"©" "©" "© P@rM!" "NdeR" "© P@rM!" "NdeR M@nkÖÖ" "© P@rM!" "NdeR M@nkÖÖ ™" "© P@rM!" "NdeR M@nkÖÖ ™" "© P@rM!" "NdeR M@nkÖÖ ™" "© P@rM!" "NdeR M@nkÖÖ ™ Mobile - +919815899536" "Come on, go, go, go." "Move, move, move." "Get down!" "Get down!" "Cease fire!" "Hold your fire!" "Go!" "Hunting." "I am going hunting." "Ow." "Another day and another round of violence in Syria on Saturday." "Fighting in the northern city of Atma has raged for days causing widespread destruction and casualties that have now topped 35,000, with many of those civilians." "The addition of more troops in what are sure to be even bloodier battles ahead has fueled worries within the rebel ranks and around the world." "Talks in Washington calling for the arming of insurgents in Syria." "We should start considering all options, including arming the opposition." "Experts say arming the fighting groups among the opposition is a sure way to drag the country into a protracted civil war." "It will also further marginalize those in the opposition who have advocated non-violence or to advance political strategy." "Please leave a message after the beep." "Hey, Dad, it's Chris." "Did you get him?" "No, I got the machine." "Why don't you try his cell?" "'Cause he doesn't have a cell." "You could email him." "Or a computer." "So I'll just leave a message..." "Hey, buddy." "How's it going?" "Hey." "It's good." "It's great." "How about you?" "You been radio silent for a while." "Just, you know, keeping busy." "As usual." "So, hey, listen." "I don't know if you saw the invite, but tomorrow's Matthew's baptism." "Yeah, yeah, yeah." "Starting him early, huh?" "What's that?" "Nothing." "Just, yeah, that's great." "That'll be a great day." "You know, we were hoping you were going to make it down." "To be honest, it's tough for me tomorrow." "Come on, Dad." "What do you got going on?" "Just, you know, odds and ends." "Look, if it's the church thing, you could just come to the party afterwards." "You don't even have to wear a tie." "That sweetens the deal." "He coming?" "Yeah, Dad." "He's going to be there." "Mom's been married to the guy for 20 years, you've said about as many words to him." "Yeah, well..." "Look, like I said, son... things have been keeping me a little busy up here." "Right." "Well..." "Wort bug you about it anymore." "You're not bugging me." "No, you're not bugging me." "Well, hey, maybe we'll drive up sometime, surprise you." "Yeah, well, better call first." "Right." "Okay." "Well..." "Leave you to it." "Goodbye, Dad." "Bye, Chris." "Bye." "Ah..." "Fuck!" "Shit." "Oh." "God damn." "Oh, shit." "Ah, shit." "You got engine trouble?" "Long way from home, aren't you?" "Well, that is the whole idea." "I am on sabbatical for my health." "Yeah, well, good luck on that." "May I take a look?" "I got it covered, thanks." "It's no trouble." "I just have to tow it into town." "But that is 30, 40 miles, no?" "Please allow me." "I drove hack in London for seven years and I had no choice but to become expert on British automobiles." "Really, I don't need any help." "Thank you." "Okay." "Okay." "Hey." "Sir." "I just..." "I get this shooting pain in my leg." "Comes and goes." "Always puts me in a bad mood." "Try it." "Ah, you got to be kidding me." "God damn it!" "Patience." "I'm trying to revive car." "I don't want to have to do the same for you." "Well, I should've just towed it in." "Okay, once more, if you please." "Yeah." "Ah." "Well..." "You're a miracle worker." "Thank you." "Body of Christ visited in the filter housing." "I don't like American cars, very finicky." "You have to be extremely vigilant about maintenance." "You have to listen to every little thing." "The shooting pain in my leg is just killing me." "I just got to get..." "Okay." "My sermon is over." "Drug store will be closed if I don't head out soon." "Appreciate the help, mister?" "Emil Kovac." "Ben." "Benjamin Ford." "Take it easy." "You, too." "Take it easy." "You sure you're all right out here?" "Where I come from, this is a walk in the park." "Where is that?" "I'm sure you would not have heard of this place." "I'm..." "just leave it at that." "Try me." "Small village, Lukomir." "Oh, yeah, Bosnia." "I was stationed in Bradina." "Yeah." "Well, then, we are brothers." "I don't know about that." "I