Alright, let me drop all my cards on the table. I'm back from my hitch in the Corps. Another injury got me out but this time, it wasn't during my training. This time it happened during my time in Iraq but I'm mostly better now. That doesn't matter. I'm not here to talk about that. Unless you wanna know how many ragheads I killed? Ah, so. You do. Alright. Fifteen confirmed, another eight possibles and nearly one hundred under my command. Yeah, I did REAL good. Lots of shiny medals to wear and pick up the arm candy.

So here I am now, my high and tight gone, just a bit of stubble that barely shows. I adjust my robes then bow to the approaching reverend. I'm at a Buddhist temple in Cali, pushing the battles and bloodshed to the back of my mind until I need them again. I can't help the tight smile on my face as I think, If only I had been born a few centuries before. The armies I could have led over the world, unifying it. I may have been able to do what Genghis Khan and all the others couldn't.

I'm almost done here. We're waiting for a visit from the Dalai Lama so I won't be leaving right away. Normally I wouldn't wear the robes of a priest but I've somewhat been forced to. My own clothes were ruined in a small incident. As they were being cleaned by one of the other priests while I was doing a chore he couldn't do, a bottle of bleach was knocked into the sink by one of the cats lived near the temple. As he was letting them soak at the time, he never noticed them until he came back. It doesn't matter. It's not his fault another priest called him away.

So I'm standing here, wearing saffron and amber robes and the strange thing is, they look right on me. I shake off that thought and then realize the armored car bearing the Dalia Lama is coming. For a moment, I can't remember what I'm supposed to do then after a few moments, I do. As we go through the ceremony, the movements, the words, I'm feeling better and better.

Finally, it's over and I'm actually speaking with the Dalai Lama. As I'm the only non-priest there, he grants me almost a twenty minute audience. When it's over, he's signed my copies of his books and blessed a sheet of silk for me.

---

The silk's around my neck since I can't wear it on my head. I'm in uniform and leaving the monastery after three months of living there. I shudder to think of how many bills I have waiting but it doesn't matter. My cover pulled on, I make my way to my waiting car. A friend of mine garaged my BMW while I was in the Corps so I had it near at hand when I got back to San Diego. I drop the cover on the passenger seat then start the car. As it purrs to life, the stereo turns on and the CD I was listening to begins to play. I tap a lit-up panel on the console and the player switches from Disc to Audio-In. The computer I installed in the dash boots up and the small touch screen in the dash shows Foobar2000 booting. Instead of the Kernel loading, the install points to Foobar's exe. I tap the screen until it gets to a track I want then pull away.

As I drive along the coast, I'm doing nearly a hundred on the mostly empty roads. So far, my radar detector's been silent so I keep the music up loud and my foot down on the pedal. As I shoot along, I remember an old town where I shagged a girl I had just met over the hood of her parents' car as they watched the sunset less than a dozen meters away. I smirk and begin to slow down. Nearing the cities, I know there'll be County Mountie's and I don't want to see if they'll be willing to give a serviceman a break.

---

I've just pulled into Coos Bay and stop at a swimming pool to ask the directions to somewhere to eat. My cover in hand, I get out of the car and stand tall and proud. Placing my cover on my head, inside the property, some of the younger children swamp me while a few of the young women, and just as many mothers, check me out in my uniform. I answer half a dozen questions and correct one who called me captain. I got out of basic a Corporal. I'm now a Staff Sergeant. Do your job above and beyond, the amounts of promotions and perks are almost sickening. And the medals on my chest aren't for completing boot camp like the Navy and the Amy. Pussies.

Finally, a young woman points me towards an adequate restaurant while showing me her goodies by bending over. I debate asking her when she gets off but I don't plan to stick around long enough. I want to get home. My emails and letters with my friends told me they set up what I wanted.

As I eat, I make notes in a folder. A friend of mine, an organic chemist major, moved into my spare room and turned my basement into a lab. With our email conversations, he's led me to believe some of my hippier sensibilities will be fulfilled when I get home.

---

I'm home and Cece is on my lap, kissing, biting, groping, and generally mauling me. Her legs are wrapped tightly around me and in moments, she's undone my zipper and I'm inside her. For a moment, I'm too surprised to do anything then started thrusting. Her tongue forces its way into mine and soon I've got her up against the wall and I can hear the paintings and speakers on their stands rattling as I slam her against the wall. She screams into my mouth as she cums and a few moments later, I shoot into her. She pulls on underwear she had left on the couch, winks at me and says welcome home. I look down at my still mostly hard penis then back at her and shrug, smiling. Best way she's ever welcomed me home. I watch her walk away and know it's not going to happen again. If we hadn't had sex in the fifteen years we had known each other until now, it's not going to happen again.

A dozen minutes later my employees arrive back from lunch and my cover is placed on Tasha's head as Mike asks me what it's like killing someone.

---

Tommy, the organic chemist, sits on my couch and all my friends; Hippy, Raver, Gamer, and so on are sitting around, sipping at their drinks of choice. I'm selling the house soon and moving into a building I bought. It's nearly done being renovated from a formed Thriftway into one of the coolest offices/apartments ever.

A large box, about ten percent bigger than steamer trunks from back in the day, is brought in and everyone crowds around to see. Tommy tosses me the key and I place it in the slot.

I hesitate then unlock the box. Everyone else sits with bated breath as I look over the treasure trove. Finally, I murmur,

“My God, it's full of drugs.”