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in-country where he saw another view of life, one that saw human beings as cheap and expendable.
    When he boarded the transport to leave for home, Tyler had the feeling that his being in Iraq had made very little difference to the local people and surrounding tribesmen. His only achievement was in keeping his own men alive, and that was the most any leader in such a conflict could be asked to do.
     
     
     
    THE ODD COUPLE
     
    Susan Shaw, a stunning, intelligent and extremely ambitious reporter with a sharp tongue, that was rarely holstered, was waiting at an intersection on Scott Boulevard, directly next to Hendrix Elementary. However, time can move slowly while waiting for traffic signals to change, and even slower for someone like Susan.
    Finally, to her relief, the light turned to green, and Charlie, Susan’s cameraman and driver, slipped the truck into first and raced away.
    Both Susan and Charlie worked at Channel Five, Atlanta, otherwise known as Fox-5. Fox-5 was in a major tussle with its main contender CNN. The rivalry between the two opposing networks was becoming close to unmanageable for local producers. No story was too small; no rock was left unturned, or phone untapped.
    Both networks, realizing that local audiences liked to hear the name of their hometown in news bulletins, provided it wasn’t due to a hurricane or a college shooting, were in constant competition with each other, and with their own audiences. Each were armed with I-phones --- searching for the next quirky story to fill the thirty-second gap after the weather report, and would alternatively, post on YouTube.
    Charlie didn’t mind driving the extra miles in his brand-new Wolfpac; a news truck which was a studio on wheels, capable of broadcasting world-wide.
    Charlie, in his spare time, preferred online gaming to the difficulties of offline relationships. It wasn’t that Charlie didn’t like real flesh and blood women. It was more a case that they were not interested in him. He didn’t know how to approach women and struggled to read their signals; apart from the obvious ones, they were like an enigma to him, confusing and nigh impossible to crack. He wanted a relationship. He just didn’t know how to go about getting into one. He certainly liked Susan --- she was his kind of woman --- but someone like her was definitely out of his league. The way things were headed, he’d considered himself lucky if he ended up with a female version of himself, another loser, for a loser.
    He didn’t need a relationship with another loser. He wanted someone like Susan, but she despised men like Charlie. She hated his constant sweating and his compulsive overeating. She especially hated how he left greasy fingerprints everywhere --- God! You’re a fucking pig! She’d scream at him.
    He was dead scared of her.
    Susan was beautiful and vivacious with a killer body, and Carl Sagan smart. Even so, Carl Sagan didn’t have lips like hers. Thick, voluptuous, ruby-red lips that made her look even hotter than Lara Croft, Charlie often thought.
    He felt like a lovesick puppy around Susan. He would suck in his gut and try not to lose his breath any time he would do anything that was even remotely physical, but he was too fat and too geeky for someone like her.
    Charlie looked Susan up and down once more from the corner of his eye as he drove.
    “Charlie, you do that one more time and I’ll knock you into the middle of next week,” Susan said. She wasn’t annoyed with Charlie exactly; she just enjoyed making his life hell. Susan found it fun, and was well aware one of her talents lay in dispensing cruelty.
    “Sorry,” he said, while he kept his eyes on the road.
    He hated that loathing look she would give him, that I despise you, you fat fuck look she did so well.
    “I know you think it’s all fun and games driving around in your new toy truck, Charlie, but I don’t see it as fun, not when that bitch Tanya gets to go global behind the anchors’ desk