the guys

I wake up Thursday to a facebook message from one of the guys.

"I'd like to come visit you guys some time! I've been thinking about you and your husband for a minute and I've missed you!"

"Ok, come visit us," I type, "You can come over tonight if you want, dude. You have our address? Or you can come over tomorrow night, or Saturday during the day, or Sunday anytime after we get home from church, or anytime next week, lol."

After all, he lives maybe 20 minutes away.

"Hahahahahaha! I'm actually stuck at the SeaTac airport right now. I've missed Hot Karl!"

Wait. He's at the airport? A few messages later and he finally lets me know he has moved out of state and is in town for National Guard duty, which he reports for in 48 hours.

"Oh," I type, "so where are you staying until then?"

"I stayed last night at the USO in the Airport. They have these amazing little tuna fish sandwich things!"

"Ok, we'll come pick you up and you can stay with us and Karl agrees about the sandwiches."

"haha! As he should. They're pretty delightful. I would love to enjoy your hospitality!"

"Dummy, of course you would. We'll be there in 30 minutes."

I tell my husband to hurry up and get dressed so we can go pick up Mulligan. Then I read him the messages.

"Did you really call him a dummy?" My husband laughs.

Yes! Of course I called Mulligan a dummy. Why didn't he just ask if he could stay with us? Later, when I ask him, he tells me it is because if I offered instead of him asking, he would feel less like he was imposing on us. He wasn't imposing on us of course.

It's funny though because one of the things I least expected about marrying my husband was the amount of men who were about to become my family. I know other wives go through this too. I have heard numerous stories about the husband's combat buddy who moved in after the deployment. He was the husband's best friend and neither guy wanted to be alone so the single soldier just moved in with the married one. Some of those arrangements work out okay for years. Some of them last only months before the single soldier is just too much of a burden. The wife feels guilty but with the care her husband needs, she just cannot shoulder the emotional burden of another wounded soldier. No one moved in with us but I know that it is just circumstance. There could easily come a day when one of the guys needs a place to stay and we have a place to stay.

When a combat buddy of my husband's calls or texts or facebook messages with a need, I know I will do my best to meet that need. The guys are family. In fact, sometimes, they are better than family because they have stood by my husband in the scariest moments of his life. They have shared his fear. They know things about Karl I can only guess when I wake up alone and he is watching war movies at three in the morning. More than that, I owe these guys. I owe them a debt I can never repay because they had my husband's back. They helped him survive to come home to me. They covered him. They made him laugh. They sheltered his body and his soul and I will never be able to thank them properly for all the parts of my husband that came home to me.