“Most good Army stories are.”
We continued walking.
At the supply room, he set down the box.
Then he studied me.
“How long have you been back here?”
“Six months.”
“Planning to stay?”
“I think so.”
“You think?”
I leaned against the doorway.
“Twenty-two years of having the Army decide where I lived makes permanent decisions feel strange.”
“You retired?”
“Recently.”
Samuel nodded.
“That explains the ceremony uniform.”
“Retirement event for someone I served with.”
“And now?”
“Now I’m figuring that out.”
He didn’t offer advice.
I appreciated him for it immediately.
Instead he said, “Your father would have liked this neighborhood.”
Every thought in my head stopped.
I looked at him.
“You knew my father?”
Samuel’s expression changed.
Only slightly.
But I saw it.
“You didn’t know?”
“Know what?”
Before he could answer, Denise appeared at the end of the hallway carrying a clipboard.
“There you are. I need your signature for the donation transfer.”
Samuel stepped aside.
“We can talk another time.”
“No.”
He stopped.
“You knew Daniel Hayes?”
Samuel nodded slowly.
“A long time ago.”
“How?”
“We served together.”
My father had served.
I knew that.
But he rarely spoke about it.
He had left the Army long before I entered.
