Into the chair once more -OR- An Inking Feeling

[gunnar]

Kyle breathed a slow heavy sigh as he looked at the message in his hands. An old fashioned letter. Not too many of those getting sent around in this day of instant communication, but some things were better said in the trembling hand of the person saying it, rather than the cold and precise letters of a computer...

"Kyle,

I know that when you read this message, you will have questions, you will not find answers. None of us ever really do. I remember when I was a bright, shiny butter-bar and you told me about that grizzled old Master Sergeant that taught you a valuable lesson about our line of work. Well, I guess I wasn't able to keep ahead of this one, or... some bastard marked 'To whom it may concern...' must have found it's way to my door. Hard to say. I guess what I'm trying to say to you, is thank you for teaching me everything you knew, or at least everything I was able learn from you. I only hope that I was a better leader for my men because of it.

Well sergeant, I guess it was my time to go. If you could, send your regards to my sister, tell her I love her, and I look forward to seeing you sometime later in the year.

John H. Hedding
Captain, Infantry
Commanding"

folding the letter up once more, Kyle made his way inside the fairly nondescript building with the simple black and white sign, and strode upto the man at the counter. 'Joel' is what his name-tag read

"Well, what can we do for you today?" he asked in a remarkably pleasant tone. The interior of the shop was remarkably clean, despite being on the edge of the industrial part of town.

Rolling up his sleeve, Kyle indicated the scroll there with initials and dates: SGT D.F 1983-2005OCT02 // SSG G.W. 1986-2009APR22 // 1LT B.K. 1979-2010FEB16 // , and then explained "I need this put there 'CPT J.H.H. 1980-2011JUL27' Just greyscale, that whats already there. I heard you guys are the best, so I came here. Ahh, should warn you, you might need to replace your rig or at least the needle set when you finish with me."

Joel raised an eyebrow and shrugged, they saw all types, literally, so they were used to such things. "Lets go talk to Dave, he's our artist, he'll talk brass tacks with you, okay?"

***

A few hours later, Kyle stepped out of the little shop, glanced around and climbed back into his blue Chevrolet Cruz, and drove back towards campus.