B. K. Marshall

There is something in his eyes. A curious blend of calmness and vigilance. His wife is attractive and outgoing. One of those rare people who listens to what you say and seems to actually care. I've been their neighbor for almost twenty years. I remember the one time I heard him raise his voice. I was in his back yard. His birthday party. Maybe fifteen years ago. It wasn't an argument. More like a command given firmly. I asked his wife what happened. "My brother is a lawyer for the Veteran's Administration. He keeps telling my husband he should apply for a disability pension," she told me. "I didn't know he was in the service." "Army," she said. "Your brother thinks he can get him a pension." "He knows he can." "That's free money. Why doesn't your husband take it?" "He says others paid too big a price," she answered. A couple of years went by. I was in their house. They were having custom cabinetry installed in his office closet. I always thought it was ridiculously expensive for what you got. Files and boxes were piled around. As she brushed the dust off one box, it caught my eye. A computer paper box with a big red lid. "Pictures + Glass" was handwritten on the top left corner in magic marker. In smaller letters in the bottom left was the word "Vietnam." "Is this your husbands?" "Yes," she answered. "What's in it?" She hesitated. Without permission I pulled off the red lid. After a few moments cheap black metal picture frames with glass fronts and cardboard backs, like the kind you get at K-mart, were scattered around. Most displayed awards of the Purple Heart, others Bronze Stars. In the bottom of the box was a crumpled green beret. I often see him at the local bar, where he greets people politely, if not warmly. He drinks a beer and a rum and coke, then leaves. One day his wife appeared at my front door. "My husband wrote this," she said, handing me a book. "Dawson's War" it read above a Purple Heart medal and a Green Beret emblem. At the bottom it said B. K. Marshall. I knew it wouldn't be his real name.