PATRIOTS
A Short Novel
By Charles Deemer
Synopsis and chapter
outline
Synopsis
High school sweethearts Claire and Archie experience the slow
deterioration of their marriage after Archie’s National Guard unit is activated
and sent to Iraq. Archie discovers how much he likes the Army, deciding to make
it a career; and Claire learns that she cannot be an Army wife. The new
environment changes each in a way that cannot support their marriage.
Chapter
outline
- Archie and
his National Guard unit are training in Eastern Oregon. He loves the feel
of being a warrior.
- Claire, his
wife and a high school math teacher, confides to a colleague that she is
nervous about Archie’s unit being activated to Iraq. It is spring, 1993.
- After
training, Archie and his brother-in-law, Hal, hang out together and Hal
confesses that he, too, is worried about going to Iraq. Archie, however,
would consider it his sacred duty.
- Claire goes
to a club to hear her sister, Kelly, a jazz singer, perform. During a
break, Kelly confesses that she’s been having an affair with her drummer.
- Archie’s unit
gets sudden news: they’ve been activated. Archie phones Claire with the
news, and she breaks down.
- Claire and
Kelly visit their parents’ grave. Kelly says she’ll break up with the drummer
in order to be there for Hal now. Claire is still shocked, in a daze.
- Archie finds
a new spirit in his outfit now that they are going to Iraq – except for a
few, including Hal.
- Claire visits
Archie’s mother, Helen, in an assisted living facility. Helen was an Army
wife, and Claire is curious about how one gets through the rough times. At
school, Claire’s gay colleague and friend, Nicole, tells Claire about the
possibility of Archie being exempted because of his mother’s poor health.
Claire gets excited.
- Archie and
Hal drive home from training early in order to get ready to ship out. When
Archie arrives, the house is empty.
- Claire is at
an after-school party of teachers. A new teacher, Duncan, corners her and
tells her about how Iraq is another Vietnam, which upsets Claire.
- Archie is
waiting for Claire when she returns. After their “homecoming,” she
immediately tells him about the possibility of getting out of going to
Iraq. Archie is shocked. Of course he’ll go. It’s his duty.
- Claire wakes
up to an empty bed, empty house. She is worried and calls her sister. But
Archie isn’t there.
- Archie visits
his mother. He tells her that Claire is having a hard time adjusting.
- In their
marriage, sex is oil for the squeaky wheel: and they make love when Archie
comes home. But at a dinner party with Kelly and Hal, Claire bursts into
tears when Kelly says she’s reserved the Elks Club for a going away party.
- Archie tries
to tell Claire how much her moral support is important to him. Claire
promises to try.
- The next
morning, Archie has her breakfast waiting. He is being especially nice. At
school, Duncan gives Claire his phone number and offers to be a handy man
for her after Archie ships out. Claire is almost repulsed by the offer.
- The party at
the Elks Club. Archie gives an inspired patriotic speech. Claire manages
to smile through the evening.
- They have
unusually hot sex after the party. The next day Archie jokes that he
should go to war more often. Claire doesn’t appreciate the joke.
- Archie and
Hal drive to Portland to join up with their unit. The goodbyes are painful
and awkward.
- Kelly wants
Claire to join a Military Wives Support Group with her. Claire says she’ll
think about it.
- Archie and
Hal fly to Fort Bliss, Texas, for more training. At the Enlisted Men’s
Club, Hal confesses that he thinks Kelly has been having an affair. Archie
can’t believe it.
- At school,
Duncan hits on Claire again. Archie phones from Texas – it’s a strained
call, Claire having a hard time keeping it together.
- Archie sends
Claire an email, giving all the details of his training. In a return
email, Claire says she’d rather not get the details, which upset her.
- Claire is
visited by ladies from the Military Wives Support Group. She is polite.
- Archie and
Hal begin training. Archie notices that Hal is not a very good soldier and
reprimands him to get it together. This is the real thing, weekend
warriors no more.
- Claire is
visited by her sister, and Kelly is furious. Archie called her on Hal’s
behalf, that Hal needs her love and support.
- Claire sends
Archie an email, reprimanding him for getting involved in her sister’s
affairs.
- Nicole asks
Claire out for a drink. Nicole’s lover has left her and she needs a
shoulder to cry on. On the way home, Claire passes a homeless vet she has
seen many times before. This time, she stops and gives him a job mowing
her lawn.
- Claire gets
an email from Archie, who is shocked and upset that she’s letting a
homeless man onto their property. She knows nothing about him!
- Claire and
Kelly attend a meeting of the Military Wives Support group.
- At Fort
Bliss, their training is cut short so they can get to Iraq sooner. They
are given time off, and Archie and Hal hit the G.I. Bars in El Paso. Hal
goes off with a Mexican prostitute.
- Mike, the
homeless vet, comes by to mow Claire’s lawn. First he picks the lock on
the shed because Claire can’t find the key. Claire has never met anyone
who could pick a lock. Claire offers him the summer job of mowing the lawn
every two weeks.
