No Man's Land Read online

  Woodbury, Minnesota

  Copyright Information

  No Man’s Land © 2012 by S.T. Underdahl.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any matter whatsoever, including Internet usage, without written permission from Flux, except in the form of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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  Any unauthorized usage of the text without express written permission of the publisher is a violation of the author’s copyright and is illegal and punishable by law.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. Cover models used for illustrative purposes only and may not endorse or represent the book’s subject.

  First e-book edition © 2012

  E-book ISBN: 9780738734354

  Book design by Bob Gaul

  Cover design by Adrienne Zimiga

  Cover art: Young man © Jesus Cervantes/Shutterstock.com

  Cover photo retouch © John Blumen

  Flux is an imprint of Llewellyn Worldwide Ltd.

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  Manufactured in the United States of America

  This book is dedicated to those who stand

  shoulder to shoulder in defense of freedom,

  the brave men and women of the

  United States Armed Forces.

  One

  (CNN)—In his State of the Union address, President George W. Bush announced today that a mix of strikes from land-based Lancer, Spirit, and Stratofortress bombers, carrier-based Tomcat and Hornet fighters, and Tomahawk cruise missiles launched by both the U.S. and Britain has signaled the beginning of Operation Enduring Freedom–Afghanistan. Military objectives, as presented to the Joint Session of Congress, include “the destruction of terrorist training camps and infrastructure, the capture of Al Qaeda leaders, and the cessation

  of terrorist activities in Afghanistan …”

  “Dammit, Dov, can you at least put your dirty clothes in the hamper once in a while?” Mom complains. Though I can’t see her, the strained sound of her voice tells me she’s bending down to gather a double armful of limp jeans and ratty socks from my bedroom floor. “You’re sixteen; I shouldn’t have to pick up after you. Don’t you think I have more important things to worry about these days?” There’s a whomp sound as she tosses the entire load out into the hallway.

  “Sorry,” I mutter from where I’m lying on my bed, my face buried in the pillow. I’m watching bursts of red and blue color bloom like fireworks in the darkness behind my eyelids.

  No further comment from Mom aside from a few grunts of maternal annoyance, then silence. Just when I start to think she’s left my room, the sudden sag of the mattress tells me she’s sat down on the bed beside me. Uh-oh. Sure enough, a moment later I feel the light pressure of her hand on my back.

  “Look, Dov,” Mom sighs, patting my back tentatively. “I’m sorry to bite your head off. I know you’re depressed. You’re not the only one. Brian is … well, he’s very important to all of us.”

  My brother Brian is the last subject I want to discuss with Mom; it never ends well. I try to block out her voice by concentrating hard on breathing evenly, hoping she’ll think I’ve fallen asleep. To add to the impression, I give a convincing full-body twitch, the kind that happens sometimes when a person is just dropping off.

  If Mom notices she’s lost her audience, she doesn’t take the hint. “I can’t believe that after all these years, the National Guard is still getting shipped off to Afghanistan … I never should have allowed him to sign up,” she murmurs. Despite the fact that she’s addressing me, her tone is distant, as if she’s talking to herself. This is typical; I’m no longer surprised when people act as if I’m not there. In fact, I mostly prefer it.

  Just as I begin to wonder whether a little snore would be too obvious, Mom’s hand drifts up to tenderly stroke my hair. At least it feels that way at first; a moment later, she makes a kah of disapproval. “This black is just awful,” she informs me, back to her God-Dov-why-can’t-you-be-a-normal-kid? voice. “Are you supposed to look like a character from one of those vampire movies? If I were in your shoes, I’d think about how you’re going to get it back to its regular color before your father gets home this weekend. And a haircut wouldn’t hurt either.”

  Since Mom once referred to my normal hair color as “dirty dishwater,” I find it surprising that she doesn’t prefer the Ebony Glow that Miranda helped me pick out. There’s no denying it’s long, and for good reason: I discovered I like peering through the dark curtain of my hair, hiding from the world and its haters. It completes the comforting illusion that I’m invisible.

  The bed shifts abruptly as Mom gets to her feet. “Get the rest of this mess picked up before you go to bed tonight. You hear me, Dov?” she asks, a warning in her voice.

  “Yeah,” I say into the pillow. FML.

  I wait until I can hear Mom’s footsteps fade away down the hallway before I roll over onto my back to stare at the ceiling. I’ve managed not to wonder what Dad will have to say about my hair, but now that Mom has brought it up, I have no choice but to consider it. My father, Mick Howard, is an over-the-road truck driver, which means he often doesn’t grace us with his presence for weeks at a time. If I actually sat down and did the math, I’d probably find that he’s been physically present for about 15 percent of my natural life. He even missed my birth, which is when Mom took the opportunity to name me after some character from a book she read in high school. When Dad found out, he just about blew a gasket. “What kind of girly name is Dov?” I imagine him hollering. “He’s gonna get the shit beat out of him.”

