Strong Saturn in evidence here:

The soldier called me last night; he’s visiting one of his old soldiers. He hadn’t seen the guy in nearly 20 years. He spoke quickly and I realized he was calling from the bathroom. In other words, his other personality, the nicknamed one must have been out in the living room. Earlier he told me about the guy. (contains swearing)

“Yeah, he’s made good. He’s doing really well. I told him to get out of the Army and go to school on the GI bill… you aren’t supposed to do that. You’re supposed to try to get everyone to reenlist but I always knew which ones would be happier outside the Army and he was one of them.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. Anyway he was trying out to be on my squad. And he thought I picked him because he was going to jump out a window. He was showing me how he would follow any order but that’s not why I picked him. I picked him because he was a thief and he knew how to pick locks.”

I laughed.

“Yeah, and he said, I didn’t think that was why you picked me. I thought you didn’t like that I was a thief. What made you think that, I asked. Well you told me my fuckin’ thievin’ days were over and if you caught me stealing again you would break every bone in my motherfuckin’ body.”

I laughed.

“Yeah, I don’t remember saying that but it sounds like me, doesn’t it? I don’t like people who steal but picking locks comes in handy and every time we needed a lock picked, he did it. So anyway, he’s done real well. He went from being a thief on the street, did four years in the army, got out, went to school and now he’s got this big spread. He’s got a wife, kids. He’s got a lot of bikes and trails and stuff on his property so we’re going to go ride them. He told me he decided to become an engineer because of me. Because that’s what I liked. His old sergeant.”

“Doesn’t surprise me.”

“Me neither. My kids are all doing better than me,” he said. ‘Almost all of them are and that’s what you want. He’s real happy and it makes me real happy to see him like this. Anyway, P, I’ve got to go. We’re going to try to get on those bikes before the sun goes down…”