5.

I didn’t answer him. I didn’t say anything. I just stood there holding the phone, listening to his raspy breath, waiting for him to say something.

Neither of us hung up, and pretty soon I realized that we were both waiting for the other to speak, two veterans across the decades.

And then it hit me: what kind of a story did I have to tell? I’d never been in real combat, though maybe I’d killed someone.

I saw the blood stain on the woman’s chest and the blood oozing out from underneath her back and then I got scared and rattled the phone into the receiver and stood there breathing in my own raspy way.

Who was I kidding?

This was all getting too close to home.

Who did you say this is? Who? Who?