Waiting a little, Jim remembered May Sue's lips before he went back to Korea. There are women who are soft and tender, but who also possess a strength in them that reaches down into the soul of a man. She was one of those. Dawn was tender, but she had no staying power. May Sue did.

Sometimes he wished he had never messed around with Dawn. Other times he knew he would've killed May Sue and Charles Ray if he hadn't. All that kept him from becoming a murderer those first few months after he came home was he'd been able to remember a half‑American boy with black hair who crawled around on a floor in a Korean house.

After he fled with the other soldiers before a horde of Chinese and North Koreans, it was almost two years before he made it back. After they chased the American Army down to the Yellow Sea where they carried their dead, they fought a long and bitter fight back to his Shangra‑Lai. His boy grew among the people of the Morning Calm.

Only Jim was not with the troops when they fought their way back north. That is he was not with them much of the way.

He was a Corporal then in charge of two other men on patrol. Winter snow was still on the ground. Two of his men were two Colorado boys, brothers from the same town, Durango, or something else as wild. He remembered their last name was Smith. Odd he should remember after so long.

One of them, he remembered was called Andy, Andy Gump the other men jokingly called him. God, the snow was deep on the tree‑covered ridge they were sent out to reconnaissance.

All three carried their M1s on the alert with full clips inserted. Both brothers were with them only a week. Spread out in single file, they walked along in full moonlight carrying on short conversations.

He remembered the brothers remarking how similar Korea was to their native home. It was a calm night with no hint of danger. They were even so foolish as to start remembering women, a dangerous thing to do on patrol.

The rifle fire came at them from everywhere. They walked right into a trap without realizing it. That was the first time he was wounded.

Both brothers were down. He had strength to check. Andy was still living with a bullet hole from the base of his neck through his forehead. The brother was dead.

Jim tried to fight back while his blood continued to make a red pool on the white snow. The wound was in his thigh somewhere he could not locate only he was so cold, he could not tell how badly he was hurt.