Seven of Wands

On The Front Lines—NIGHT

I am dressed in my army colonel’s uniform, standing in a tent looking over some maps with several other officers by lamplight. Some impending explosions can be heard getting closer. The General, at length, looks up from the plans on his small field desk and pulls of his reading glasses. He sums.

“Well, there you have it, gentlemen. We’re making for Tehran at dawn. You all know what to do. Dismissed.”

The officers mill around, chatting with an air of finality. I am more relieved than anything. I cross the floor and leave the officer’s tent. One man, the Sailor, also in a colonel’s uniform follows.

I walk briskly from the officer’s tent, the Sailor still follows. A lot of Christmas decorations have been set around. There are strings of lights everywhere and despite the shelling, and some of the men can be heard singing “Silent Night” somewhere in camp.

“Frank! Wait up! Where are you going?” the Sailor huffs as he catches up.

“I am going back to my men. They are having such a grand time. I hate to interrupt to tell them that we will be moving into battle at dawn. But what else is there to do?”

“And how are you?”

“Me? I am going to stall the bad news by heading off the trail to piss.”

And I do so, heading into some bushes behind a snowman cut out of plywood, leaving the Sailor shaking his head. In the brush, I find a pretty, local girl smoking a cigarette. She startles me as I urinate and then smiles. Embarrassed, I zip up and head back to the Sailor, saying “Good night, Miss. Merry Christmas.”

“Who’s that?” Sailor Lou puff on my return.

“Some girl in the bushes. Probably a prostitute working on the men’s holiday cheer. Leave her be.”

Lou puts a hand on my shoulder. “You’re still distraught over the fallout with Andrea.”

“I joined the army for this invasion. We go at dawn.” I turn sadly away. The explosions are much closer. I pull a letter out of my back pocket.

“She wrote me. But, I received the letter in a building being shelled in Khorramabad.”