Bert checks out the crater

Bert hopped out of the truck and looked toward the crater. Plumes of white smoke were rising out of it and being carried away on the light breeze. All of the smoke seemed to be coming from within the crater, so he considered that the risk of fire spreading to the green pasture was very low. Well, that's good, he thought. This should burn out in a few hours.

He thought of Annie. She was acting like a kid again. Every time he had to deploy, poor little Annie would have a meltdown. He would have to go to her room and calm her down. She would cry herself to sleep in his arm and he would hold her until it was time for him to muster with the division and get on the bus to the airport.

Bert hated to play favorites with his kids, but Annie was special to him. The twins, Allison and Alicia suffered through the early part of his career, when he was too junior to turn down any assignments. So, they moved around a lot and the twins resented him for it.

He wished he was closer to Allison and Alicia but the brutal truth was that he spent the better part of their childhoods in the desert half a world away. They were raised almost singlehandedly by their mother and they were their mother's girls.

Annie was born later in Bert's career and she was his little angel. He was senior enough to take more stateside assignments and be there for her upbringing a lot more. Annie enjoyed sports with Daddy. She liked science and technology. Without being totally tomboyish, she was sort of like the son that Bert and Laura never had. The older girls were a little too girly for Bert to have any kind of fun with.

Bert figures that the berm around the crater is about six feet high and he can't see into it. He's going to have to walk up the side of the crater to get a better look.