“I come back off the front lines for the first time in three months. I walked in a tent there and saw this captain standing there. I had a fifth of whiskey in my hand, and he asked me what I wanted. I told him I wasn’t looking for nothing but a smile and a kind word. Sumbitch just cussed me and told me to get the hell out. I laid down and cried all night long. I’ve cried many a night all night long, Leo. Just get me to Aaron’s and I’ll be all right.”

And Daddy had seen the same things, had marched all the way across Europe, freezing, getting shot at every day, seeing all those people he knew die. Fighting the Germans hand to hand. And waking up yelling, thinking he was back in it with them again. Bayonets and knives.

“Just get me to Aaron’s and I’ll be all right. Please. I don’t want to impo on you. I ain’t got no money to pay you, but I’ll have some later. I can go home and in five minutes I can have a hunnerd dollars. A hunnerd dollars to me don’t mean what it used to. You boys just don’t know.”

“You don’t want me to take you home?’’

“Naw. Just take me to Aaron’s. I’ll get one of his cars and go home.”

“You don’t think he’ll get pissed off?”

“Naw. He won’t get pissed off. Aaron don’t care.”

We pulled into Mr. Aaron’s place and I parked in his yard. Squirrel looked at me before he opened the door.

“I got to see if Aaron will let me in. You won’t leave me, will you?”

“Naw, Squirrel,” I said. “I ain’t gonna leave you. I’ll take you home if Aaron won’t let you have a car. I’m gonna get out and take a piss, though. I’ll be right here.”

I got out and stood in the rain while Squirrel staggered up to Mr. Aaron’s window and knocked on the glass. I could hear him talking.

‘‘Aaron? Aaron. Squirrel. Can I come in? Squirrel. Can I come in?”

Standing there watching him in the rain, I felt bad. He was old and withered and drunk and all he wanted was to get home so he could go to work the next day. Forget all this. Try to forget all this. But he wouldn’t. He’d be back up there within a few nights. And I probably would be, too.