“Oh, did she?” I asked.

“Yep,” Matty said.

“And she said we can put your extra EOD patch up on the bulletin board next to the flag.”

He flipped his yellow folder over and smoothed down the corner of the paper with his thumb.

“I told the boys at lunch you walked through the Sandbridge dunes before breakfast,” Matty said.

“And did they believe you?” I asked.

“They saw the wet sand on your combat boots,” Matty said, with a little smile.