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“How can you be with someone like that!” the guy hissed at Sue and took a step toward her.
“Get away from me.” She lifted her hands and quickly glanced at me.
I saw black.
I drilled my elbow into his jaw, forcing his last words back down his throat. Then I reached down and grabbed him by the front of the jacket and pulled him up. My fist drew back to drill him in the face, but at a sound from Sue, I looked up and saw her wild eyes on me as she processed what I was about to do. That stopped my fist immediately.
“Daniel!” she cried.
“It’s okay, it’s okay.” I tried to sound normal, but my head had slipped back to the jungle. The smell of the steamy earth and the buzz of mosquitoes filled my senses at the smell of the blood. I tried to fight it, and the urge to vomit stung the back of my throat. I blinked a few times and shook my head desperately to fight back the memories and the need to kill. I dropped the kid with a thud, and he jumped up and gave his head a shake as he touched his jaw.
“Get in the car,” his buddy yelled. “We need to get out of here!”
“I know your face.” He pointed at me. “I’m coming back for ya, and it won’t be just my fists.”
“What fists?” I challenged as I removed my soaked jacket, tossed it aside, and stepped toward him. He quickly weighed his options and turned and raced back toward their ridiculous van. They peeled out onto the road with the girl screaming obscenities from the window.
I barely remembered Sue’s cries or when Zack came out of nowhere with Tracy.
“You okay, buddy? We saw the last of it. What the hell?” Zack’s voice sounded off in the distance, and I didn’t answer him. All I could think of was thank God Sue had been there, because if she hadn’t, I’d probably have ended up in prison.
“Daniel?” Sue’s voice found me. I stood there a moment on shaky legs, and when I turned around to face her, I grabbed her and slammed her to me, using her as an anchor.
“I slipped back!” I repeated a few times. “I’m so sorry.”
“Is he always like this?” Tracy’s voice came to me, and I looked over at her and tried to focus.
“We’re all like this,” Zack replied grimly. “You have no idea what Daniel did to keep us all alive over there. Unlike those little shits who have zero understanding of the hell we went through.” He waved a hand at the car. “No one could if you weren’t there.”
“Jesus,” Tracy breathed, “who are they?”
“Stupid hippie protestors,” was all he offered.
With Sue held tight in my arms, I mouthed a thank you to Zack, who nodded back at me to show he understood.
“We should go before the cops arrive,” Zack advised as he grabbed our grocery cart and started to load up the bed of his truck. “I have an extra coat in my duffle, Dan.” We all pitched in and emptied the cart then quickly urged the girls into the truck, and Zack started the engine. “Give me a quick sec. I’ll run inside and call your dad. He can come and get your truck.” Zack locked eyes with me, and we both understood what could have happened.
Sue linked her arm in mine as we sat in the back, and I glanced at my bloody jacket as it lay in the parking lot. When Zack hopped back in and we peeled away, I hoped to hell it would be the last time I’d ever lay eyes on those people. I wondered what the fallout would be from it all. I’d seen them on TV with their crazy clothes and long hair, their fingers up in the V that once had meant victory but now had become an anti-war symbol.
We could never have imagined what kind of godforsaken war we had been dropped into, and now the world hated us for even going there. We were all just damaged goods that no one wanted to see.
My mind suddenly went to my buddy, Ray. His sister had insisted he was fine when we went to check in on him a few months back, but we hadn’t actually seen him. His place was empty the time after that, and when we asked his sister where he was, she’d said he’d taken a trip to visit their brother on the west coast. I suddenly had a bad feeling, especially since he never returned our calls. Why hadn’t I pushed it? Had she been told by Ray to keep us away? I couldn’t live with myself if something happened to him. This time we weren’t going to be put off, and we weren’t going to call first. A sudden urgency flooded me.
“Zack.” I broke the silence. “I think we should make a stop.”
“Yeah, agreed.” No question, we were on the same wavelength.
When we arrived at 424 Russet Lane, the house looked dark and cold. Just like before and the time before that. The only difference was his sister’s car wasn’t in the driveway waiting to intervene. I knew Ray well enough that he would have sold his sister on some story that would make her lie for him. They were tight, and she would do anything to protect him, even though protecting might mean letting him slip off the rails. She wouldn’t get it, but we did.
“Doesn’t look like anyone’s home.” Tracy warmed her hands with the truck vent.
“Maybe he’s out?” Sue added. I glanced at Zack, and we both knew this was how it always looked. Cold and empty. We all got out of the car, but I pressed a hand to Sue’s chest to tell her she should stay there. Tracy came around and stood next to her.
“There isn’t any smoke coming from the chimney.” I pointed feeling the need to explain each observation out loud. “It’s winter, yet there’s no fire going.”
“The car’s got a few inches of snow, and that was last Monday. No tire tracks.” Zack echoed my tone.
“Okay, Hardy Boys.” Tracy chuckled, but it died quickly as I glanced at her. I saw Sue take her arm.
