There’s no minute like last minute

Yesterday was a normal evening at casa de Chartier. Sitting around watching Chopped while kids ran through the room and I read up on Venice travel details. Josh answered his phone and I figured someone from work was checking up on him since he had been home sick with the flu. Until I heard his surprised, “OK. OK.” and was kicked in the gut. He’s gone. 

I guess I had a bit of prior warning the night before when he fielded a call regarding another Marine who had just gotten word that he was going to Iraq. I asked why this Marine was chosen and not him (trying to calculate my odds of losing this particular lottery) and he said that since so many new people were arriving this summer, they wanted him around to provide continuity. Sounds good to me. 

Well someone not in Bahrain decided they knew better and scrolled through a list of personnel and Josh was one of the lucky few chosen to head to Iraq. With less than 24 hours notice. 

I traded my travel books for powers of attorney, visa renewal forms, and all the other administrative paperwork that Josh was going to take care of now that he was home from Jordan. We had an enjoyable week at least. 

Today he leaves in about 2 hours for an undetermined period of time. It’s really the best way to go — like ripping off a bandaid. Otherwise we sit around and look at each other and say things like, “I can’t believe you’ll be gone in a week” or “7 months is going to take forever.” We barely had time last night to do more than figure out which lose ends he could tie up this morning and which ones I had to handle after he was gone. He hadn’t even unpacked from his Jordan trip so he threw a few things in the washing machine and zipped his bag closed. That was it.

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So he’s gone, without a return date in sight, but we are good. We went and said goodbye to him at base this morning and as I was about to take a photo of him with the kids, a soldier walked by and she asked, “Would you like me to take one of all of you?”