“I think there will be.” I hit send, set the phone down, and took a slow, deep breath of ocean air.

I thought about what it would be like, that Sunday lunch.

A history teacher named Malik who had been a lieutenant in a burning humvee, and who I had last seen as a body I was dragging through fire, now grown into a father with a two-year-old of his own.

His wife.

His little girl, who was alive in the plainest and most literal sense because of the worst day of my life.

Captain Hartline at the head of the table, and Nia somewhere in the middle of it making new friends.