Johnson arrived home in May. He still has three more months before he is released. There will be no more military service for Johnson. He is home with his wife and daughter along with their two mortgages. His wife wants to visit her relatives in Russia. His daughter wants another Barbie doll. Johnson wants a life.
The fear is seeping out of him slowly. He gets triggered easily. Last night the refrigerator came on again in the middle of the night. He stayed up trying to decide if he should put it outside in the yard so could sleep. The house creaks and groans at night. It is too alive for him to sleep.
His first week home he threatened a driver that was tailgating him. His daughter stared terrified in her car seat. A few days later he swerved their car when he saw a box alongside the road. He thought it was IED.
He doesn’t drink much. He doesn’t have to he gets lit up quick. He wants sex all the time from his wife. But he has shelved some of his fear into her. She stares at him when he not looking. She feels hunted.
He sent me an e-mail last night saying, “I am twisting in the wind.”
sunny slopes of the hindu kush
Willard Kurtz's room
