tour of duty redux APOSTROPHE NOW

Two tours of Nam back in 66 & 67 ? Pshaw. Six months in Afghanistan embedded with some fucking suicide mission US Marines half of them addicted to smack & the other half packaging smack up to ship back home 2 kg at a time inside each body bag ? Yeah nah. Oh sure you've probably got PTSD, but you think you've been through hell ? You know nothing. You have not taken a three year old to Billie Lids in Preston East on a Sunday morning. At ten-thirty. You do not know. You can never know know. Not unless you were there, man. 1030 hrs Sunday June 15. "Billie Lids" is a medium-security indoor adventure playground, entirely covered in vinyl and small children. Sartre in Hui Clos (No Exit) said hell is other people. Hey Jean-Paul, I see your "other people" and raise you twenty kids and thirty parents who've gathered to help Tallulah celebrate her fourth birthday with bells and whistles and pate and Peppa Pig I'd got the call 30 minutes earlier. Just...