Good Enough for the Home Guard

Salman bangs on the roof of the truck. “Here she comes.”

Chaim watches through the windshield as the woman crosses the street, an imitation SKS slung across her shoulders, her hiking boots shimmering with newness.

He considers pretending he only speaks Hebrew but decides against it. Doubtless she’s been hazed enough. Besides, she’s pretty.

“Chaim?” she says in her American accent. “I’m Hannah Stern.”

Salman says something  Chaim can’t hear that makes the girl blush crimson.

She unslings her rifle and sets it in the back next to the Uzi.

“Lot of firepower,” she says as she climbs in. “Especially with that ma deuce upstairs.”

“Ma deuce?” says Chaim. “Oh, the fifty cal. Right. Is that what you call it in the American army?”

“I was a Marine,” says Hannah. “And yes, that’s what we call it. It’s a Browning M-2 heavy machine gun, but ma deuce is easier to say.”

 

What Pegman Saw: Israel

7 comments

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    • J Hardy Carroll

      I took this from a woman who went to Israel. She went to a kibbutz and was drafted into the Home Guard to deal with “terrorists.” The region has been perpetually at war for 70 years.

  1. Lynn Love

    Ah, I like that. They give her a first look, with her new, shiny boots and they make assumptions, think she’s a naive idiot. Then she hits the guy with a double punch – an ex marine who knows her weaponry. Nice twist in the relationship, there Josh. Well written as always

Don't just stand there.