Coats
Alright Shepard, Coats here.
Thought I'd drop on by, now all the fuss and bluster is over. Never one for that – leastways not anymore. Seeing your home get the shit blitzed out of it will do that.
Hoping you remember me, actually. Know it was pretty brief and all at the end there. You struck me as one of those that remember every face in the crowd – but with you it was probably quite the crowd an' all.
Hell of a day weren't it though? Good to have had you there, right in the bloody nick of time. If I'm honest I was never counting on you to turn up when you did. Not after my time in Ben. No offense.
But you know what? Anderson was dead set on it. Every day was one more down before you rolled back in, far as he was concerned. The way he went on, you'd have thought you were his mentor or the like – not the other way round.
Guess that's what pride in others does for a man.
I had plenty of that mind, just didn't know you is all. Knew Anderson though.
Christ.
'Scuse. Lost one of my best mates that day.
Lost most of them, in fact, during the whole effing war. But Anderson, that hit hard, y'know?
Course you know.
Went looking for the two of you, actually. When the whole thing came down, I went shuffling and shifting through the bleeding mess. Hoping… well I dunno what I was hoping for. Dog tags, eh?
Wasn't the only one, as it happens. Couple of your pals looking through the rubble I reckon. Saw some of them earlier.
Good folk, I reckon. Pity.
Knew you a little I 'spose. Through Anderson mostly. Stories he used to tell.
Here's me waxing lyrical like we were old friends. Would've liked that though.
Yeah, would've liked that.
Cheers, Shepard.
Every now and then I check my emails, and see that this collection has a couple more followers. Every time, I'm a little bit surprised and a lot guilty, because this thing is suffering from serious neglect. But like that ugly child I can't quite kick out of the house, I keep coming back.
I will keep coming back. I promise.
This is shamefully cor blimey, so I'm probably committing some kind of treason by publishing it. But what the hell its not like Coats wasn't a least a bit like that.
Stay tuned, and let me know if you're still reading. I have another chapter on the way soon (I promise this time), and another some time after that, which will probably blow at least a couple of socks off.
-Nev
