Scene opens at an international airport at one of those small bars in the terminals in the middle of the day.
Bartender: (clears an empty glass and cleans around a full one on the bar)
Soldier: (Walks up and sets his back pack down and takes a seat at the bar and looks at the full glass)
Bartender: so what do you dream about?
Soldier: lots of things
Bartender: what keeps you up at night?
Soldier: lots of things
Bartender: your buddy said you woke up crying last night, said you might want that drink. (motions towards the full glass on the bar)
Soldier: My buddy talks to much. I have a lot of bad dreams (takes the glass and swallows it in one swig)
Bartender: nightmares?
Soldier: bad dreams.
Bartender: you ever tell anyone about the bad dreams?
Soldier: I don’t share very well.
Bartender: Here’s another one, tell me your story. (hands a full glass)
Soldier: Rum?
Bartender: Caribbean, only the best for my customers
Solder: what do i owe you?
Bartender: Just a story, but it has to be a good one because that’s my grade A stuff.
Soldier: Just a story huh?
Bartender: Come on, guys like you always come in here with a lot of stuff on their shoulders. I like to give them a seat and drink. Let them unload for a minute.
Soldier: So what kinda stuff to you want me to unload for you?
Bartender: Tell me about your bad dream.
Soldier: (Soldier looks at Bartender skeptically and leans forward) what you do you want to hear about? My dream about my three buddies that didn’t come back? About how the war was supposed to be over, how we were just doing a bullshit patrol. How we were thinking about coming home and one minute with the truck behind me in my review mirror and the next its gone?
Bartender: Who were you with?
Soldier: 4th Infantry Division, I was a 13-Bravo, a gun bunny, a cannon cocker. I was supposed to be manning a howitzer, not driving a hummvee doing a presence patrol on a muddy dike in a quiet piece of nowhere.
Bartender: 4th-ID. Four lieutenants pointing different directions, funniest joke I have ever heard.
Soldier: Yeah, four butter bars pointing four directions. We only had one, he was on the radio the whole time begging someone to come and help us.
Bartender: So what happened, IED, big explosion take them out?
Soldier: No. That I could live with, i might even be able to claim it on my disability. (takes a drink) no, just a muddy road that gave way. I had been in their exact same place two seconds before just driving along thinking of going home. I look back and their truck was gone. it had rolled down the
embankment into the river. They probably didn’t even realize how long they had to live when it happen. One second your driving along and then bamm! Your holding on for dear life as the truck is ass over tea kettle and filling full of mud. Bartender: Fuck, what did you do?
Soldier: I jumped out, we all did. started digging them out with our hands, our feet, anything we had. It didn’t help.
Bartender: Fall kill them?
Soldier: I never told anyone, but i was digging the mud away from the driver side of the truck. i thought i saw a hand banging against the window... just for a second. (finishes his drink)
Bartender: Why didn’t you tell anyone?
Soldier: Because... (takes a few deep breathes) because... i don’t like to cry.
Bartender: But you do in your dreams? (takes the glass and adds more to it)
Soldier: I never used to cry, but now i wake up at night crying like a baby.
Bartender: Have you told anyone else this story?
Soldier: No. I had to write a statement after the fact. It was half a page long: I witnessed the vehicle flip, I attempted to dig out the vehicle, wrecker showed up, pulled vehicle up enough we removed the bodies and the medical chopper picked them up. End of story, full stop.
Bartender: Sounds like there is more to the story.
Soldier: In the army they never report the after effects, the other “bullshit” (mimes quotations marks with his hands). The reports never include the stuff like when they went to clean out their rooms, my buddy driving the truck, his wife was Instant Messaging him online. She was asking if he was back yet so they could chat.
Bartender: Jesus. Did anyone type her back? Say anything?
Soldier: No. just packed up the guys stuff and got out.
Bartender: Does that make you cry, that somewhere someone is not going to know that you died?
Soldier: No. what makes me cry is waking up feeling like I’m never going to dig enough mud. It wasn’t just us that were digging, the wrecker crew were right there next to us. They were in that mud longer than us trying to pull that fucking truck out. I dream sometimes that I’m still digging with them. But that I’m the one stuck in the truck drowning. (finishes his drink and pushes the glass toward 1).
Bartender: (take the glass and refills it and returns it to 2) One more for the road?
Soldier: No, no i’m good. (takes the glass, looks through it) How much do i owe you?
Bartender: On the house. Why don’t you finish that one, when’s your flight?
Soldier: What are you, some kinda shrink with a bar?
Bartender: Something like that.
Soldier: Anybody ever ask you your story?
Bartender: Yeah. once.
Soldier: What happen?
Bartender: I told it to them.
Soldier: What did they say?
Bartender: Told me I should open a bar. Come on, finish that one and catch your flight, I’m sure someone is waiting for you.
Soldier: That last one was my last one. No more for me. I’m quieting.
Bartender: Oh really? so your just admiring the light coming through that one.
Soldier: This one, (motioning toward the glass in his hand) I’m just trying to figure out what to do with it. I kinda want to poor it down the sink.
Bartender: You could leave it for the next guy who has a story.
Soldier: You sir, should not have a bar, you’d never make any money!
Bartender: Sometimes its not about money.
Soldier: Thank you. And thanks for the drink. I’m going to leave this one here for the next guy. (stands up, checks his watch, picks up his bag and walks off stage)
