When on deployment I saw the same people everyday, woke up with them, went to breakfast, to work, to dinner, shower, and finally back to sleep with them. It’s stomach-churning. No, I am not exaggerating. Imagine how it feels working with someone who is just maddening. Go ahead close those eyes and picture them. Now imagine waking up and seeing that face everyday for six months. Frightening isn’t it? I know, trust me I know.
Early one morning, in an attempt to escape that face that still haunts me to this day, I got up at three-thirty in the morning and headed over to the medical clinic I worked in. I was currently out of reading material so I thought an empty clinic would be prime time to surf the internet for new literary snacks. As always when entering the clinic I went straight for the break-room to put on some coffee (thank you random churches throughout America for sending us my other drug of choice, caffeine) when I saw it laying there on the table. Battered and worn, calling for me to help it was The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger. I immediately started reading, there was nothing else, and not to mention how invitingly it looked at me. It was like a fat fluffy puppy that needed to be loved.
From the first few pages I felt instant connection with Holden Caulfield, the protagonist. Holden, begins his story by describing his fancy private school, how they advertised about creating poster boys, making them eloquent successful men; while in reality the school was full of crooks that stole from their classmates, one of them being Holden, and weren’t being molded into anything really. They were who they were despite the efforts of the school. Here I was surrounded by people who were who they were despite the military’s attempts to mold them into something more, something full of honor, courage and commitment. Holden shouldn’t have had his things stolen if he was in a school with such upstanding boys but they were stolen none the less. On a guarded military base it shouldn’t have been unadvisable for me to walk around alone any where by myself day or night. Holden knowing that he was surrounded by phonies should have locked his things up; I knew I was surrounded by phonies. Consequently I never went anywhere alone, either a friend or a weapon accompanied me, so I never lost anything, not in Kuwait.
Next thing I knew people were filling in for the work day to start so I began asking everyone if this was their book, I didn’t want to be a book thief, no matter how desperate I was. Nobody claimed it though. How could this book just appear out of nowhere, I thought. Clearly The Catcher in the Rye was divine intervention.
