“This is life, Sam. Right here. This town. This is where I grew up. This is real life.”

“For some people,” she said.

“Maybe I want to be some people. Maybe I want to settle down. Find a woman. Start a family. Don’t I get to do that?”

She shrugged.

“No, really,” he said. “I filed my application to join the army when I was sixteen years old. I had to wait for them to accept me. I had to get a waiver.”

“And look at you now,” she said.

“I gave them everything, Sam.”

“So now you want to start a family? Get a Labrador? A picket fence?”

“I don’t know. I’ve never had a chance to figure that out.”

“Come on.”

“What’s wrong with that?”

Sam shook her head. “I don’t know, Lance. Nothing, I guess.”

“You guess?”

“It just seems, I don’t know, like a cop out.”

“A cop out?”

“I mean, if you had a woman, maybe I’d believe it. But you’re sitting here smiling at a bartender young enough to be your daughter. And she doesn’t even like you, Lance. That doesn’t exactly look like you’re planning on laying down roots.”

“I was being polite.”’

She took another sip.

“And how do you know she doesn’t like me?”

Sam rolled her eyes. “What are you afraid of?” she said.

“Afraid?”

“You’re afraid of something.”

“I’m not afraid.”

“Then why won’t you go back?”

“Because I’ve seen the things they want from me. I’ve been down that road. I know where they want to send me. And I know what it leads to.”

“You’re a soldier,” Sam said. “You shouldn’t be thinking like that.”

“How should I be thinking?”

“Look at yourself,” she said. “You’ve been sitting in this bar every night since I got here. You’ve got more life left in you than this.”

“What do you want from me?”

“I told you the first time I met you,” she said. “Go back and fight for your country.”

“You mean go back and die for my country.”

“If it comes to that. Better men than you have done it.”

“Not on purpose,” Lance said.

Sam shook her head. “No, I see it. Maybe I’m speaking out of line. I mean, I know I’m speaking out of line. But you’re scared, Lance Spector. You’re afraid of something. Something you saw over there rattled you. Now you’re afraid to go back and face it.”

“I never saw the point in dying over there when I could die perfectly well right here at home.”

“They wouldn’t have come if they didn’t need you. They came. They asked. Whatever happens now is on you.”