clock brought him back to the present. He pulled on a pair of camouflage pants, tucked his shirt in, and buckled his belt. Then he sat down in a straight-backed chair and put on his combat boots. They were the only thing that he still had from his air force days. He’d long since worn out those camo pants, but they’d been so comfortable that he had decided to order more. Besides, dressing that way gave Piney Wood a little bit more of a boot camp feel to it.
He walked out onto his porch and sucked in a lungful of fresh morning air, and then started for the dining hall. The first day of camp was really his favorite time. The girls arrived with their problems all wound up tight around them like chains. It reminded him of those first days of air force boot camp in San Antonio.
He and the other recruits had to learn a whole new world just like these girls did. A couple of guys who started boot camp with him had washed out. During the two years he had been at Piney Wood, he had had to take three girls to the jail in Alpine. They were either shipped on to juvie, or else their parents pulled some strings to get them in private rehab centers, but he wondered about them, just like he did about those guys who didn’t make it to the end of boot camp.
Elijah had felt a sense of failure every time he had to drive one of the girls to the jail—just like he did when he couldn’t save those three buddies who had died. “Matty, Tommy, and Derrick.” He whispered their names. Sometimes he had trouble seeing their faces and had to look at the picture of the seven members of his team to get everything back into focus. When that happened, he felt guilty and oftentimes apologized to the picture even though it seemed silly to talk to a photograph.
“Hey! Wait up,” Henry called out from behind him.
Elijah stopped. When Henry caught up, Elijah shortened his stride so his uncle wouldn’t have to rush. “You ready for this?”
“Oh, yeah,” Henry said. “I can’t wait to see how Jayden does. She seems a lot tougher than her sister. Skyler got the job done all right, but just between me and you, I think Jayden might do better.”
“Why’s that?” Elijah had felt something stirring down deep when he shook hands with her, and every time she was close by, the same thing happened all over again. Nothing could come of it, not when they worked together. Still, it was the first time he had had any