The Door Behind Us Quotes

“You wanna know? To remember?" Jersey batted his stump. "Just after I got mine, the Germans opened up with a machine gun and cut down my best pal and the sergeant while they were finishing off the jerry who shot me. It was my fault! I knew the kid was still breathing, and I knew what I ought to do, but I looked at his face, and I couldn't do it. Then he up and shot me, and my buddy and the sergeant stopped to do what I couldn't do, and they got killed for it. I was soft and my friends got killed for it."
"Come on, Jersey. You can't think it was your fault. You couldn't know what would happen."
"It was my fault--my leg, their lives--because I was soft."
Frank jumped back to shore and sat down next to Jersey. "Don't you think there's something to be cherished in that kind of softness?”
― John C. Houser, The Door Behind Us