The Henry Sessions by June Gray Read Free Book Online

brother. “Where?”
    “They’re sending me to Afghanistan.” Jason looked so proud, so excited. Hell, I was excited for him. This was the first time either one of us did anything that actually meant something. I mean, we go to work every day, we do our jobs, but for the most part, it’s just training. We’re just working in preparation for deployments, for war.
    That’s my job: going to war, and to pretend otherwise is to lie. Our job is to start and end conflicts. Peace means we will be out of a job.
    But you know what? Peace is just an idea. There will never be peace on earth, at least, not the kind of kumbaya-harmony people envision. There can be ceasefires and treaties, but we will never know true peace. That’s the sad truth of the world.
    So Jason getting called from the dugout to play in the big leagues, now that was the job we had both been training for.
    We went out to celebrate that night and we all got drunk. We took a taxi home and drank some more at the apartment. I relaxed a little around Elsie but before I could tell her that I was the one who was moving out, Jason asked her to stay, to take up residence in his room for the six months that he’d be gone.
    Elsie didn’t even hesitate. She said yes.

 

 
 
    12

 
 
    I know I haven’t said much about Jason lately. I can pepper his name into conversations easily enough but to talk about him, to really say something about what kind of guy he was, is hard.
    So today, I’m going to try. I’ve been delaying talking about his death but I’ve arrived at the point when it can’t be put off any longer.
    It’s so hard to define a friendship, to pinpoint in words what makes you want to spend all of your time with someone. I’ve thought about it and I can say some generic things like he’s funny or he’s loyal, but that’s not the entirety of it.
    He and I just clicked . That’s the best way I can describe it. Jason was a good guy down to the core. I would do anything for him, even take a bullet for him, and I know without a doubt that he would have done the same for me.
    That’s what war buddies become after they’ve spent time together in the trenches, when you learn to really trust that the person beside you has your back, that even if you’re dying on the battlefield your buddy is going to run back and drag your bleeding ass back to safety. It’s not something you ask of each other; it’s just an understanding. They don’t call GIs brothers in arms for nothing, except in our case, Jason and I were brothers long before we joined the military.
    It was about forty days into his deployment, a few weeks before Thanksgiving, when my commander called me into his office with a grave expression on his face and told me that I’d lost my only brother to a fucking sniper on a rooftop.
    I honestly couldn’t tell you how I functioned that day. How I didn’t get into an accident when driving home was a miracle. All I remember is walking in the apartment and seeing Elsie at the dining table, doing something on her laptop, her life still untouched by the news.
    I must have looked like complete shit because she immediately stood and asked, “Are you alright?”
    I considered telling her right then and there but I couldn’t for a multitude of reasons. First and foremost, my commander had asked that I wait until the Shermans were notified through official channels. Honestly though, I just couldn’t find the courage to tell her, to extinguish that light behind her eyes.
    If I haven’t made it obvious, Elsie loved her brother. They fought a lot but at the end of the day, she adored the hell out of him. She followed him to Oklahoma, for crying out loud. I knew that if she found out about Jason’s death she would crumble. I know now that I didn’t give her nearly enough credit, that she is far more resilient than I thought, but at the time I just couldn’t bear the thought of devastating her life. Everything she knew would change and I wanted to delay