- Archie phones
to tell Claire he is about to ship out to Iraq early, to Basra. When she
tells him she let the homeless vet mow the lawn, Archie gets furious.
Their call is strained.
- Claire visits
Archie’s mother and tells her about his orders to Basra. Helen, to
Claire’s shock, says Archie must be disappointed, he’d have wanted to go
to Baghdad where the action is.
- Claire sends
Archie an email, confused and upset about why he would want to go where
the greatest danger is.
- At Fort
Bliss, Archie stops Hal from going AWOL.
- End of
school, and Claire empties out her classroom. At the faculty party, Nicole
gets very drunk. Claire takes her home with her to let her sleep it off.
During the night, Nicole makes sexual advances, which Claire rejects.
- Archie phones
and Nicole answers. What the hell is going on? He gets Claire and tries to
calm her down about Baghdad. You go where they send you in the Army. He
himself has nothing to do with it.
- Claire drives
Nicole to her car. Duncan comes by, asking about Nicole, and Claire
brushes him off.
- The end of
training at Fort Bliss. Archie has a hard time reaching Claire by phone.
- Archie
finally gets Claire the day before shipping out. Claire pledges her moral
support. She’ll be a good Army wife. But this isn’t easy to say.
- On the last
night at Fort Bliss, Archie leads other drunken soldiers to capture
lightning bugs to send to Claire. She’s never seen them.
- Claire has a
small nervous breakdown after Archie ships out.
- They land in
Kuwait, and Archie is assigned to a team, Hal to another. Archie feels a new
bonding with his team. He feels like a warrior, a good feeling.
- Claire sends
Archie an email. The jars of lightning bugs arrived – but they were all
dead.
- Driving
through a park, Claire sees Mike, the homeless vet, rooting through
garbage cans. She wonders where he lives. Seeing him again later, she
parks and follows him to a camp in the woods above the park. What she sees
shocks her.
- Archie starts
a war journal, summarizing war stories from the Stars & Stripes
newspaper.
- Claire gets
the nerve to ask Mike about his life. He says he tramps with Pete, his
partner, and they manage to do okay. Claire feels a vague admiration for
his resourcefulness.
- Archie is
bored by their duty in Basra, which is mostly guard duty. Meanwhile, he
continues his war journal, feeling envious of those seeing action.
- Eugene is hit
with an unseasonable rainstorm. Claire worries about Mike’s situation in
bad weather. Kelly comes over with a shocking admission: she slept with
Duncan.
- Archie
continues his war journal.
- Kelly and
Nicole become activists against the war. When Claire learns that Mike and
his partner will be leaving the area soon for warmer fall and winter
weather, she offers them dry sleeping room in the shed. Mike accepts.
- Archie’s
convoy hits a bomb in the road. Archie is fine but Hal, in a different
humvee, is injured.
- Claire’s
neighbors don’t like her letting homeless men sleep in the shed. Nicole
alerts Claire that Kelly is drunk at their usual hangout. Going to rescue
her, Claire learns from Kelly that Hal has been shot.
- Archie
continues his war journal. After the bomb, more than ever, he longs to see
action.
- Nicole tries
to recruit Claire to march against the war on the 4th of July.
A wide variety of opinions are represented by marchers. Claire thinks
about it. If she marched, her sign would read, BRING MY HUSBAND HOME
ALIVE!
- Archie
continues his war journal.
- Archie is
called off guard duty. His mother had died. He begins the long process to
go home on emergency leave.
- Archie’s
sister, Diane, gets to town first to handle affairs after Helen’s death.
Claire decides to march after all, her sign reading DO BETTER! On the
march, Claire feels surprising unity and camaraderie with the marchers.
- Archie gets
home on the 4th of July, while Claire is off marching. He
enters the house to discover they’ve been robbed. Everything of value is
gone. In the garage, he discovers various protest signs, ones that Claire
had made as she looked for the right one. Archie is outraged.
- Claire
returns home, and they have their confrontation. Claire tries to convince
Archie that being against policy is not being against the troops, but
Archie won’t hear it. He leaves to get a motel room. That night Archie
phones. He tells Claire he is going to reenlist and make the Army his
career. This seals their separation.
- On his way
back to Iraq, Archie visits Hal in the hospital. A new distance has grown
between them over the war. Archie understands that his new family is the
Army.
- Claire wants
to form a new kind of protest group, of military spouses who both back
their husbands but disagree with policy. She gets very few takers, not
even Kelly, who has become a peace activist.
- Months later,
Claire gets a call from Archie. He’s in town, Grand Marshall of the
Veterans Day Parade after getting shot in Iraq. He wants to come by and
pick up his belongings. Thus they have their final meeting, which is
cordial, polite – but also demonstrative of the two very different people
they have become. Each, in their own way, a patriot.
END