It certainly was a situation which Admiral Toshio "Animal" Nakamura was not used to, having spent the last forty years in uniform. Retirement was at sixty-three, but the Navy had kept him on for one more year because of the fact that the US 2nd Fleet was in such disarray from the idiot that had been placed in command of it. The SECNAV had wanted Animal to fix the mess that Admiral Bennett had made of Second Fleet. It was far from comfortable because of the fact that so many of his compatriots were serving out the last of their commitments too to the Navy. Having served his country with honor and distinction, he was set to retire. And of course as he was in his early 60s, it was OK for his mind to wander. And wander it did...back to when he had talked to Admiral Jo-Anne Pruett, his replacement as Chief of Naval Operations.
The Pentagon, Washington DC., June 29, 2020. Chief of Naval Operations' office
"Are you sure you're OK with this decision of yours?" Admiral Joanna Pruette, the first female Chief of Naval Operations smiled at the well-decorated admiral standing before her with a folder now containing a form; a DD-214. "After all, if you want to continue on…I'd be more than happy to keep you on. I'll throw the form into the shredder and make-believe that I didn't see it." She grinned at Admiral (four-stars) Toshio "Animal" Nakamura who laughed jovially.
"At 62 years, Joanna. I think it's time to let some fresh blood come up through the ranks. My daughter's in high-school, Grade 10 and I want to be home to watch her graduate. I was lucky to be able to watch my son's graduation because the JCS didn't hustle me off to some godforsaken part of the globe." Animal said as he smiled a smile that spoke I'm done.
Gazing upon his ribbon rack, ADM Joanna Pruett grinned, "Well, it's been quite a career." She indicated the sky-blue ribbon with the five stars arranged in an M-shape. Animal raised an eyebrow.
"Oh, every time the weather changes my shoulder reminds me of that fact." Animal responded dryly. "Luckily Meg, my darling wife, keeps the medicine cabinet stocked with ibuprofen."
"How is she?" the CNO asked. "It's been a while since RADM Nakamura was last here at the Pentagon for a meeting."
"Vice-Admiral Rabb keeps her busy with the Judge Advocate General office. As DJAG, she's usually working 15 hour days which means that for the past two years, our kids were latchkey kids before Jamie graduated and went to college. Other than that; life is going great. I'll have time to relax, maybe sleep in or go practice my photography." Animal said as he looked over at Joanna. "40 years, I've been serving. Seen as much as I want to see and it's definitely time."
"Well, Tosh, I'll make sure I remove the card from the rolodex. Otherwise I'll get this unreasonable desire to reactivate you to active duty and make you serve till you're eighty." Joanna laughed.
Animal gave her a mock-horror-struck look. "Heaven forbid." He exclaimed.
"I'm just kidding. You enjoy your retirement. But don't forget to stay in contact."
"Most definitely. Admiral."
"Admiral." Snapping to attention, Admiral Joanna Pruett, Chief of Naval Operations regardless of the area that they were in, rendered a salute. Animal returned it. "Good luck, Admiral…" Admiral Pruett stated formally. "Fair Winds and Following Seas."
As Animal walked out of the CNO's office and to the Naval Bureau of Personnel for his retirement pay disbursement, he remembered the talk that he and Meg had about the fact that he wanted to retire at forty years of service.
It had been a great ceremony with a ceremonial march-past of all the men under his command at Second Fleet and as the new COMSECONDFLT was piped in, Animal silently made his exit, not wanting to steal any of the limelight for the new C2F's ascension to command.
And several weeks later, he and Meg found themselves, Meg also having left the Navy as a Vice-Admiral and former Judge Advocate General, standing in front of their new home in Appaloosa Plains, their son, Jamie and daughter, Katherine, with them. Also with them was a fur-kid, an adorable little male black cat by the name of Ranger who was well on his way to being spoiled.
"I'm glad you retired with me..." Animal said to his beloved wife.
Meg just looked at him with an indulgent expression, sighed and said, "It was time..." she said simply, "When you decided to retire, I decided that my time in the Navy was over too. But I don't want to entirely hang myself up in the corner and sit around the house eating myself to excess. I'm going to find a job here in Appaloosa Plains. Maybe something in law-enforcement. Who knows."
The yard certainly needed a lot of work to landscape into something presentable, but the makings of a nice comfortable estate was there and it was just fine. The house had nice grey bricked in paving, a two car-garage and two fountains bracketing the walkway up to the house.
There was a lot that they could do with the 64x64 lot that they had purchased. Tosh had roughed in an idea of a pond with a bridge over it, but that would take some time to figure it all out. But it would be a work in progress. Meg had no problems with the plan of decking the whole lot out to be a fantastic looking property and told him so. At least it would keep him busy in his retirement.
Well, they also had to feed Ranger so that he wouldn't get all hissy and become a major grumpus-kitty so Haruo went in and cuddled the little fur-ball. He was quite the talkative kitty-cat.
They also had bought him a nice cat-tree that he could enjoy to no end. It made for a lot of activity items for Ranger and he happily curled up on the tree (just like my kitty, Mina, is doing in real life)
Ranger eventually, once he felt adequately rested, went over to the scratching post and scratched. Even though he was a stray, that the family picked up on their way from Norfolk to Appaloosa Plains, he didn't scratch the furniture. At least that way the furniture would remain intact.
Driving to Appaloosa Plains was a hard three day drive with plenty of rest-breaks to grab a bite to eat and relieve themselves and it was a tired family that settled into their beds that Sunday night. Monday was school and first day of work as a Lieutenant in the APPD. And Tosh was goign to get started on making sure that he knew how to cook - they didn't teach him that in the military - he was of too high of rank and he didn't come up as a mustang so he didn't have to peel potatoes either. It was going to be quite the experience.
In the morning as the rest of the family high-tailed it out the door, Tosh spent a lot of time with Ranger cuddling his little furry kid who let out a few mews that let him know just how much he loved Tosh.
Tosh rolled a wish to go and play piano at the park (it was the dog-park where everyone seemed to congregate), so after feeding Ranger and petting him, he headed out to go do exactly that after ensuring that he had a good portable keyboard. Setting it up, he went directly into some Bach which impressed the heck out of the countrified folk that hung out in Appaloosa Plains.
And roughly about at that time, Meg showed up in her police uniform to ensure that none of the Appaloosa hussies got their hands on her husband. Needless to say the police uniform was a great deterrent. But it didn't stop Haruo from giving her a heat-of-the-moment kiss which was eagerly returned by Meg.
Tosh suggested to Meg that they go out for dinner at Kim Gould's Steakhouse. Needless to say, even though Tosh couldn't figure out for the life of him what it was that he ate, it was pretty darned good.
"There was nothing like a good ol' Texas Steak," Tosh said as Meg had wanted to come back to Texas after she retired.
...and as the sun went down on yet another day, the Stars and Stripes hung over the park in all its glory.
...and when they got home that night, everyone went directly to bed, even Ranger who curled up on the cat-tree.
Oh...yeah...that cat was definitely comfortable in his view that he owned all within his domain.
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