mean in arms." "Let me shake your hand again." "Yeah, small world." "I have kept you long." "That's okay." "The clock is ticking." "It's too dangerous to be driving anyway." "I think I'm going to head back." "I'm going to ride it out." "You're welcome to join me if you want." "But I would hate to be bother." "I could lie to you, say it's the Christian in me who wants you along, but truth is if anything happens to you, it's going to come back and bite me in the ass." "There's a word for it." "I believe it is karma." "Few more minutes." "Winchester, no?" "1873, the gun that won the West." "Yeah, you hunter like me." "Yeah, every now and then." "I don't use that." "I use this." "Evens the odds a little bit." "I wholeheartedly agree." "You know, I must confess," "I did not come halfway around the world just for mountain air." "I came for trophy." "Oh, whitetail?" "Elk." "Elk, they gave you a tag, lucky dog." "What'd you do, pull some strings with Fish and Wildlife?" "No patience." "You know, 18 months ago I applied for license for five bull." "Perhaps you come with me tomorrow." "No, really." "The storm will be over and the air will be clear and maybe, who knows, you get lucky, you add another head to your collection." "Well, what are you using?" "I use this." "I'll show you." "Here." "Jesus Christ, buddy." "You fight in the Indian Wars?" "No, this is the same bow I used as a boy." "You know, it's, gets very clean strong draw." "Not jerky like yours." "Well, mine won't snap." "Any bow can snap." "That's fiberglass." "I worked with fiberglass in factory." "That was after the war?" "No, before the war." "Old soldier like you." "But sometimes it is difficult to know when to leave the battlefield, you know?" "You're talking about the fiberglass." "The tiny beer bubbles find their way into the malt during the manufacturing process." "And then each time you pull the string back, the fiberglass weakens bit by bit." "One day, you are tracking your quarry through the grass, and the rocks, and the mud, and the rain, and the snow, and finally you see your prize bull right in the sights and snap!" "It breaks." "You're a weird duck." "Hmm." "What is this photographer?" "Oh, I did those." "Really?" "You're a photographer?" "Yeah." "What is this one?" "Well, that's the old church up in God's Peak." "God's Peak." "Hmm." "Reminds me of home." "Oh, no, please, I'm fine." "Oh, you got to try it." "I have more than I need, and it doesn't keep real well." "Or not." "It's a free country." "Okay." "If you insist." "This is good." "Good, huh?" "Told you." "It's delicious." "Oh." "It almost slipped my mind." "I have something to return the favor." "For the true hunter." "It's too late for me now." "Oh, come on." "You know, you did not have aspirin today, okay?" "So, do not think of it as a drink." "Think of it as pain killer." "I always drink with friend." "Never alone." "I have many rules, most I break." "But never that one." "So, Zivjeli." "Live long." "Zivjeli." "I'm telling you, these women are beautiful." "They fuck all night, I'm not kidding you." "Okay, now, your turn." "You tell me stories." "War stories." "I want to hear this." "War stories?" "Yes." "Most of those aren't true." "Most, but some." "Ones that are, why would anyone want to talk about it?" "How else do you keep the best life?" "The past is dead." "Let's keep it that way." "No, see, now I see the difference between you and me." "You drink to forget the past," "I drink to remember." "I don't remember much, but this I do remember." "The more booze you brought over there, there was plenty of blood." "To the war." "Oh, come on, Benjamin." "Is there not anything you missed about the war?" "Only to not miss it." "But why you say this?" "It was nothing but like cakewalk for you, no?" "You don't have any idea what the war was like for me, buddy." "I misspoke." "What I simply meant is that most American soldiers did nothing more but lob missiles into Bosnia from the safety of ships floating in the Mediterranean." "Most, not all." "Three drinks." "Say again?" "My people say we love Americans for three drinks, but we've had five." "And I still love you." "Hey." "Come on." "Let's have six." "Maybe seven." "Two more, we'll forget we even had this conversation." "¶ Then Billy Joe