-WRITER-
PC DONAN
Passages from All Things Visible and Invisible
"I followed you as you walked toward the host. You gave your hips an extra subtle sway to the left and to the right, to the left and to the right, and I stared at your bottom’s rhythmic swinging."
"So we went downstairs to ask the man at the reception desk, who then rattled the directions to the closest chapel as he drew lines on the map and gave it to us. We got married, went back to our room with a wedding certificate in a nice envelope to make it legitimate in the eyes of God, and made love."
"Everyone is evil except us. We speak the truth and nothing but the truth and that is why God is with us. But the unfortunate truth is every other country thinks that their god is with them."
"We began the dawn with a mile long march to the village outskirts, looking for men that do not belong. We looked for men who do not look like the others. We looked for women who do not look like they care anymore. We look for children who fear the Taliban and us, and we ask ourselves, who do they fear the most? This is hard to do, but it is important because people will kill for those they fear the most. That is how the world works."
"If I confessed my sins to man, I would certainly pay for it. I do not wish to confess to a priest, for he too is a man, and can cast judgment upon me while he grants absolution."
"Oh, dear Jesus, I aimed for his heart, pulled my trigger, and, to make sure he was dead, I shot him in the head too. What remained of his life, his memory, his very being was splattered against the wall and the floor."
“I picked up pieces of my soldier two days ago. We had to gather the pieces, as if we were going to put him back together. His intestine was still warm when I threw it in the bag. We did our best to find all of him.”
"We did not stare at them anymore. We did not stare at anyone. We looked and we saw only what we needed to see. We looked for the abnormal, which is hard to learn and do in a foreign land where tribes and loyalties are strong yet easily bought; where the culture is strange; where you kill for honor; where insults are avenged. I used to smile at the children and greet the young men of the villages with a friendly smile, but I stopped doing that. I only wish to survive; smiling was an overture of friendship and that meant closeness and that meant death. I do not wish to die here, as if there were better places to die."
"It all came to this: when my blood left my vessels, spilling out into the Afghan earth, on a night when the Milky Way and all the stars and the moon lit my dimming view, when the cold, cold night became comforting, my thoughts are with you. It is of you. It is you. It is you that gave meaning to my life. Julie, my love, the stars are fading."