“Have you seen a lot of people in my situation?” said Jasper.

“A fair few.”

“I only wish you had come sooner,” said Jasper.

“I didn’t really come here to chat,” said the man.

“Right. You came to kill me,” said Jasper. “Only I can’t let you do that. It wouldn’t be fair to you. You have no idea why I deserve to die.”

“I don’t care why you deserve it. I don’t even care if you deserve it.”

“Well I do,” said Jasper, “but you shouldn’t have to carry the guilt of killing me.”

“Listen, I’d love to continue this conversation, but I’m on a schedule here, so if it’s OK with you, I’m going to get on with my job.”

“I don’t think you are,” said Jasper. And then he did something the man did not expect.

The part of the dream, the part of the memory, that Jasper had not confessed to P.J. was the last thing he thought of. In the seconds after he did what the man had not foreseen, Jasper relived the part of his history that had remained secret. The German boy lay dead in front of him, slumped against the trunk of a tree, the look of terror frozen onto his bloody face. Jasper stood there looking at him for a moment, searing the image into his memory, knowing it would haunt him for the rest of his life. In that instant, had someone offered him the chance to trade places with the German boy, he would have accepted without hesitation. But cowardice is a stealthy foe—it creeps upon you slowly and before you know it you are ninety-two and still haunted by the same dream, too afraid to end it.

Jasper heard shouts in English from a short distance away and knew he could not remain hidden for long. He reached down and grabbed the German by the lapels, at first thinking that he would lie him out on the forest floor, close his eyes, and maybe drag a couple of branches over him. But the weight of the boy popped the buttons on his jacket as his body slipped to the ground and Jasper saw some papers in the inside pocket. He had seen American soldiers take sidearms and helmets and belt buckles from dead German soldiers; what harm could there be in taking a few papers? One paper, as it turned out.