10
“You okay, Ham?”
“Why wouldn’t he be okay?” Craig, the substitute crew chief, jumped on Sly’s question like an attack dog.
“Because that’s his girlfriend down there. So shut up a minute.”
Ham looked down, not that there was anything to see. The RB-S was beneath and slightly behind them as he dragged it toward the coast. The only thing visible was the churning surf he was now dragging her into.
Petty Officer Vera Chu wasn’t his girlfriend. All they’d ever done was sat and talked. Sly and Hailey would be off cracking jokes in the middle of a crowd or dancing in the limited space between the tables at the Workers Tavern. He and Vera would be talking about their Coast Guard pasts.
Last night, walking her home, he found out that they’d both lost a parent to the Iraq War: his Air Force
