Vagabonds: Anthology of the Mad Ones Vagabonds Vol. 3 | Seite 39

Into Forever
John Vicary
“We are the lunatics, invisible until you teach yourself how to look.”
Dave leaned on his shovel and took a cigarette from his pocket. “Benny used to
say that. I think he was right.”
“You crazy? You know that's not allowed!” I hissed.
Dave inhaled without looking at me. “You want one? I got a whole
pack.”
“No. What's gotten into you?” I waved away the smoke, but no one was
watching. There must be a funeral about to begin.
“You're not listening, Brother. When did you stop listening to the truth?”
I gripped the shovel. “I'm listening, Dave. We're lunatics. I got it.”
Dave blew another stream of smoke into the crisp morning air. “No, the
point is that we're invisible. Mostly. Until you learn to see. Then you can't stop
seeing us. Benny knew it. He was always yammering on about this kind of shit,
but we never listened to him, you know? We should have listened.”
“Well, we were kind of busy not getting killed and all,” I said. “And
listening to the CO. That son of a bitch was loud. Had a set of lungs like a
bullhorn, remember?”
Dave stared into the distance. “It wasn't like that.”
“It was,” I said. “I don't blame you for trying to forget it. Are you going
to help or what?”
Dave frowned. “God, I hate this assignment.” He let the shovel fall to the
ground and picked up the tamper instead.
“Could be worse,” I said.
He shrugged.
“It could always be worse.” I evened up the hole and wiped the sweat
from my brow. This was hot work, even this early in the morning, but it beat
having to present arms in front of the civilians. I didn't like that at all. They
always cried, which reminded me of Rebecca, the last time I'd seen her, and I
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