Passchendaele Page #5

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They crucified

one of our guys, for God's sake!

- That never happened.

- Still.

No, it's a good story.

It just never happened.

Still...

You know...

I follow it.

Lot of people,

...they take it, leave it.

But me?

Every day come five o'clock

I got a paper in my hand,

...nose right to the print.

Every step you two take,

you and Highway,

I'm right there with it.

And it ain't just the liquor talking,

...but I am.

You're what?

Okay, Mikey. I am.

Okay, you're what?

Proud.

I'm proud of you.

And I'll tell you something else:

...if I didn't have this stump, I'd be

right between you and Highway...

...on the firing step,

right in the middle of it.

That'd be me.

I know you don't dance

with soldiers,

...but do you think maybe

you could go ride with one?

Did you carve this?

No.

No, it was whiskey carved that.

I ran a mining camp

up near Rocky Mountain House.

The gold ran dry about the same

time the war started up, so...

I figured I'd go sign up and...

...go get killed.

Can I ask you something,

Sergeant?

Do you think

maybe you could call me,

...uh, you could call me Michael?

Were you at Vimy Ridge?

I did attend that fight, yeah.

What was it like?

It was cold.

But we took that ridge

and we held it. Nobody else did that.

The British couldn't do it;

the French couldn't do it.

It was just us,

the Canadian Corps.

You should be proud

of your father.

I am.

And it's not common,

by the way.

What isn't?

This feeling.

Would you do something for me?

I think I'd do just

about anything for you.

Tell me about this.

Paint me a picture of it.

I'm not a painter.

I'm not all that particular.

Okay.

Um...

In this picture,

there is a river and, uh,

...there's a horse,

and there's a man sitting that horse,

...and together they ford that river.

And all these things

are in the Foothills.

And the man rides to a place...

...he thought he knew

like the back of his hand.

There's something

about this day that's different.

Why this day?

There's a woman with him.

Is this woman frightened?

You'd have to ask her.

What about him?

Well...

...see, that's the thing.

He doesn't have a word for this,

for what he feels.

All day long he searches for it,

...and it's not 'til he's sitting

next to the woman...

...and they're looking over a river

he can finally put a name to it.

You should stop.

In a heartbeat

I could fall so hard...

...but I'm- I'm not...

I'm broken... somewhere.

Quite broken.

So I'd start to think

you were stupid for loving me.

Then I'd begin to resent you

and eventually, I would hate you.

I should go.

Really, I'd...

I really rather you didn't.

I know.

I'm, uh...

I'm just gonna sit here for a bit.

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