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First Line Fiction | Prompt #23

A Soldier’s Grace

Mercy and M&Ms

Cappelli, MFA, JD, PhD
First Line Fiction
Published in
3 min readJan 3, 2025

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Image by Author + Bing

His reflection smiled at him, but he hadn’t moved a muscle. Billy did what he had to and would do it again if he had to. Since his first days in Da Nang, he knew — knew he was born to do this job. The sweltering heat, the sharp cracking sounds of distant gunfire, the endless nights filled with adrenaline and silence — it had all shaped him, turned him into something unrecognizable to those who knew him before.

It wasn’t always this way. When he first got dumped in Da Nang, he was 27 and terrified, a newly minted doctor in his intern year (PGY-1) of residency. It was the first time he had ever left his hometown of Peoria, Illinois. From the football field of Richwoods High School to the leafy campus of Bradley University and finally, onto the University of Illinois, College of Medicine at Peoria, every step of his life had been comfortably mapped out and safe.

Vietnam was never an option, never on his radar. Sure, he knew about it — how could he not? It was on the evening news every night, flashing images of jungles, soldiers, and chaos into the quiet living rooms of Peoria.

And the body bags, those damned body bags covered with the red, white, and blue of the American flag, as if that symbol was identity enough for the young men who…

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First Line Fiction
First Line Fiction

Published in First Line Fiction

Each week, I will give you a new sentence — the first sentence for you to write a piece of short fiction. From drabbles to several-minute reads — let your imagination take you where it will!

Cappelli, MFA, JD, PhD
Cappelli, MFA, JD, PhD

Written by Cappelli, MFA, JD, PhD

Top Know Nothing Writer with way too many degrees who enjoys musing on life's absurdity.

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