William had tired eyes in 1979, the eyes of a young man who had grown old well before his time. Todd did also. It was as if they had lived a decade in that one year, and when they returned home, the world passed by without so much as a pause to glance at them. Maybe that’s why William had thrown out his medals. They didn’t mean anything to him, because they didn’t mean anything to the world that passed him by—certainly nothing positive. Vietnam was the war everyone wanted to forget. So did he, apparently. And someday, I realized, when I’m gone, my plaques and certificates will also be just sad
...more
