Wounded by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: PENGUIN GROUP (CANADA)

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

I ROLLED OVER and looked at the clock. It was almost six-thirty, and as usual my internal clock had woken me up just before the alarm could. I stretched, reached over, and turned off the alarm. Something smelled good. I guessed Mom was up and making breakfast … and then it all came back in a rush. It could be Mom … or it could be Dad! He was home!

I jumped out of bed. Again I felt that Christmas-morning rush of excitement. I stomped down the stairs and stopped at the doorway leading into the kitchen. My father was standing at the counter, his back to me, wearing his slippers and some old sweats. He was flipping pancakes on the griddle and humming some tune, but it was so off-key and mumbled that I couldn’t even imagine what it was. I’d inherited my father’s tone-deafness.

“I’m assuming that either my son or a herd of elephants just came down the stairs,” he said without turning around.

“Not much difference.”

“There’s a big difference.” He turned around and gave me a big smirky smile. “I don’t hug elephants. Come here!”

I met him halfway and he hugged me, long and so hard that it almost squished the air right out of my lungs.

“I can’t get over how big you are,” he said, shaking his head.

“I’ve grown for sure, but I think you’ve shrunk a little … a sure sign of old age.”

He laughed. “Getting older is better than the alternative.”

“What’s the alternative?” I asked.

“Getting deader.” He paused. “Sorry, bad joke … lots of bad jokes where I’ve been … sort of our way of dealing with things. But really, I have shrunk. I lost almost twenty pounds. Didn’t you notice?”

I looked at him closely. He did seem lighter, slimmer, but his arms were still ripped. I was almost his height now but I sure as heck wouldn’t have wanted to fight him. I could still feel his hug in my ribs.

“It’s hard to maintain your weight over there. The heat melts it off you. It’s like living in a sauna.”

“I can’t even imagine.”

“Yeah, I was there, and there are still parts I can’t believe are real. The heat and the dust are incredible.”

“Sounds more like hell than a sauna.”

“Some of it, but it’s strange—one minute you’re going over ground that looks like you could be on the moon, and a few minutes later you arrive at the gates to the Garden of Eden. There are grapevines, and lush fields, marijuana plants as high as you can reach—”

“Marijuana? Is that legal there?”

“Lots of things are legal … or at least not illegal, if that makes any sense. Marijuana and hash are pretty common, not to mention the fields filled with opium poppies. And around the fields are low mud walls and buildings and houses two and three storeys tall, and they’re all chunked together like some gigantic jigsaw puzzle.”

“That does sound kind of pretty.”

“And pretty dangerous. Afghanistan’s a country that’s been at war since the dawn of time, and each of those houses has gun ports and lots of little hiding places.

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