Summary

At the end of a shift, the author joins a conversation with some of his fellow officers, including Mortenson. Two of the officers already in the group tell stories of some of the strange self-inflictions of pain they had encountered – one speaks of a fellow soldier who had pierced the tip of his penis and had plans to split the head of it in two. As the other men react with disgust, one asks whether the soldier had actually done it. The officer telling the story says that he (the soldier) got blown up in combat a week after having the conversation. The men fall silent … the two officers look at each other and “share a brief nod, as if in acknowledgement” (64).

The author and Morales rescue an overweight immigrant, hysterical after getting lost in a thicket of trees. On the...