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Vignettes — #5
Josh
Josh is sitting with two friends in the library at their high school. “This old guy’s amazing,” Josh tells them. “He drove tanks in the war and stuff.”
“In Afghanistan?”
“No. The World War. You know, in Europe, ages ago. Before my parents were born.”
“I thought all those guys were dead now. He must be ancient,” Chris says.
“Yeah, most of them are, dead. But Stavros is still around, just. He’s in this home where my Nan is. I dig talking with him.”
“What, hanging out with an almost-dead dude?”
“Yeah, what’s wrong with that?”
“He’s old, what’s wrong,” Chris says.
“Yeah,” says Tran. “It’s creepy wanting to hang out with old people. My parents make me hang out with my grandparents, but I only do it because I have to. They say everyone does that back in Vietnam. How’d you get to do that?”
“My mum told me to take him outside in his wheelchair when we were visiting Nan.”
“You see,” Tran says. “Parents.”
“No, but we got to talking and he’s done all these cool things.”
“Like what?”
“Like fighting for real and getting caught by the enemy and put in prison. And then he and a bunch of guys…