  “I like it,” Mom would have told him. “You weren’t here and they needed a name for the birth certificate, so I had to make the decision.” Just like always, she probably added. And that, without a doubt, would have launched them into an argument that goes like this:

  Dad (challengingly): “You want me to stop driving, Laura? Quit my job? Who’s going to support us then, if you’re so smart?”

  Mom (unwisely): “I could get a job, same as you, Mick.”

  Dad (with a condescending chuckle): “So you think you can support a family of three … actually four now? On what … (mockingly) tips?”

  Mom: (softly):“We could manage for a while, Mick. While you found something else, I mean. It would be nice if you were around more.”

  (Momentary pause while Dad works himself into a rage)

  Dad (shouting): “You want me to flip burgers all day for minimum wage?! Is that what you think I should do?! After all the years I’ve put in on the road? I should just throw that away, is what you’re saying?!”

  Mom (crying): “I don’t know what the answer is, Mick. I’m just saying … you’re gone all the time. I need … ”

  Dad (interrup
ting): “Oh, you need? You need? It always comes back to that, doesn’t it, Laura?! When do I get to say what I need for a change? … ”

  And so on and so on and so on. I’ve heard a billion different versions of this same argument over the last sixteen years, and it always ends exactly the same way: on Sunday afternoon, like clockwork, Dad packs his cooler, fires up the big blue Kenworth, and heads off toward the west or east or south … wherever the next load is waiting for him. Suffice to say, Dad doesn’t have much patience for anyone’s crap.

  Least of all mine.

  Two

  When I was old enough to start school, Mom actually did get a job, not that it changed anything much. She works as a receptionist in the law offices of Hooke, Burns & Miller, or as Dad calls them, “Hook, Line, and Sinker.” The general idea, as I remember it, was that once she got a job she would be contributing enough money that Dad would be able to cut back and start running more local loads. It never happened, though, and over the years I think even Mom got the picture. Dad likes being away from home. He doesn’t want to be any more a part of the family.

  To be honest, as I’ve gotten older I’ve grown to prefer the times when Dad is on the road. When he’s home, he mostly spends his time pacing around the house, snapping orders as if he’s trying to make up for the time he’s lost being a father. Early on, I learned that it was easier to disappear and avoid the whole scene; I was never patient like Brian when it came to listening to Dad’s rambling monologues about weigh stations and log books and what a pain in the ass it is to haul livestock down into the southern states. Brian was just better at dealing with Dad in general, or at least that’s what I convinced myself as I faded toward the nearest available doorway; he seemed less likely to irritate Dad by asking the wrong question or by not asking the right one. As for me, I was better at hiding in my room, losing myself in whatever was playing on my iPod.

  When Brian made Longview High School’s varsity lineup as a freshman running back, things actually did change. Unbeknownst to any of us, it turned out that Dad was a former football star himself, or at least that’s how he recalled it. At any rate, it gave him something new to talk about. He started trying to make it home for most of Brian’s games, and if he couldn’t, he tuned in via the satellite radio he’d installed in his truck just so he could listen to the play-by-play. “Yessir, you remind me of myself, back in the day,” Dad would say, throwing an arm roughly across Brian’s shoulders. “A chip off the old block.” I’d turn away so I wouldn’t have to watch Brian wrestle with the conflicting feelings of happiness that Dad was finally proud of something he’d done and guilt about the fact that Dad’s pride never extended to include me. At the end of the day, I was pretty sure I didn’t really care. I mean, it’s kind of hard to miss something you’ve never had.

  Over the years, I’ve sunk so far beneath Dad’s radar that he sometimes forgets I exist. I’m not kidding about this: I saw the question “Who? ” flash across his face at the dinner table last fall, when Mom suggested he invite me along on the hunting trip he and Brian were planning. Besides Brian’s football games, hunting is the only other thing Dad ranks above work. I’ve never understood why, but Brian pretends to love killing defenseless animals too.

  “Oh,” Dad grunted when he finally noticed me sitting across from him; I’d stopped picking at my food and was frozen in horror at Mom’s proposal. An awkward silence hovered over the table as Dad gamely tried to wrap his mind around the idea. “Uh, well … Dov.”

  “You should come, Dov,” Brian inserted from my left. “Maybe you’d like it.”

  Across the screen of my brain, a slow-mo movie began to play: an oversized bullet in slow-motion trajectory toward the head of an unsuspecting doe, grazing innocently. A moment later, the doe’s head disintegrated in an explosion of blood and bone; even from my spot at the dinner table, I could smell her confusion and pain.

  “No way,” I mumbled, letting us all off the hook. “I mean, no thanks. I’ve, uh, got some stuff to do that weekend.” While I avoided the disappointed look on Brian’s face, it was hard to miss the relieved expression on Dad’s.

