Private Hale held the grenade in his hand like a rookie medal. He gazed at it in both fright and anticipation. To his right he observed his newfound buddy Jenkin, and for an instant wondered whether or not they would have become friends under different circumstances; if he’d even want to. The grenade now danced in his hand, shaking from side to side, still dead with the pin in tact. He stared at the design of the grenade, noticing the perfect platform for a drunken tic-tac-toe tournament. His eyes were glued to the green object of terror, asking his heart whether or not he should throw it. Decisions like this, he had been trained, were not supposed to take this long, but it was his first live combat, his first kill, his first loss of innocence. He knew that by throwing the grenade he would bring harm to the enemy, if not kill him. This was the objective and his mind wandered to asking what kind of a psychotic genius had invented the grenade, and for what sane reason. 

A piece of sand fell from the grenade like the same sand in his son’s playground. The image of little Wyatt Hale making mud pies struck him deeply, as another grain added to the mud-stained boot that had brought him so far into Iraq; like quicksand on his right boot. These were the same boots little Wyatt had once admired, and promised Santa he’d be a good boy for. The mud reeked of stale pain and rookie ignorance, and coated the material surrounding the blistered feet of a soldier scared lifeless for the moment, forever in his sleep.

After intense moments of recollection, Private Hale was brought back to reality as the grenade still danced its little dance in his hand, as if taunting him; are you going to pull the pin? In a flash he closed his eyes tighter than a sneeze and the grenade appeared to gently lose its footing, releasing its pin. He knew it would soon be time to throw his first Iraqi grenade, time for his first Iraqi kill, time to prove himself a man and soldier in this country. Private Hale listened to the grenade let out a whistle as it jumped across the sky in effortless fury, grazing guardian Angels and shattering innocence along the way.