Jessica Bane walked down her slow quiet neighborhood street with her backpack carelessly slung over her left shoulder, it was getting colder and the leaves were just starting to change colour. As she walked she paused to wave to her neighbor, Mr. Raine. "What are ya'll learning in school these days Jessica?" he called to her. As long as she could remember he had lived down the street, he was pretty quiet, but he knew all of the neighbors and they all knew him.

"We're learning about the war sir." she answered.

"Which war?" he asked referring to the very young Vietnam war.

"World War II sir." she responded as she paused by the fence surrounding his yard.

"Oh yeah?" he asked as he stood up, stepping off his porch he limped his way across his yard with the aid of his cane, to where she was. "What're they tellin' you 'bout the war?"

"They just kind make us read the text book. We're supposed to write a report about the war to read in front of the class." she said with a small shrug. "It's pretty messed up."

"Yeap, it sure was." he said with a nod.

"You fight in the war? Sir?"

"Yeah I sure did." he said with another nod, rubbing his neck, he had this scar around his neck, it looked like a rope burn and it made Jessica a little uneasy, but she didn't want to seem rude so she looked away. "Y'know Jessica, the textbook ain't gonna tell you the truth about the war. You wanna hear the truth, you come on over and ask me."

"Yes sir Mr. Raine." she said politely as she pushed her light red-blonde hair behind her ear.

"Yer mama's gonna need some help with her groceries. Be a good girl, help 'er out." he said looking across the street at her house. She turned and looked and saw her mother had indeed come home from the grocery store.

"Have a good day Mr. Raine." she said as she turned and walked across the street to her house. She grabbed some of the bags out of the back seat of the car and looked back over at Mr. Raine's house as she walked to the front door of the house. Mr Raine was walking back to his porch, where he sat down and picked up a beer bottle, tipping it to his lips he looked at Jessica who blushed lightly and walked into the house.

"Were you talking to Mr. Raine?" her mom, Mary asked as Jessica put the groceries down on the counter in the kitchen.

"Yeah." she said as she took out a loaf of bread and put it in the bread box. Jessica looked at her mother's face who looked deep in thought. Jessica was kind of sad she didn't look like her mom who had been the most popular girl in school in her time, and the prettiest. Jessica had inherited her mom's red hair, but got her dad's grey eyes. Her cheeks were flat and her nose was thin, her lips were full though which was something she got from her father.

"What did Mr. Raine want?" Mary finally asked.

"He asked what we're learning about in school and I told him the war and he told me that he fought in the war and that if I had any questions about it I could go ask him." Jessica shrugged.

"Well that was nice of him." Mary smiled softly. "What kind of questions would you have?"

"Well, we've got to write an oral report on the war and I think Mr. Raine just wants to know what they're sayin' about the war in the text books." she said with a shrug. "I guess sometimes the books aren't completely true, and it would be kind of interesting to hear it from someone who was there." Jessica said as she helped put the groceries away.

"I suppose." Mary said with a shrug. "I just don't like the idea of you going off to some man's house."

"Ma, he's not just some man, he's a Veteran, and our neighbor." Jessica said with a small scoff.

"I suppose it's alright. But we'll talk to your father about this later." she said with a nod and Jessica nodded before she helped her mom put away the rest of the groceries and then started on her homework while her mom started dinner.