Perry’s nephew, Alex, spent the night here last night — he’s in the Army National Guard and had to be in North Vernon by 6:30 AM. The talk around our fireplace was about Afghanistan and whether or not he would be deployed. Just out of basic in November, he thought he might not be sent there even though the call he received had indicated he would be. He explained that the hardest part was not knowing. I get it! A year-long deployment to a foreign country would be a pretty big deal to anyone. Going to bed last night, the 19 year-old didn’t know if his immediate future would entail hauling equipment and supplies and providing security for convoys over 7,000 miles from home, or making pizzas at a local eatery. Crazy, huh?
I got a text from him this morning after he arrived for duty that simply said, “Looks like I’m going.“
Alex was here to help move right before the Christmas holiday. Picking up an online order at our local Wal-mart, we had to wait a good bit of time for them to find the items. That’s when we saw the sign pointing down to a solitary chair that said, “Code Black Safe Place.”
I had no clue what a “Code Black” was, you guys, so I looked it up on Google: “Code Black: Bomb threat, nuclear attack” EEEK! That can’t be right… can it?
So I use the search terms ‘code black walmart’ and find it means ‘weather‘ for Wal-mart shoppers. How kind of the Seymour Wal-mart to offer one safe chair should a tornado hit the store. Not that we were in danger of that happening in December, but here’s proof that Alex felt he was more deserving of that safe spot than anyone else in the store. Probably because he had a premonition that he would be needed in Afghanistan.