New Husband. Old One Gone novel · Chapter 27 of 32
Chapter 27: Eleven Seconds, Out Loud
The two Marines were young. Lance corporals, both of them, Jesse's age when he died.
They came anyway, slowly, because a major had told them to.
Then the cane hit the blacktop.
Tock.
Corey had come out of the front row.
He walked across the open deck on his bad leg, not fast, and planted himself between me and the two Marines.
He stood there in the foreman's suit with the sleeves pinned, his cane in front of him at parade rest.
The Marines stopped.
"Gentlemen," Corey said.
His voice shook. He used it anyway.
"My name is Corey Spruill. I was a corporal in this battalion. I was strapped to the bench in the back of that truck."
"If you want her," Corey said, "you'll have to move me first. And I'm not real steady."
Somewhere in the formation, somebody laughed, very short, and choked it off.
The two Marines turned and looked at the general.
The general stood up.
He raised one hand, palm out, not high.
"Hold," he said.
The Marines held.
The general turned his head toward the podium.
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–16 of New Husband. Old One Gone are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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