He said, “You hear a warning siren, any kind of siren, and you seek cover. This truck wouldn’t stop a rubber band, and besides, Nissans are hard to come by out here.”

“I’ll stay alert.”

“You do that, but an occasional mortar round dropping over the wall, or missiles, is about the most action that area sees. I swear I don’t know why a smart guy like you wants to work out there. It’s the middle of nowhere, inside the middle of nowhere.”

I felt like a bird leaving the nest and DP, my nervous mother. I had a map of the whole base and a second map of my patrol area. With all the checkpoints, there was no way I could get lost.

I spent an hour dutifully driving along my patrol route. My orders were to stop and question anyone I saw out there. I had no idea how anyone could get this far from the main part of the base without a vehicle.

It got boring fast. Initially, I loved the beautiful Hindu Kush in the distance with snow and ice on the mountaintop and the brilliant blue sky behind. I could see the far-off detention facility when I made my turn back toward the base. I made up games to keep my interest. I tried driving at exactly seven miles an hour.

Finally, I parked on the side of the road and pulled out the new phone I’d bought here on base. It was preloaded with 120 minutes of phone time I could use to call the US.

I thought about calling Alicia but realized I needed to call my mother first. By my calculations, it was about eight o’clock in Marlboro, New York. She answered on the second ring.

“Hey, Mom.”

“Bobby, how are you? What do they have you doing? Are you safe? I haven’t seen anything in the news about Afghanistan. What’s the food like? Are you eating enough? Are…”

“Mom, Mom, calm down. I’m safe, the food is surprisingly good, and no one cares about Afghanistan in the US anymore. It would take something spectacular for anything to be on the news. How are you guys doing?”

“Somehow we’re surviving without you. Alicia and your brother are like kids around the house. Always laughing and getting into something.”

Before I could say anything about that kind of outrageous behavior, at least between my girlfriend and my brother, my mom cut me off.

She said, “I guess that’s not true. I thought for a moment you might come home if you heard something like that. In fact, Natty is recovering fine and Alicia has been at school most days since you left.”

I filled her in on everything going on, purposely leaving out anything about my friend Jason Roche’s death. That was probably something she’d never hear.