6:00 a.m. Sunday, Nov. 5th, 2023
Eli rolled out of his bed, silencing his second alarm at the same time. Groggily, he took himself through his morning routine and sat down on the porch with a cup of coffee as the early morning light started peaking over the horizon.
"Morning Dad, I have to go take more testing today. I thought getting in physical shape would be the hardest part of becoming a marine. I never imagined it would be geometry that was my Achilles heel." He stopped and took a long drink of his coffee, exhaling with a puff in the cold morning air. "Mom is doing good. She won't come out and say it, but I think it's starting to get serious with Jeff. She's been seeing him for 6 months, and she invited him over for dinner on Friday. She has never brought a boyfriend home before. Jeff is nice he doesn't really understand me, though.
"Don't get me wrong. He's a nice dude, and he seems to be genuinely good to and for mom. But he's not you. He works in a factory making lockers and has a few beer every night. But he looks at mom with a sparkle in his eye and he may not understand my drive to be a Marine but he doesn't put it down and actually bought me a new pair of running shoes yesterday when he seen the blisters I was getting from running in my boots. His heart is in the right place, I hope this is good for mom." He finished off his coffee as the sun finished rising and dropped his mug off in the sink before heading out on his morning run.
He finished his morning run at the front doors of the recruiting office in town. Walking through the door, his recruiter, Staff Sergeant Williams, greeted him by holding out a granola bar. "Breakfast before your tests."
Eli took it and ate it quickly, choking it down with water from the dispenser in the corner. Crumpling his little paper cup and throwing it away, he followed the staff sergeant back to the testing rooms, where he sat with 3 other kids, 2 were from his high school, and one he didn't recognize.
They finished the first test, and he had a 10-minute break between the tests. He and two of the other kids went outside while he waited. Crouching down on the curb and enjoying the brisk morning air in his lungs after sitting in a stale classroom for the last 2 hours.
"Wanna hit?" He peered up to the kid he didn't know holding out a vape.
"No, thank you. I appreciate the offer, though." He held his hand out to shake as he stood up. "I'm Elijah, trying for either scout sniper or UAV Operator."
The other kid took it and shook, "Nick. Nice to meet you, I'm gonna be an artillery operator." He wasn't short, but he wasn't tall either with short blonde hair and a stocky build that looked like the very definition of "Corn-Fed."
Staff sergeant Williams stepped out the door. "Anyone who has more testing, I need asses in seats in 2 minutes. Anyone late doesn't take the test."
He hopped back up and jogged into the building, getting another waxy paper cup of water quickly before taking his seat and sharpening his pencil.
The next 2 hours were a blur. I'm not sure he had understood anything in the entire packet. He got up and gave the Staff Sergeant a salute, which was returned, before heading out of the building.
Eli pulled his phone out of his pocket and checked the time.
1 p.m.
"Marcus should be awake by now." He thought outloud as he pulled up snapchat and sent him a message.
《Burgers?》
He was jogging in the direction of Marcus' house when his phone started ringing. He stopped and pulled his phone back off of his arm holster. Why couldn't he just text back like a normal freaking person?
He answered the call, "Yo wh-" he was quickly interrupted by screaming through the phone.
"No, I'm going to do homework with Eli! I promise here he answered. Eli, you tell her the plans for the day, please. You're on speaker." He could hear Marcus shuffling around in the background after handing off the phone.
"Hey, Mama Bennett, it's been a while. He's not lying. I'm just a couple blocks from your house now, we were gonna go get burgers at Smokie Joes and do some studying. Marcus has been tutoring me in physics and geometry for my ASVAB testing."
"As long as you're with Eli, I guess it's fine. I don't want you around those boys that hang out in the trailer park gettin' high." Eli heard Mama Bennett say on the other end of the phone line as she handed the phone back to her son.
"Meet you at Joe's then?" Eli confirmed with him.
"Yeah. Give me 10. I have this project I want to show you." Promptly hanging up immediately after finishing the sentence.
Eli finished his run at the doors of Smokie Joes. He popped inside and slipped through the restaurant that was packed to the gill with the post church crowd.
"Hey Rocky," he said, peeking through the servers window at a bedraggled Mexican man with a stained apron and sweat covering his forehead standing at a grill covered in assorted meats and three fryers going.
"Not now, Mijo, I'm too busy." He didn't even turn to see who it was before responding.
"Gotcha. Marcus and I will be here for a while hanging out at the servers tables doing homework and doing some rolling with the servers. Whenever you get time is fine." He paused for a second, "Ooorrr alternatively I could just come back and make it myself, I've seen you do it a hundred times now."
That comment got him going instantly. "You think for one second I'm going to let you step foot on this line and make food that will exit this kitchen you are sorely mistaken. I would rather lose my left testicle in a knife fight with a beaver than to let you put your hands on another piece of uncooked food in this kitchen ever again. Get out of here before I throw you out for making threats like that. Even Joe said never to let you cook in here after last time."
