kera

My best friend. My sister. My soul mate.
She enlisted two years ago. Not out of support of the current administration or the war efforts, but for lack of other opportunities. I came to visit her in L.A. just after she did this. She drove me out to the beach on a cloudy night, and we walked hand in hand for what felt like miles in the chilled sand. When she stopped and got down on one knee I knew something had changed. Out of her pocket she pulled a small black velvet box and smiled. "Happy birthday...." Inside a gold ring with a diamond. "I promise that I will come back to you. I want you to know that I will always love you." The ocean absorbed the sound of my tears and I still wear the ring every day.
Yesterday she got her orders: Afghanistan. She was supposed to come home to me in Februray, she was supposed to be done. She was coming back. They stopped her. She's going, and I can't change it. I can't make her safe, make her stay. I don't know when I'm going to see her again if ever.
She is giving me power of attorney and in the case of her death I will be responsible for all her affairs. I can't stand that I have to think of these things. I feel numb. Closed off, irrational. I want to do something radical and decisive. But my world is slipping away from me, and everything seems wrong.