Growing upby
Vin hadn't thought about
how his actions would affect his family. He'd just acted. He looked around at
them, unsure if his great idea had been so great. It had seemed like a great
idea, and he had given it lots of thought, just not in terms of what it would
mean for his family. And now here they all were staring at him. Great. Why, of
all the days for JD to get the mail, did it have to be today? "Vin," Chris
looked at him. "It's just something I had been thinking about, dad." "You
never mentioned you were thinking about the military," Chris leaned back in his
chair. Vin swallowed hard. "I'm graduating in the spring, and, well, I'm not
real good at school like JD is.." "Vin you are NOT dumb," JD told him sternly.
"No, I'm not, I'm just not good at school stuff. But I can track stuff, live
off of what I find, and I'm a good shot with a gun," Vin continued. Buck and
Chris both nodded. They had taught both boys how to use guns and found that Vin
was a natural sharpshooter, he had required almost no training and hit what he
was aiming at nine times out of ten. As a responsible hunter, if he wounded an
animal he tracked it down and put it out of it's misery, as a result he could
follow any trail. He had always loved camping and after a trip where a bear took
all his food, had found that he was quite capable of living off the land. Vin
was without question a nature boy. "You would do well in the Army, no question,
but is that what you want to do?" Chris asked. "I think maybe so, but I don't
know a lot about it, that was why when there was a recruiter at school for the
career seminar I asked him to mail me some information. You always say to find
out what all is involved before you make a decision about something," Vin reminded
Chris. "I'm proud of you for the way you're going about getting information
before you do anything. Are you thinking career military or just something you
do for a while?" Buck asked. "The only area where the things I'm good at are
useful are the military and law enforcement. A lot of people go from the military
into police work. You and dad both did," Vin pointed out. Chris couldn't argue,
he and Buck had been Navy SEAL's for ten years before joining the ATF. He sighed
and looked over at his son. Vin was a young man now and getting ready to head
off into the world. This was part of that, just part he was wishing hadn't come
just yet. He wanted to have his boy for a few more years, but no, that wasn't
fair to Vin. "Why don't you bring out what's got on both and we'll take a look
at it," Chris suggested. The military was not an easy life, and not necessarily
the one he would wish for his son, but then as he had pointed out, Vin was well
qualified for it. Vin dashed off to his and JD's room and retrieved a folder
that had information on law enforcement careers and put it with the envelope that
had arrived from the Army. And a tablet of notebook paper listing pros and cons
of each. Vin had obviously been thinking about this for awhile. "I, I wasn't
hiding this dad, I just wanted to have more information before I talked to you,"
Vin looked up at his father. "I understand, do you want to wait and talk about
this later?" Chris asked, wanting to make sure that he was not pushing him. "Now's
fine," Vin smiled at him. He had meant to tell his dad he was thinking about joining
the Army, but had never figured out how to bring it up. JD had solved that by
shouting at the top of his lungs to Vin, who was in the other room, that he had
gotten something form the Army. Both their fathers had come in to find out what
was going on. The four of them sat in the den looking over the materials. Vin
sighed contentedly, knowing whatever choice he made, his family would support
him in it. |