The Sandpit

[Cashman]

The Sandpit

Tuesday, Sept. 24th 2002

The scene takes place in Kandahar, Afghanistan, the second largest city in the country. The temperature is dry and extremely hot at approximately 35 degrees Celsius. However, for a city which such high population, the land appeared rather empty. Very few pedestrians were out in the heat, covered from head to toe for protection from the sun, visiting the local market. At the edge of Kandahar, one of their few main roads was covered in a checkpoint by Shawn Cashman and his platoon. They monitored those few that were coming in and out of Kandahar. Shawn had split up his team, were some were taking a break, while others were scouting ahead, searching for any suspicious activity within the city. The third team was doing a road block up ahead. Shawn was with the group that was own their break. He and his fellow rangers were discussing nicknames for people within the platoon.


“Alright, well we already know McWaters – he’s ‘Big Mac’.”

Soldier 1: What about Rosenberg and Gavitt?

Rosenberg: Gavitt’s name can be ‘Spanky’ – I caught him whacking one in his bunk back in Fort Jackson.

Gavitt, on the other side of the table, looks at Rosenberg in shock, not expecting the response. He shook his head.


Gavitt: Well, if I’m Spanky – then we can call Rosenberg, ‘Jew’ – since he’s… Jewish! I always see him trying to get special privileges for those Jewish holidays!

The guys broke out into laughter. Shawn grabbed a pen and paper and began to jot the names all down. Listed below was a list of names they had written.

McWaters – Big Mac
Gavitt – Spanky
Rosenberg – Jew
Johnson – KY
Branham – Baby Daddy

Gavitt: Hold on, wait a minute – WHY ‘Baby Daddy’?

Johnson: Oh, you didn’t hear? Well, to make a long story short – he had one drunk night with a lady back home. Needless to say, he’s got a little one now.

Gavitt: Oh boy. Well, can’t compete with that.


The men continued to write out more names to finish all 12 men in the platoon.

Drummonds – Flex
Shafer – Kickball
Troy – Token
Wilson – Chef
Ford – Mustang
Lee – Samsung
Cashman -

Rosenberg: So Cashman, what is yours?

“I don’t know. I guess we’re gonna have to think about that one.”

Cashman looked down at his watch and it was time to swap shifts to relieve the other team for their break. They walked down to the road where Lee, Shafer, Drummonds and Wilson were.


“Alright guys, go swap with recon, so then they can go on break.”

The four men grab their stuff and head off in direction of where recon was settled, on top of a nearby hill, looking on down the road, when suddenly a radio frequency came in for Cashman.


“Cashman – come in. Over.”

“What is it Branham?”

Branham: We have a male with two kids coming up to the checkpoint. Over. Looks like to be traders.

Cashman tells the other three to look alive. As the male with the kids come up with what looks like to be a wheel-barrow with a covered box on top. Gavitt, as the interpreter, comes to approach them and begins to talk with them. He tells Cashman what they want.


Gavitt: They want to exchange goods, he says that the kids are fluent in English, but he is not.

Cashman agrees, because of the little activity they’ve been having on the street as of late, to let them in. They had to the market, in which you see them exchange little things, such as a watch, some wool and chocolate. Cashman then notices the older man has started to back away as if he was sneaking away from the trade. Cashman walks after him.

“Excuse me sir..? Sir, I am gonna have to ask you to stop.”

Gavitt, Johnson and Rosenberg turn to see the situation, as the man begins to start running away. Johnson runs up with Cashman to catch up with him as the other two go to the kids. Cashman positions his gun, to fire the gentleman – but it is too late, when suddenly a shockwave of explosion comes up behind him and his men as it takes him off from underneath his feet. Dust and sand fill the air as a thick cloud, as well as a ringing in his ear. Cashman sits up, trying to look for the man, but cannot see. His radio begins to go off, with groups, recon and the other team on break, trying to contact him.


Branham: Cashman – are you there? Over!

Wilson: Wilson to Cashman – can you hear me? What’s going on over there??


He looks back at his other men – Johnson was laying a couple of feet from him. He quickly tries to get up and tries to make his way over to him. He turns Johnson’s head to see blood trickling down the side of his head.

“Johnson – are you alright??”

Johnson: Yeah..I’m alright. I’ve got a splitting headache…

Cashman comes to a stand, looking over to where the two boys, Gavitt and Rosenberg were standing. There is now a big crater in that position, as they all were lying on the surrounding ground – completely motionless. He yells at Gavitt and Rosenberg to respond – but there is no answer. He tries to walk over to them, but his legs are weak as they give out from underneath him – he only falls to his knees. The other two groups from his platoon spot Cashman and Johnson and quickly rush over. Branham and Troy are assisting Johnson to his feet, while Wilson and Lee rush over to Cashman and do the same.


Wilson: Cashman – what happened sir??


Shawn suddenly rises up from his bed, eyes wide open. The scene has changed now his apartment. Shawn is sweating and breathing a bit heavily. He turns to his alarm clock, which just changed over to 3:01AM. He grabs the phone on his nearby nightstand and begins to dial Emma’s cellphone.. It rings a few times, and she finally picks up. A groggy voice answers.

Emma: …What in the world do you want? This better be good to be waking me up.

“I just need to talk to you. I know it’s late, but can we meet up somewhere and talk?”

Emma: Can it wait until the morning? Can we do breakfast or something?

