“You did well on the test. That’s good, means you get your pick of jobs.”

“I don’t really mind what my job is; I just want to get to France. I mean, you know, Germany.”

The sergeant spit his gum out the window as he turned onto Main Street and drove past the shops. Tony’s Musical Suite wasn’t open yet. “They’ll know about my preferred assignment thing, right?”

“Roger that.”

“I mean, there’s no way I won’t go to Europe, right?”

“Take it easy, with your scores you’re off to Oktoberfest. Eight weeks at Fort Dix and you’re gonzo.”

Leo wondered what the test had to do with any of this, and he’d forgotten about basic training or boot camp or whatever they called it. He hadn’t thought of an eight-week delay like that. He followed the sergeant to the second floor of the MEPS office building into a room full of fold-out chairs. Two other guys were waiting to see the doctor. They both looked Leo’s age, and one of them was pudgy in the face. He was reading a book he’d brought along. The other had his lean arms folded in front of his chest and sat staring at the toes of his cowboy boots. The sergeant whispered, “These guys are draftees, you go to the front of the line.” His gum smacked in Leo’s ear.

Not long after the sergeant left, a red-haired nurse opened the opposite door, glanced at her clipboard, and called Leo in. The fat kid looked up from his book like he was about to say something, but he didn’t. Leo followed the nurse into a small brightly lit room. On the walls were eye charts and a diagram of a man’s body with no skin on it.

“I’m Dr. Trudeau, Leo, Please take off your shirt.”

The doctor, who wasn’t a nurse after all, had thick hair put up in a bun. She had dark brown eyes, and across her nose was a light band of freckles. She seemed smart, kind too. She put the stethoscope plugs in her ears and told Leo to take a deep breath and let it out slowly. She put one hand on his shoulder as she pressed the cool metal to his chest, then his ribs, then his back. She took his pulse and blood pressure and wrote something down on a clipboard. She shined a flashlight in his ears, put headphones on his head, and asked him to tell her in which ear there was a sound, a high beep that showed up first in Leo’s left ear, his right, then both. She smiled, pulled off the headphones, and wrote down more.

“Sit down, please.”