should approach. I listened to the MTBs in the distance, their motors growling low as they faded away. My thoughts were jumbled, and a wave of confusion and sweat broke over me. More images I couldn’t make out flashed through my mind. Not water this time but a fire. Something about a fire, and an explosion.
I couldn’t think about it now. I had to focus. Focus on Harding, yeah, hard-ass Harding, the last guy I’d want to run into. Unless I was going to turn myself in. West Point, by the book, a professional soldier. Not one to cut corners, and I needed a lot of corners smoothed out for me. I had to have help, but it had to come from someone who didn’t live by U. S . Army field manuals. I trudged up from the beach, head down, M1 slung over my shoulder. Another GI heading up to the front or on some chickenshit errand for an officer. I thought some more about Harding. He was a lifer, but he didn’t enjoy lording it over the enlisted men either. OK, Harding was all right for an officer. But I still couldn’t go to him. I was surprised by my own thought: I respected him too much to put him in that position. It was odd learning who I was in bits and pieces, through fragments of dreams, splintered memories, names bubbling to the surface. A lot of it worried me, some of it frightened me, but finally this was something worthwhile I could hang on to. Something that wasn’t bound up in dirty water, fire, and death.
Kaz. That name surfaced as quickly as I could say it. I could go to Kaz. I was amazed when I managed to remember his full name: Lieutenant—sometimes Baron—Piotr Augustus Kazimierz. Real Polish nobility, and there weren’t many of them around anymore. I wasn’t worried about putting Kaz in a tough spot. He didn’t do things by the book, at least not anymore. Why was that?
I knew Kaz had been studying languages at Oxford when the war broke out, and that his entire family had been butchered by the Nazis. He’d talked his way into a commission with the Polish Army in exile, despite his bad eyes and bum ticker. They’d given him a job as a translator with Eisenhower and somehow he’d ended up working with me. There were memories with cobwebs around them and others down a deep black hole I couldn’t even get close to. Kaz still wore cobwebs, and the dark hole blotted out my vision whenever I thought too hard about him. But I knew I could count on him. We were close, closer than I would’ve ever thought I could be to a skinny little four-eyed Polack genius.
I stopped. There it was. He was Polish. I was Irish, Boston Irish. I hadn’t even thought about my family. Of course I was Irish, goddamn it! I kicked at a stone and kept going. Something in my head wasn’t right. I kept thinking in circles, avoiding things, even the most obvious, natural facts of my own life. It felt like there was a barrier around some dark hole, filled with lost memories.
Lost? Or terrible? I trembled, afraid of finding that dark hole filled with nightmares. Instead, I thought about strawberries and walked onto the shore road, picked a direction and started off at a brisk march, rifle slung, just another GI under orders. The heat reflected up from the road and shimmered ahead of me. A few yards away from the breeze off the water and I felt the sweat begin to soak my wool shirt. A convoy of deuce-and-a-half trucks thundered by, each towing an artillery piece. Tires kicked up dirt and the wheeled artillery bounced on the uneven road, creating a dust storm as they went by. I shielded my eyes and pressed my lips together as dry, chalky particles settled on me. Head bowed, I didn’t notice a column of soldiers on the other side of the road, standing back and waiting for the trucks to pass. It was the Italian they spoke that drew my attention.
There were over fifty POWs, most of them complaining about the bastards who got to ride in trucks that left them covered in dust on a hot road. I couldn’t understand their Italian words, but I
I couldn’t think about it now. I had to focus. Focus on Harding, yeah, hard-ass Harding, the last guy I’d want to run into. Unless I was going to turn myself in. West Point, by the book, a professional soldier. Not one to cut corners, and I needed a lot of corners smoothed out for me. I had to have help, but it had to come from someone who didn’t live by U. S . Army field manuals. I trudged up from the beach, head down, M1 slung over my shoulder. Another GI heading up to the front or on some chickenshit errand for an officer. I thought some more about Harding. He was a lifer, but he didn’t enjoy lording it over the enlisted men either. OK, Harding was all right for an officer. But I still couldn’t go to him. I was surprised by my own thought: I respected him too much to put him in that position. It was odd learning who I was in bits and pieces, through fragments of dreams, splintered memories, names bubbling to the surface. A lot of it worried me, some of it frightened me, but finally this was something worthwhile I could hang on to. Something that wasn’t bound up in dirty water, fire, and death.
Kaz. That name surfaced as quickly as I could say it. I could go to Kaz. I was amazed when I managed to remember his full name: Lieutenant—sometimes Baron—Piotr Augustus Kazimierz. Real Polish nobility, and there weren’t many of them around anymore. I wasn’t worried about putting Kaz in a tough spot. He didn’t do things by the book, at least not anymore. Why was that?
I knew Kaz had been studying languages at Oxford when the war broke out, and that his entire family had been butchered by the Nazis. He’d talked his way into a commission with the Polish Army in exile, despite his bad eyes and bum ticker. They’d given him a job as a translator with Eisenhower and somehow he’d ended up working with me. There were memories with cobwebs around them and others down a deep black hole I couldn’t even get close to. Kaz still wore cobwebs, and the dark hole blotted out my vision whenever I thought too hard about him. But I knew I could count on him. We were close, closer than I would’ve ever thought I could be to a skinny little four-eyed Polack genius.
I stopped. There it was. He was Polish. I was Irish, Boston Irish. I hadn’t even thought about my family. Of course I was Irish, goddamn it! I kicked at a stone and kept going. Something in my head wasn’t right. I kept thinking in circles, avoiding things, even the most obvious, natural facts of my own life. It felt like there was a barrier around some dark hole, filled with lost memories.
Lost? Or terrible? I trembled, afraid of finding that dark hole filled with nightmares. Instead, I thought about strawberries and walked onto the shore road, picked a direction and started off at a brisk march, rifle slung, just another GI under orders. The heat reflected up from the road and shimmered ahead of me. A few yards away from the breeze off the water and I felt the sweat begin to soak my wool shirt. A convoy of deuce-and-a-half trucks thundered by, each towing an artillery piece. Tires kicked up dirt and the wheeled artillery bounced on the uneven road, creating a dust storm as they went by. I shielded my eyes and pressed my lips together as dry, chalky particles settled on me. Head bowed, I didn’t notice a column of soldiers on the other side of the road, standing back and waiting for the trucks to pass. It was the Italian they spoke that drew my attention.
There were over fifty POWs, most of them complaining about the bastards who got to ride in trucks that left them covered in dust on a hot road. I couldn’t understand their Italian words, but I
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