The Nicest Guy You'll Ever Meet

It seemed like it should have been obvious, but it just occurred to me today that no story is fact. It was strange to realize that nothing on the television news shows or in the media is actual fact; it's all been handed down and processed and turned and taped and altered. Bias, my foot--it's really just the different ways that people tell stories.

Case in point: today I saw a girl from my high school. I haven't seen her in years. She's the daughter of one of my father's friends, who also happened to be my teacher. She was maybe three years older than me, went to my church. The story that goes with her is that she joined the army after high school and ended up doing a tour of duty in Iraq as a medic. One day, while her company was riding around in a truck, they hit an IUD. A baby-faced soldier, the darling of the group and one of those Nicest Guys You'll Ever Meet, took the blast in the face and died. Everyone in the truck watched the NGYEM's face get torn off. A few days later, the sergeant, distraught by the loss of this kid, blew his own face off with his firearm.

Anyway, the most basic parts of that story are as true as it gets. The kid did get killed by an IUD, and the officer did commit suicide a few days later. I don't know how many of the details are fact and how many I just remember that way. Technically, my telling is wrong, but because it's unintentional...it's just a story. It's the story the way I know it.

As for the girl, the story the way I know it has her sitting right next to the kid. I don't know if it's true. What I do know is that this whole story flashed into my head the instant I saw the haunted look on her face, something she can't quite cover up, something that no one would notice unless they knew the story.