Redeployment

The narrator tells a man named Jenks that he is tired of telling war stories. Jenks has no ears or hair, and his face is covered in scar tissue. Jenks says he doesn’t tell war stories. His vehicle hit an IED in Iraq. The narrator thinks that “he’s me, but less lucky” (214). They talk about how war stories get women to have sex with them, but it no longer works for Jenks. The narrator says, “‘I’m just fucking tired of chicks getting off on it” (215). The narrator says he told a woman about Jenks once, and she started crying. He says he’d rather be with a prostitute.

Two girls enter the bar. Jenks jokes about how he is too ugly to find someone now and that “finding someone is bullshit” (217) anyway. He says no one even wants to look past him these days. But with Jessie and Sarah, women he knows more personally, it’s different, and he can just have a conversation with them. Having no chance with women helps him relax. Jessie and Sarah arrive. Sarah is tall and beautiful. Jessie is average looking and has only four fingers on one hand. The narrator is aware that she is on “100 percent disability” (219) but doesn’t know the reason.