The Ridge Revisited

"So .. Fonce ..."

I was brought up short mid charge. Black eyes swung around as I paused.

"If you were going to .. say ... take the ridge .. how would you go about it?"

I went to speak but I found my jaw hanging several horts below where it was supposed to be set. I ended up just sitting there looking rather stupid.

Everything I wanted to say flashed through my brain in half sentences like .. what about ... did we not just ... are you serious ... is this a trick question ..and at the same time multitasking the distinct feeling I had lost my entire mind and nothing was exactly real any more.

"Well..."

Well is one of those filler words like .. uh and um and therefore and so on and so forth and ect. Those words we use to try to fill in the silence while we scramble to rearrange our thought process into some kind of order.

Then my temper caught up with the rest of me.

"What the hell do you want to know now for? What happened to five ehn ago when I was all there and giving you what you asked for? You want me to be a grunt and do what I am told without questioning you then let me go charge the damn ridge and we will just see how far that gets both of us."

"Fonce I really need you on this one."

I went to speak and got my mouth open and my jaw hung up again.

Deep breath. Attempt to rub my scars off.

"All right then .. what exactly do you need from me."

"I need you to give me the intelligence report for that ridge. I have to take that ridge .. we are going to take that ridge ... but if there is another way to take that ridge I would like to hear about it."

I figured that was as close to an apology I was going to get and .. that was all right with me honestly. I was not so prideful that I needed more than that. Been there too many times myself not to know how hard it is to admit you need anything from another man.

"You are going to lose men taking that ridge .. but ... if you take this into consideration you can cut your losses by at least half. Half is a lot to lose but when the half you save might include me .. I personally recommend it should be considered."