reached for his gun to draw ¶" "¶ But the stranger drew his gun and fired before he even saw ¶" "¶ As Billy Joe fell to the floor ¶" "¶ the crowd all gathered round ¶" "¶ And wondered at his final words ¶" "¶ Don't take your guns to town, son ¶" "¶ Leave your guns at home, Bill ¶" "¶ Don't take your guns to town" "To the man in black." "Love this fucking song." "What?" "The shooting pain?" "Shrapnel, finding its way out." "Why don't you just get this removed?" "Well, doctor says my choice." "I hate hospitals anyway." "Maybe you like pain." "Sometimes things become part of you." "Whether you like it or not." "What is this?" "Is this a picture of baby?" "My grandson gets baptized tomorrow morning." "I don't think I'm going to make it." "I haven't even met the kid yet." "Yeah, but, you know, he sent this invitation," "I'm sure he wants you to go." "Well, my wife, well, my ex-wife, she's going to bring her new... hell, I say new, but she's been married, what, going on 20 years now." "And you know the kicker?" "Kicker?" "What's "kicker?"" "Surprise." "Surprise, yes." "The new guy, he was best man at our wedding." "Oh, mother fucker." "You're kidding." "Yup." "He's all right." "He ain't a bad guy." "He's been there for my son." "He's been actually more of a father than I have." "I've been, you know, away and here and there." "You know, just..." "Oh, come on, Ben." "Let me read something for you." "You test my German." "Okay." "It is the hunter's honor that he protects and preserves his game, hunts sportsmanlike, and honors the creator and his creatures." "Benjamin, did you honor the creator in him?" "I didn't kill him." "You didn't?" "I haven't killed anything in 20 years." "You're joking." "No." "Everything you see here inside, outside, all bullshit." "Bullshit, what do you mean..." "Everything here, bullshit car, bullshit house, bullshit fiberglass bow, bullshit heads on a wall, it's all bullshit." "Come on, I would love to have this." "Want to hear something pathetic?" "This was all here when I bought this place." "You're joking." "No." "Furnished with rustic interior design elements." "Oh, my God." "That's what the listing said." "That's it." "It's all bullshit." "That is not the man you are." "I mean I grew up in a place like this, but not as big and actually not as fancy, but it was, you know, it was the real deal, mountains, trees, hung out with my dad." "Hey, I'll show you something." "You'll get a kick out of this." "That was my dad's." "What is this?" "Silver star for gallantry in action." "But does he have some war stories to tell, huh?" "Oh, yeah." "I fought three different wars, four different countries, still couldn't get one of these." "Really?" "No prize for Ben." "That's not good." "All the good things you did, you know, why not..." "I remember the first time we went hunting," "I told him I wanted to use his bow." "He said, "You're not strong enough to draw the string back. "" "He taught you how to use this bow." "Yeah, he taught me how to make a bow." "Oh, make a bow." "He could do anything with his hands." "Oh, yeah, he was..." "Whoa." "He could do it all." "I hit something the first time out, medium sized bow, right in the heart." ""Eagle eye," that's what my dad called me." "Ah, Eagle eye." "Yeah." "Okay, you know..." "It's time for me to be roughing it again." "Are you sure?" "I've got a spare room in the back..." "No, you have been very kind, you've been very generous." "My offer still stands, tomorrow at dawn, the west fork, and I'll tell you what." "I even give you the first shot." "I appreciate it." "I got lots of things to do tomorrow." "Nice to have you over." "You get good sleep." "You think about it." "Maybe you change your mind." "My thanks to you." "Thank you." "Okay." "Goodnight, Benjamin." "You too, you too." "Have a good sleep." "You too, Emil." "Careful, it's slippery." "So, how do you feel?" "Got a hangover, bouncing back." "Not so much for me." "You're used to it, I'm sure." "Mountainman, Davy Crockett." "You know that?" "I do." "You heard over there?" "As a boy." "You are Davy Crockett." "I never go this way." "Mountainmen." "© P@rM!" "NdeR M@nkÖÖ ™" "© P@rM!" "NdeR M@nkÖÖ ™" "© P@rM!" "NdeR M@nkÖÖ ™" "© P@rM!" "NdeR M@nkÖÖ ™" "© P@rM!" "NdeR M@nkÖÖ ™" "© P@rM!" "NdeR M@nkÖÖ ™" "© P@rM!" "NdeR