1913issue6online

116 The soldier came back and went to work selling shoes at the local mall. She had a way of measuring feet and telling people their size that made them believe her no matter how much the size she said differed from their assumptions. The soldier, now home, could not decide whether to attend meetings or social gatherings with other returned soldiers where the thick clouds of smoke and the pitter patter of pills in their pockets made her reminisce about the Fourth of July. After the war, the soldier used all the books in her possession, five years worth of phone book delivery included, to build a basement bunker large enough to house all the residents of her apartment building. It was impossible for the soldier, after coming home, to walk without limping, not from having been injured, but because the ground felt strangely flat. The post-war soldier took no pleasure in trips to the range that her father owned where over-sized photographs of convicted bank robbers covered the targets. The soldier, several months after returning from war, filled out a form at the local records office changing her name, and then informed her family and closest friends so they could still find her newly dubbed internet profiles. The soldier returned from the war and embarked on a project canning rodents from around where she lived, not for eating but for viewing through the glass.

1913issue6online

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