Heritage

Heritage


The way she told it, you only had five minutes to eat your meals in Officers Candidate School. This was just one more way for the Navy to make you into the person they needed. The way she told it, you had to shovel in your food as fast as possible. Growing up a Navy brat, she was used to ridiculous things. Rebecca took it as a challenge, and never failed. Even when the young man sitting next to her started choking on a piece of iceberg lettuce, she stopped only to say to the sergeant, “Excuse me, but this boy is choking.” You had to eat, she told me. Still, she was the only one to say anything.
Later, he came and found her. His name was Glen, he said – and with all of the solid confidence he would instill in me, he asked if the next time they were off duty, he could take her out for a drink. You take care of the ones who save your life, Glen told her.
They eloped in Newport, Rhode Island – Rebecca didn’t tell anyone, Glen had no one to tell. After they were married in August with the sea at their backs, the Navy did its best to punish them for it. My mother withdrew. The way she told it, she’d found the stability she’d been looking for. My father stayed, standing both of their full-kit punishment watches. I can see him there, alone on the edge of a chain-link fence at three in the morning, somewhere in the middle of two consecutive six hour watches, holding both of them up with ease.