Unnamed friends from afar.

This very short story is simply written and easy to read, although the content is a little harrowing, dealing as it does with one man's continuing attacks of PTSD.

Jacob is a Vietnam veteran. Now in his 60s, his post traumatic stress from that time can still be triggered decades later. Twice a week he helps out at Veterans Hospital and on his way there in the mornings he always passes and waves to three young girls waiting for their bus to school. And they wave back. One morning he notices that they are not there but that one of them has left her colourful schoolbag behind. On the spur of the moment, he decides to pick it up and deliver it to her at the school - the grey van had only just departed. But when the vehicle fails to turn into the school, he realises something must be wrong and gives chase.
But what can he do? He's an old man with heart problems and this time he has no weapons plus there is no-one to watch his back. And his flashbacks to his time fighting the Vietcong start coming back. Harry Roger Williams 111 reads the story with a well modulated voice, letting the text speak for itself.
My thanks to the rights holder who freely gifted me a complimentary copy, at my request, via Audiobook Boom. It is more than a simple tale of abduction and courage, it gets inside the head of someone who has seen and done terrible things for his country in the past and still has to face it again and again for all of his life, yet never gives up in the face of danger present. Recommended.

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