Joe had given Elijah a summer job as a dishwasher last year and, after a few weeks, gave him a try on the grill. That turned out to be a fatal mistake, Eli didn't have the first clue about cooking or anything to do with it. He almost instantly started a grease fire, although he still wasn't sure exactly what he'd done wrong to start it. But the next thing he knew, Rocky was there with a bin full of salt, pitching it onto the fire. And as of that moment, he was never allowed near the grill ever again.
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One of the servers walked into the kitchen, pausing Rocky's tirade at him for a moment as she dropped off dishes and glanced awkwardly him as he got his ass chewed out.
She shook her head at him as she left him to his tormentor.
Rocky took a deep breath to continue yelling at Eli when he held his hands up in frustration. "Just.. go out there and help them roll silverware, and I'll have your food out as soon as I can."
"Thanks, Rocky!" Eli shouted as he eagerly ran to the servers table, setting down his backpack and pulling out the study packets, getting them organized on the table.
"Did you already tell Rocky to make your food, baby?" He looked up from his bag he was digging in for a pencil to see Dorothy, the sweet old server that's worked here since before he could remember.
"Well, hi Dorothy, yeah, I did. Thank you for checking, though we all know you're the only one he truly listens to."
"That's because I go to evening worship with his mother. And that woman would have his rear if she knew half the things he does or says in here. You need some water, dear? And if you could wrap some silverware before you do some homework, the girls would love you. Our prepared pile has been dwindling fast since morning service let out."
"For you? I'd wrap the world, Dorothy." He smiled up at the old woman from his seated position.
"Stop your flirting. What would Joe think of you hitting on his sister. Hmm?"
"Someone's finally willing to take the crazy old loon off my hands?"
That one earned him a swat on the shoulder. "You're trouble, boy. God save any woman you marry."
She waddled off to the fountain machine and came back with two waters at the same time that Marcus came bursting through the front door, pulling a radio flyer wagon with a sheet covering something inside of it. It was a good thing he lived right down the block because that thing looked heavy.
"Nope." Dorothy had set the waters down at the edge of the table and was already stalking towards Marcus waving her finger at him like Dikembe Mutumbo. "Last time you brought a project into the restaurant, you melted a hole through the foundation. Not the floor. The foundation."
"This one has no mean chemicals that melt concrete. In fact, I'm sure you'll quite like this one." He said as he maneuvered around her and parked the cart in the corner by the outlet and unplugged the hotcart where they serve breakfast. Grabbing a cord from under the sheet and plugging it in. "I, Champaign's very own genius, present to you." He pointed to Eli, who on that cue started a drumroll on the table like he always did whenever Marcus made some crazy invention.
"The Rollinator Version 118.0" He proudly proclaimed to the small gathering of servers and onlooking patrons who had peeled their eyes away from their BBQ to witness the spectacle that is Marcus in action.
"Must you name everything like Dr. Doofenshmirtz? It kills the vibe of your actual inventing skill."
"Always! That man is my hero. He is the one who inspired me to start inventing!"
"So that does the ancient office printer looking thing do?" Jessica, a short blonde waitress piped up.
"The _Rollinator._ takes any covering, let's say, a napkin, for instance." He picked up a napkin and placed in on a scanner. "It scans it down to the last micrometer, analyzes the material and its tensile strength." A bright white light flashed from inside the machine, and a buzzer went off. A box attached to the side of the machine opened, revealing a loading mechanism. "And now that it has analyzed the napkin, I can load a handful in." Which he proceeded to do.
"Now we have the options of fill or wrap. If we choose fill, it will fit as much of the loaded material as possible into the covering. If you chose the wrap option, it will wrap the loaded object as intended, and for that, we set out silverware out how we want it wrapped." He set the fork, knife, spoon combo down on machine and closed the lid and clicked the wrap button. It made the sound like a vacuum sealer, and then the same flashing light came back that came with the initial scan. "And now we load some silverware in." He dumped a cup of each piece of silverware into a box that opened on the other side of the machine and closed the lid. "Now we wait."
It took about 30 seconds for the first one to come out. It was horribly messy and rolled like crap with the fork facing the wrong way, making it oddly shaped. "Good job. If I wanted silverware that looked like that, I'd go get the homeless guy who lives behind our dumpster." Dorothy piped up.
"Just give it a moment. It's not perfect yet. It runs on a generational learning A.I. each time it rolls or wraps, it gets a little smarter." As if to prove his point it kicked out a second one a little faster than the first and a little better wrapped, atleast all the silverware were facing one direction even if they weren't laid flat and the knife was stuck through the prongs of the fork.
Shortly after, it kicked another slightly better one. And then, by the 10th one, it was spitting out restaurant quality rolls every 5 seconds or so. And after the 20th, it had gotten into a rhythm, kicking them out every second wrapped tightly and neatly. It ran out of that first batch of silverware after about 5 minutes, but the servers had seen it in action and kept dropping off more napkins and silverware for Marcus to load.
