War Buddy

War Buddy

     I saw a man on the sidewalk I had seen before. During the war. He had a bad limp. I rubbed my chin, slowed and nodded to him. He looked in my eyes and passed quickly. He never looked back.

    Together under shelter in faraway country during a monsoon. Pictures of the man’s girlfriend floated on the floor between us. The sun hiding for many days. All went to the jungle day after day. Some stayed.

    I lay in hospital and watched for him. Winds blew and more monsoons passed. Visions of wet photographs swirled in my mind. The girl was very pretty. Some minds go blank, never resurrected.

Ed Nichols

Ed Nichols lives on Lake Oconee, Georgia. He is a journalism graduate from the University of Georgia, and is an award-winning writer from Southeastern Writer’s Association. He is a retired HR consultant. He has had many short stories published, online and in print. In 2020 he has started publishing prose poems. Ed’s work has appeared in: Every Writer’s Resource, Fiction On The Web, Short-Stories.me, Vending Machine Press, Floyd County Moonshine Magazine, Beorh Quarterly, Belle Reve Literary Journal, Work Literary Magazine, Drunk Monkeys, Crack the Spine Literary Magazine, The Literary Yard, Decades Review, Swamp Lily Review, Flash Fiction Magazine, Literary Orphans Journal, Front Porch Review, Chiron Review, Snapping Twig, Deep South Magazine, Down in the Dirt Magazine, Eunoia Review, The Literary Hatchet, Wilderness House Literary Review, Flash Fiction Press, Over My Dead Body, Scarlet Leaf Review, Soft Cartel, Five on the Fifth, Dime Show Review, Adelaide.