My Mother in Law Tried to Remove Me From a Military Ceremony Until the Truth Behind Her Was Revealed

we had all inherited, which said that certain kinds of pain were temporary if you were strong enough, and Tommy was nothing if not determined to be strong enough.

He called me at eleven-thirty on a Tuesday night in November, two years after his second return. We talked for forty minutes about nothing in particular: a movie he had seen, a job he was continue reading …