They'd sat down and started b.s.ing about how disappointing the bulls have been this season while half-heartedly going over his homework.
"So you're really going to join the marines?" Marcus popped out around a mouth full of Mozzarella stick that Jessica had brought over in appreciation for the _Rollinator._ "Why?"
"I've told you a thousand times. I want to help people. I want to help make a world that my future kids will feel safe in. I'm not as smart as you. Yeah, I could get a job at a grocery store or warehouse and live my life malcontent with the way things are. But I applied to colleges, and I got accepted to a couple of decent ones too, but nothing like you got Marcus. I didn't get a full ride to Stanford because I'm a literal genius who is going to change the world with a machine that I made to roll me joints because I'm lazy!" He made a grand gesture at the _Rollinator_ as it spit out more wrapped silverware.
"I actually had blunts in mind."
He could hit him. He took a deep breath and centered himself like he'd been taught in therapy. "The point is Marcus, I didn't get a full ride, and I don't want to live my life in debt. I've seen enough of that with my mother paying off her student loans long after my dad passed away." He looked his friend in the eyes. "This gives me the chance to take care of my mother financially, get into law school, and help people along the way."
"And who helps your Mom when you die. Who do I call late at night when I can't sleep because there is an idea in my head that won't go away. Who does Dorothy call to help her move in 6 months like she does every year because she refuses to rent from anyone who isn't a slumlord." Marcus straightened himself. "I'm here helping you and supporting your dreams regardless of my feelings on them. So you can hear me out one more time. You always talk about your plans and helping others. You know who else has plans. The people who will be shooting at you. The people you will be shooting at. Plans mean fuck all if you die Eli. I know you were Mr. All American track and field star, State record holder in the 100 yard dash. I know you hate the fact that your dreams got crushed by a patch of ice. I hate that fact, with me tutoring you and your ability to run we should have been able to go anywhere together." He stopped and looked down at the table. "I just don't want you to get yourself killed like your dad did dude. You got so much of his personality don't follow his hero complex to an early grave Eli."
Stunned he sat there for a moment processing what his best friend had just said to him. He reached out and tagged him with a straight punch to the eye before jumping up and walking away. It was between the lunch and dinner rushes so only really the servers that had sat down at another table near them and ceded their normal table to them that seen it at all.
"OH, WHAT THE FUCK!" Marcus yelled while grabbing at his eye.
"You went **too far** with that one Marcus and you know it. You can go fuck yourself!"
That had grabbed the attention of everyone in the restaurant as he stalked out the front door aggressively jingling the bell above the door as he slammed it open.
He took the long way home, running harder than usual to get rid of the burning rage building inside of him.
He pushed through the front door and closed it with a little more Vigor than normal, prompting his mother to close her book over, using her finger as a bookmark. "Wanna talk about it?"
"Not really." He huffed out still out of breath from his run.
"Did you fail your tests?" Elena, his mom, asked.
"No, Marcus said something stupid, and it made me mad, and I hit him." Elijah said as he slipped his shoes off and started working on getting his coat off.
"And is what he said really a good enough reason to hit him? I raised you to use violence as a last resort." Elena pursed her lips and raised her eyes in disapproval.
"He seems to think that me joining the marines is some sort of hero complex and all but told me I was going to follow dad into the grave because I got it from him." His voice was raised, and his blood pressure was rising again just thinking about it.
"Sit." She waited while he took his favorite spot on the couch where he slumped into the corner seething. "Now, I know Marcus well enough to know he didn't just start by disrespecting Daryl. And even if he did say that what right does that give you to lay hands on him, sure what he said was disrespectful but I can almost garuntee it came from a place of love."
"You should be just as mad as I am about this, Mom!" Elijah through his hands out in frustration. "Why are you defending him?"
"Because Marcus is almost as much my son as you are, and I know the boy isn't stupid or insensitive. He probably resorted to the only thing he knew would get you to actually hear what he had to say." She slid her book mark in and set her book down before turning to face him. "You're a good boy, Elijah, and soon you'll be a good man. But Marcus didn't lie at any point either. Your father did have a hero complex. If he didn't keep going back into the apartment complex even long after the fire chief tried to physically stop him, he'd still be here. And I see those same never give up qualities in you, I'm worried about how you'll fare in the military not because you're incapable but because you're the most capable and won't leave anyone behind."
"Maybe I overreacted by hitting him. If he apologises, I'll apologise." A sudden wave of guilt washing over him that he wasn't expecting.
"Okay, well, dinner is in the microwave. Don't forget to shower and get your clothes out before bed. I'm going to head up and lay down. I have an early day tomorrow. I have to prepare for the CEO to walk through in the afternoon." She stood and stalked up the stairs for a moment before the foot falls stopped. "I love you and worry about you. Marcus does too, you should try to forgive him for his misguided way of showing it."