Abel waited for more, and when it didn’t come, he said, “Yeah, I guess looking at it now, it was.” He took a drag on his smoke. “But then, I never thought of it like that. Just something to do to feel your heart pumping. It’s like this. You lose a leg, an arm…” A lover, he thought. “You lose something that was part of you, you go numb. And I wasn’t the worst off, by any means. At least I was still a man, if you know what I mean. Others…” Abel felt perspiration drenching his sweatband. “Others weren’t that lucky. So you’re lying there trying to readjust, not doing it very well, you do anything to feel, even if the feeling’s fear.”

Rina said nothing.

He shook his head. “You couldn’t possibly understand—”

“What I can’t understand was how you could do such a horrible…cruel…monstrous thing to me!” Rina blurted out.

“I’m sorry—”

“Especially since I’m your best friend’s fiancée.”

Abel didn’t respond. And in that moment of silence, Abel had said it all.

“It wasn’t me personally, was it?” Rina said. “You like me.”

“Honey, I more than like you.”

“But you hate Peter more than you like me.”

Abel laughed too loudly. “You are one bright lady.”

Rina brushed away tears and said softly, “I was so nice to you.”

“I’m sorry,” Abel said. He realized how banal his apology was, but couldn’t think of anything else to say.

“You set me up,” Rina continued. “A payback for something Peter did to you. You son of a bitch!”

Abel nodded his head in agreement.

Rina tried to speak, but her voice was choked. She buried her head in her hands and wept.

“Know the worst part about it?” she finally said. “Peter must have told you what happened to me two years ago. About the attempted rape. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have made that comment about me shooting at things fleeing in the woods.”

“He did,” Abel said.

“How could you do that to me—to anyone—knowing what I’d been through?” Rina dried her eyes on her shirtsleeve. “What was Peter’s crime? Surviving the war in one piece?”

“Saving my life,” Abel said.

“Dear God…” Rina said a silent prayer, then ran her hands through her hair. “You’re really sick, you know that?”

“I’m more than sick, Rina,” Abel said. “For all intents and purposes, I’m dead. I died the day I lost my leg.” He turned and faced her. “The key was quarter-turned in the ignition when I heard Pete screaming to get out of the Jeep. Didn’t quite make it all the way out.”

“And this is how you pay him back?”