Chapter 6 - Melody Made Her First Serious Mistake
The exercise began badly for Melody.
Her team misread a fuel allocation table.
A convoy scheduled for Sector Four received enough fuel for seventy
percent of its route.
Nobody was endangered.
The mistake was caught before departure.
But in a real emergency, the error could have stranded vehicles carrying
medical supplies.
Melody blamed a lieutenant.
Lena heard about it during the afternoon review.
She asked Melody one question.
“Who approved the final allocation?”
Melody hesitated.
“I did.”
“Then whose error is it?”
“The lieutenant entered the numbers.”
“Who approved them?”
Melody looked around the room.
Everyone was listening.
“I did.”
Lena nodded.
“Correct the process.”
That was all.
No public humiliation.
No sisterly lecture.
No revenge for the steak comment.
Later, Melody stormed into Lena’s temporary office.
“You enjoyed that.”
Lena looked up.
“Enjoyed what?”
“Making me admit it.”
“I asked the same question I would ask any captain.”
“You could’ve handled it privately.”
“The review was a group review. Your correction teaches the whole
group.”
Melody crossed her arms.
“You think you’re better than me.”
Lena leaned back.
“No.”
“Then why do I feel like I’m twelve every time you look at me?”
Lena considered the question.
“Maybe because you spent years needing me to be the sister who failed.”
Melody’s face changed.
“That’s not true.”
“Isn’t it?”
Lena did not raise her voice.
“You were Dad’s successful daughter because I was the one who left. You
were the military daughter because nobody talked about my service. You
were the one who made captain while everyone assumed I taught high
school.”
“I never said high school.”
“You never asked.”
Melody opened her mouth.
Closed it.
Lena returned to her paperwork.
At the door, Melody stopped.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
May you like
Lena answered without looking up.
“Why didn’t you ask?”
