The Girl, The End

I didn't just drop The Girl like a hot potato.  On the weekends I took her around apartment hunting and we'd occasionally shop together.  Like we did before, eventually we didn't talk as much and then weeks had passed since I talked to The Girl.

Until one day she called me.  She needed me again.  Turns out, when she and her boyfriend had an apartment together they bought some furniture together and The Girl left a lot of her personal belongings in the apartment.  Now, she FINALLY had a place of her own and so she wanted to get her things and the furniture that was hers.

The problem is, the Army is now involved and like I said, they don't like cheaters and abusers.  The soldier's unit was aware of what was going on and they were taking action to both get him help but hold him accountable as well.  He was given an order not to contact The Girl --a restraining order of sorts, and since he was still living in the apartment, she was not allowed to go over there.  He was not comfortable with her getting things without him present and so it was arranged that The Girl would go to the apartment accompanied by an NCO and the guy would have his platoon leader there as well.  The two were not allowed to talk to one another -not say one single word to each other.  All communication between The Girl and the soldier were to be done through the NCO's and we, the NCO's had final decisions on things.  That's what the pair of them agreed to.

So --The Girl called me and asked if I'd be her NCO and accompany her to the apartment to pick up her things.  On the appointed time, we went over to the apartment.

I remember the soldier had more people there with him --two or three NCO's from his unit.  I was the only one with The Girl.  All of us walked through the apartment room by room and went through every single item, just about.  Luckily, they had not lived together for too long and so they had not yet accumulated too many things and the soldier did not dispute The Girl having most of their possessions.  Gracious, I mean -that was the least he could do, I thought.

I loved seeing this abuser "in check".  He liked to cheat and bully women around and here he was being submissive and controlled.  I LOVED that.  I was almost giddy with delight.

The moving out was without drama or incident.  I eventually didn't talk to The Girl much.  After our babies were born we got together.  She had a boy and was jealous of the fact that I had a girl.  One time while we were both out on maternity leave there was a huge snow storm coming and knowing she was in her apartment alone and didn't have transportation, I stopped by to see if she had food, diapers, etc. and if she needed to take a trip to the commissary.  She said she was fine.  I'm pretty sure that was the last time we ever spoke.

The soldier never did even come see her in the hospital, though he was granted permission to do so.  Last thing I heard she was taking him to court for child support.  I think he bought some clothes, diapers and baby things and had someone bring those things over to her apartment but that was all he did.  Even after the baby was born she still had not told her family.  I even once asked her if she thought about adoption but that offended her and she said, "Black folks don't give their children away."

Oh yeah, one time I baby sat for her.  After we both went back to work she had to pull duty one night and called me to ask if I'd keep her baby.  Of course I did.  He was a fat greedy little boy.  He loved to eat and loved to sleep.  I felt sorry for him.  I wondered about his future --a father that was most likely going to be absent from his life and an extended family that didn't even know he existed --not to mention a very young inexperienced mother that had virtually no support system.  Yeah, it was sad.

And that's the story of The Girl, a young soldier from Louisiana that I knew for a brief time while at Ft. Riley.