  Gradually, and imperceptibly, Brian and I had slipped into an acceptance of our respective roles. We were:

  Brian Howard, starring as

  “Master of the Universe”

  Adapted from the epic novel The Perfect Son

  —“Two thumbs up!” says Roger Ebert

  —“I can’t think of anyone who better embodies the

  spirit and integrity that Longview High … hell, that

  this country … needs!” raves President Barack Obama

  and

  Dov Howard, in the role of

  “Boy Least Likely to Succeed”

  Adapted from the comic book,

  One Family’s Disappointment

  —“No surprises here” reports the Longview Herald

  —“Dov Howard sucks” says Anonymous

  Evidence for our roles could be found pretty much everywhere: Brian ran for 1,200 yards in his last season on Longview High’s state champion gridiron team, while I passed gym every year by the skin of my teeth. Brian was elected Homecoming King and “Most Popular Guy” in the senior class, while my friends consisted of a handful of messed-up emo kids like me. After graduation, my brother got engaged to his incredibly hot girlfriend, Victoria Hart, the only daughter of Longview’s mayor; meanwhile, I was in the second year of being half in love with my art teacher, Ms. Twohey. And finally, like the

  perfect son he was, Brian joined the National Guard to pay for college. I, on the other hand, planned to spare my parents the expense by not going at all. That one would be easy; art was the only class where my grade was consistently above a C.

  You might think it would be easy to resent a brother like that, but I don’t. That’s the thing about Brian; he’s impossible to hate. Everyone who knows Brian knows he’s the definition of awesome, and I, the kid who’s spent his entire life in Brian’s shadow, knows my brother’s greatness is real. I’ve never met anyone else who affects people the way Brian does: just being in his orbit leaves you feeling somehow slightly improved because of it.

  Here’s an example of the kind of brother Brian was to me: when I was turning twelve, I asked Mom for a corn snake for my birthday. My friend Ali had one and it was the most awesome pet I’d ever seen. Mom was even considering it until I made the fatal error of mentioning that Ali’s snake had gotten out of its enclosure and gone missing for a week (my point being that the thing was so durable that it turned up unharmed). After that, all discussion was over: no amount of begging, cajoling, or even (I’m now embarrassed to admit) crying would change her mind. I went to bed on the eve of my birthday knowing that no snake, corn or otherwise, would ever cross the threshold of the Howard home.

  On the morning of my birthday, a jabbing pain in my shoulder woke me up. When I opened my eyes, I saw Brian standing next to my bed, poking me repeatedly and painfully with one finger. “Wake up, little birthday moron,” he ordered. “It’s time to get your present from the most awesome-est brother ever.”

  “Wuh?”

  “Check it out,” he told me, gesturing grandly across the room toward my dresser. The model of Hogwarts that I’d constructed out of Legos was missing, and in its place was an aquarium.

  “No way,” I breathed, hardly daring to hope. “No way, no way, no way … ” I threw back the blankets and scrambled out of bed.

  “Uh … way.” Brian grinned.

  And it was true: warming itself on a heated rock was a baby gecko. “That’s so awesome,” I breathed, suddenly and completely forgetting that I had ever wanted a corn snake. This was way better than a corn snake. I was heading for the door to call Ali when suddenly it hit me. “Wait,” I said, “Mom. She’ll never go for this.” The realization that I wouldn’t be able to keep my present hit me so hard I sat down on my bed.

  “Don’t worry, kid,” Brian told me confidently. He lifted up a pinkie and made a winding mot
ion around it. “I can handle Mom.” And he did; before the end of the day, Mom had reluctantly agreed that Leo seemed harmless enough and deserved a trial period in the Howard household. “But I’m warning you, Dov … ” she added. “If he gets out of that aquarium even one time … ”

  And that’s how, thanks to Brian, Leo became the best pet I’ve ever had.

  That’s why we, along with everyone else in Longview, totally freaked when we got word that Brian’s National Guard unit was getting sent to Afghanistan. He was assigned to a peacekeeping mission over there, something I’d never heard about before. Although “peacekeeping” might sound reassuring, it seems like every day for ten years there’s been a report in the newspaper or on television that ends with the words “making today one of the deadliest days for American troops since…” This means that even peacekeepers like Brian are getting killed on a regular basis.

  After his unit shipped out, Mom didn’t come out of her room for three days and Dad took a load that kept him on the road for a solid month. Even I didn’t know what to do with myself; I kept finding myself wandering down to Brian’s old room in the basement to listen to LPs on the vintage record player Victoria gave him as a graduation gift. Finally I brought it up to my room; I don’t think Brian would mind, and it feels good to have a piece of him nearby.

  Amidst all our concern for Brian, I can’t help wondering whether my parents, and basically everyone else, is thinking the same thing I am: what a shame that Brian, the good son, was the one sent off into harm’s way. What if something actually happens to him? Dov Howard … the dud, the loser, the anti-Brian … will be a pretty lousy consolation prize. I’m pretty sure we can all agree on that.

  Three

  My eyes open long before my alarm goes off, something that has been happening a lot lately. It’s too early to get up for school, so I reach for my headphones; starting any day listening to Dashboard Confessional always puts me in an intensely reflective mood, which can be either a good or bad thing. Since the day hasn’t officially started, I figure I’ll chance it.