Jericho (A Redemption Novel) Read Online Free PDF Page B

she just shut up? She should do her job and get out of there like every other night. He made her nervous, but part of her wanted to get a little bit more out of him. Maybe if her curiosity was satisfied, she wouldn’t spend so much time wondering about him.
    “How are you feeling tonight?” She did her routine check of all his vitals. “How’s your pain on a scale from one to ten?”
    “About a four.”
    “Hmm. A four tonight? That means it must be a nine. The bigger you marines are the more macho you get.” She handed him the medication he always refused. “Take these. And don’t tell me no.”
    For once he reached out and took them from her. She couldn’t help but notice how his face tightened as he moved his body. But he never complained. She didn’t know if she admired him for it or thought he was plain stupid.
    “If you’re in pain, Christian, you need to call me. You don’t have to suffer needlessly.”
    “Maybe I do,” he said after he swallowed the pills. “What’s that saying? Pain is just weakness leaving the body.”
    “That’s ridiculous. Are you telling me that reason you are willing to suffer is because pain makes you stronger?”
    His eyes shuttered but he nodded. “I’m in this pain because I was defending my country. There’s no better reason than that.”
    “Well, you defended it and you survived,” she snapped. “I still don’t see the reason you have to suffer when I can help.”
    “Pain makes you grateful for all the times you didn’t feel any. It makes you stronger.”
    She shook her head, his words striking a chord in her. “This must be one mighty grateful, mighty strong ward, then. Because there’s about twenty boys on this floor who are suffering. They should be down on their knees thanking the good Lord because they are blind now, or legless or paralyzed. They are supposed to be grateful for those long nineteen years of good health? That they at least escaped childhood with their bodies intact? Damn it, Christian, their lives are drastically changed all because they went off to fight some war they don’t even know why they are fighting. And you are telling me that they have something to be grateful for?”
    “It’s their job. It’s my job. It’s my life.”
    “Well, your life is stupid! Everybody is not like you. They are not as cold or as tough. Some of them can’t handle the pain. Do you know how many servicemen turn to drugs after they leave here? Or alcohol? There’s a suicide hotline for them that gets over three hundred calls a day. You can’t tell me that pain is good. That this war is good. I won’t believe it. I haven’t seen one benefit from it yet.”
    She stared at his expressionless face for a long time, her chest heaving. It dawned on her how stupidly she’d just behaved. Of course he would defend it. His life’s work. That was what soldiers did.
    She turned away from him, covering her burning face with her hands. “You have to forgive me. My mouth always gets me in trouble. No wonder why my father kept telling me I should be seen and not heard. I never know my place.”
    He reached out and grabbed her arm. She shut her eyes for a moment, noting how cold his hand was. That this was another thing he suffered silently.
    “Look at me,” he barked at her. She turned slowly, seeing that he was sitting all the way up. His face was tightly drawn with pain; his brow glistened with sweat.
    “Lie down,” she cried. One more thing to be added to her guilty conscience. She was supposed to soothe him, not cause him more pain. She was ashamed of herself. “Please, Christian.”
    “Shut up! Your place with me—” he bored his eyes into hers “—is to say whatever you think. Don’t you ever apologize to me for telling me what is on your mind. Do you understand?”
    The burned side of his face twisted horribly, making him look like a beast. She should be scared. He had her arm clamped tightly in his hand, the pressure uncomfortable. She hated