“ … Yeah. I guess that can work. 7am at the Sawmill.”

Emma: Fine, I’ll be there at 7am. I’m going back to bed…

“Alright… Have a good night - *click*”

Shawn stared at his phone for a minute as the phone went back to the main screen and he took a deep breath. He came to a stand and went over to his fridge, opening it to see all that was there was just a variety of light beer, and milk. As he went to reach over for one of the beers, he froze and recalled what the doctor had told him. With a short sigh, he went and grabbed to milk – pouring him a glass over the counter, and quickly downing the entire thing. The camera zooms out as the only image you see is the refrigerator door wide open with the light shining out, and Shawn’s figure as the scene fades to black.



The following morning, the two meet up at Sawmill. Emma is a bit late however, as she approaches Shawn at the table, looking very tired. She takes a seat across from him as she looks over the menu.

“You look exhausted.

Emma: Gee, I wonder why…

“Haha… Sorry… It was a bad night for me.”

Before Shawn could go into any detail, the waitress approached them.

Waitress: Would you guys like anything to drink?

Emma: Actually yes. I would like some coffee with an extra shot of espresso. Also, I am ready to order; may I just get two eggs and bacon? I like the eggs scrambled, and the bacon crispy, but not burnt. Thank you.

She shuts her menu and hands it to the waitress. The waitress looked a bit annoyed by her, but took her attention to Shawn.

Waitress: And for you sir?

“ I’ll just take orange juice, and some pancakes.”

Waitress: I’ll place the order in right away, thank you both.

As she turned to head off, Shawn looked back over at Emma.

Emma: So what did you need to talk about?

“Right – it’s been kind of ongoing… But I know you’re the one that I need to tell it to… So here it goes – ”

Emma’s phone begins to go off. She looks at who is calling and then looks at Shawn.


Emma: Hold that thought, for just a minute – this is very important.

Shawn silences as she goes to answer her phone.

Emma: Hello? Yes, speaking. Yes. Yes, I want a restraining order on the gentleman we spoke of. He is stalking me. His name? No, I don’t have his name – I only have the description I gave you. What, what do you mean you can’t do anything?! Well how about this? He showed up at my last show, how about you send one of your guys out to our show to keep an eye out for him? Okay? Great. Thanks.

She slams her cellphone shut.

“That doesn’t sound too good..”

Emma: No. They can’t do anything without a name. So they are sending somebody out tonight when we go to perform to keep an eye out for him. They’ll be in touch with security.

“At least that’s assuring.”

Emma: I wanted this handled though.

“It will – and besides, you think I’d let anything happen to you?”

Emma: I suppose you’re right. You’ll have my back at the match tonight.

“I always do. Not like you have a lot to worry about anyway. Joanne is pissed off because of what happened with her and Jake no showing on them last week. So of course, she’s going to want to fight. We’ll probably see more action out of her than we will with Classy Jay.”

Emma: Why do you say that?

“Have you seen Classy Jay lately? All he is, is a smuck with a briefcase. I guarantee you, he hasn’t been a threat before, and he will continue to do what he does best, not be a threat. I wouldn’t be surprised if he decked out and just let Joanne to fight by herself.”

Emma: You think he would do that?

“He’ll just come up with some stupid excuse probably for why he doesn’t want to fight. Like we aren’t “good enough” to face him since he just cares about the title. I care about the title to, but there’s a big difference between he and I. I’ll have earned the shot.”

Emma: That’s true…

The waitress came up and delivered their food. The two began to eat, when Emma broke the silence.

Emma: So what did you want to talk to me about?

Shawn takes a bit into his pancakes and stops.

“I’ve been having a lot of dreams lately… Nightmares if you would call them.”

Emma: About what?

She tilted her head in curiosity as she reached for her coffee and took a sip.

“Well… about a lot of things that happened back before we met – ”

Before Shawn could continue, Emma’s phone once more began to go off. She looked down and went to press ignore.

Emma: Another anonymous call … Ugh. I’m sorry… Go on?

Shawn just sighed. Maybe right now this wasn’t the time and place.

“… Nevermind. Maybe this isn’t the place to talk about it.”

Emma looked at him with some concern, but continued to eat at her eggs and bacon.

Emma: If you say so. Hey, we’re still on for tonight, aren’t we? After the match?

“Yeah, that’s right. After we show those two that we’re a force to be reckon with, we’ll go out to celebrate. Cellphones off.”

Emma laughed and finished her coffee.

Emma: Yes, yes, I’ll turn off my phone. I feel like I haven’t talked to you on a personal level since we started over at UWA. God, that place is taking over our lives.

Shawn shrugged and laughed as he finished his last pancake.

“Just remember – there’s always time for us to talk and hang out, outside of work. Let’s just focus on the match tonight, and then we’ll go out and have a good time, okay?”

Emma: Sure, and then you’ll tell me what’s been bothering you lately?

“Yeah … I can do that.”

Emma: Great! Well, I better get going – I’ve got an interview to attend to. But please, if anything comes up, let me know. I’ll cover us tonight, thanks for breakfast! See you tonight!

As Emma got up and walked past Shawn, he smiled to himself and shook his head. He reached into his wallet and pulled out a twenty and a ten, leaving it on the table as he also came to a stand. As he grabbed his jacket, he waved to the waitress and left the restaurant, with a heavy mind for tonight’s match.


[End Scene.]