Posted by Attica on June 18, 2002 at 14:19:10:
The interrogation room filled was suddenly filled with silence. I stared at the ashtray in front of me. Four cigarette butts stood on end, suspended in their own ash like stakes in the ground.
I looked up. The old man stared at me with his eyes, only this time they were softer. Finally, he spoke. "This is when you went AWOL, yes?"
All I could manage was a nod. I felt a cold sadness reach into my chest.
The old man leaned forward. "We know what you tell us is true," he said softly. "We know there was an accident. We know that President Bush was unavailable after the dates that you said this occurred. Your commanding officer..." He paused for a moment. "Your commanding officer died three days later. Car accident is what the papers reported. You are alive today because you went AWOL. I would have done the same thing. You knew you were in danger. But that only explains part of it doesn't it?"
Again, I could only weakly nod. I couldn't bear to look at his face anymore and instead stared out at the pitted wooden table in front of me. I heard the old man rustle for something inside of his coat. I didn't need to see. I knew what it was. In a few moments it slid into my view. Heather stared back at me, smiling, full of life with those haunting green eyes, her face framed in the dull scratched plastic of her college ID card.
"It was wrong..." I whispered. "I should have said something...could have stopped them...could have..." I started sobbing quietly. In moments my body was wracked with sobbing. I couldn't control myself and cried out, sobbing like a small child in my chair, closing my eyes, wanting the pain to go away and stop. I lost all awareness of the world, and felt only pain. I sobbed for minutes, my chest hurting, my nose stopped up with watery snot and all I could see was that poor girl, pale and dead on the donation table.
I felt an arm on my shoulder, and another arm on my shoulder, and then felt myself being hugged and consoled by the old man.
"I know," he whispered in my ear. "I know. I know how you feel." I sobbed for another minute before I started to calm down, still whimpering, a young man held in an old ones arms. "I lost two families. My first family was massacred when I was merely twenty-four while I was away from my house. They came in and shot my wife and newborn son. Later, they did it again, and... it was much much...much worse."
I had calmed down, still snuffling, looking down into my hands. The old man grabbed them and placed his forehead on mine and whispered. "This is why you've come to us then? And sought us? To repay them for what they forced you to do?"
"Ye...yes," I whispered. "To make them pay. They..." I sobbed again.
"Shhh...no more words," The old man said. He paused a moment and then moved slightly, his mouth close to my ear as he took my hands and gripped them tightly. I could feel his breath.
"And they will," he whispered. "They will. We will make them pay. Together."
All I could do was muster a small nod as I continued to choke back my own tears.
"Welcome to Al-Qaida".