Bye, Mr. Ex! novel · Chapter 7 of 24

Chapter 7: The Berm

Boyd came out of surgery at nine that night with a titanium rod in his thigh and a morphine pump under his thumb.

I was sitting in the chair by his bed at Womack hospital when he opened his eyes.

"You're still here," he said.

"The nurse said I could stay until you stopped being funny."

"Then I'm going to be funny forever." He rolled his head on the pillow. "Where's Colby?"

"Outside the building, on the phone with the Colonel."

"Of course he is."

His voice lost its jokes.

I waited.

I had learned a long time ago that men tell you the truth at three in the morning if you stop asking for it.

"The berm was sixty yards from the truck," Boyd said finally.

I did not move.

"Colby and me, behind a dirt wall in the dark. They had a machine gun on the ridge, cutting up everything that moved."

"Boyd."

"Let me say it. I've been practicing it in the shower for seven years."

I nodded.

"Your convoy truck was on the road, burning, with the lieutenant in the cab."

"I remember."

"Colby had his hands over his helmet. He wasn't moving."

"I screamed at him that we had to go, and he said he couldn't feel his legs."

His eyes slid to the ceiling.

"I didn't go either. I want you to know I'm not proud of that."

"I know."

"Then the bird came in low over the ridge, right under the tracer fire."

"It hung there with the rotor wash blowing the flames sideways, and a medic went down the cable with a bag."

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