M@nkÖÖ ™" "© P@rM!" "NdeR M@nkÖÖ ™" "© P@rM!" "NdeR M@nkÖÖ ™" "© P@rM!" "NdeR M@nkÖÖ ™" "© P@rM!" "NdeR M@nkÖÖ ™" "© P@rM!" "NdeR M@nkÖÖ ™" "© P@rM!" "NdeR M@nkÖÖ ™" "© P@rM!" "NdeR M@nkÖÖ ™" "© P@rM!" "NdeR M@nkÖÖ ™" "© P@rM!" "NdeR M@nkÖÖ ™" "© P@rM!" "NdeR M@nkÖÖ ™" "© P@rM!" "NdeR M@nkÖÖ ™" "© P@rM!" "NdeR M@nkÖÖ ™" "© P@rM!" "NdeR M@nkÖÖ ™" "You go up in the meadow over there." "I've had good luck there." "I'm going up to the deer stand." "Take this." "It's voice activated." "Channel three." "Put it on channel three." "Testing." "Testing." "One, two." "One, two." "It's good stuff." "Testing." "Testing." "©" "©" "© P@rM!" "NdeR" "© P@rM!" "NdeR M@nkÖÖ" "Did you ever hear the one about this old Italian guy wants to confess to local padre?" "So he slides open the little door in the confessional." "He says, "Father, forgive me for I have sinned." ""Back during the war, there was this beautiful woman." ""She came to my house and asked me to protect her from the Nazis." ""So I hid her up my attic. "" "The priest says, "That's a wonderful thing you did, my son." ""There's no need to confess. "" "And the old man says, "But it gets worse." ""She started to repay me with sexual favors like blowjobs. "" "So the priest says, "Fear not, my son, war makes sinners of us all." ""You are forgiven. " The old man says," ""Well, that's a great burden off my mind." "A great burden." ""But I have one more question. "" "Do you see him?" "Do you have a shot?" "Yeah, I'll try." "Take him." "He's nothing but a bag of meat and flesh and tendon." "Put him out of his misery." "Take the shot, Eagle Eye." "You want him, he's yours." "I know." "What the hell was that?" "You just spooked him." "Colonel Ford, you've changed." "Kovac?" "You pulled the trigger back in Menacha." "How'd you know I was in Menacha?" "Because I was there, too." "Fuck." "It's the hunter's honor that he protects and preserves his game, hunts sportsmanlike, and honors the creator's creatures." "You're not Bosnian." "What the fuck do you want from me?" "I always wonder who would win in a fair fight, both of us properly armed." "Fuck!" "Two men alone in the wilderness." "War." "Distilled." "My bow is broken." "This ain't a fair fight." "You of all people should know, war is not fair." "Fuck!" "Fuck." "I told you, I wanted a trophy." "Fuck you!" "Ah." "I warned you about the air bubbles in the fiberglass, first sign of trouble, and snap!" "What, you pissed off about the war or something?" "Did something happen to you?" "You killed my friend, I killed your friend, that's what it's about." "I made peace with my sins." "It's over." "No." "The war will never be over." "Why don't you just shoot me, then?" "Instead of this running around hiding bullshit." "Just shoot me!" "Oh, come on, Benjamin." "I just want to shoot the shit." "Shoot the shit?" "Yeah, it's how you say this, right?" "Shoot the shit." "Shoot the shit?" "You just shot me." "What the fuck are you..." "I know, but I had to." "I had no choice." "I could've shot you in the heart or the head, but I didn't." "I could've killed you." "So, come out to sit." "We'll talk like gentlemen." "Come on, sit over here." "Sit down." "Benjamin." "What are you, you going to hang me now?" "Pull up your pants leg." "There's a stake on the end of that rope." "I want you to put it through the hole in your leg and tie it." "What?" "Put the stake through the hole in the calf." "Okay." "Let me see!" "Tie it, please." "Tight." "Don't worry." "The calf muscle is very strong." "You can hang like this for days without tearing muscle." "Okay, you are the old Italian man." "I am the priest." "And this is our confession." "So, what are your sins, my son?" "And you say something like, "Oh, bless me, father, for I have sinned." ""It's been so and so many days since my last confession, and these are my sins. "" "Now, you know what that means to confess, no?" "Of course you do." "But, you, you say things like, "Oh, my wife left me." ""Oh, my son calls different man 'father. '" ""Oh, I miss my dear old daddy. "" "But I go to confession every week, even more if I find the time." "But you go to retreat in the mountain, did you think you could forget the past?" "What do you want from me?" "I want real confession!" "You put bullet in my back and you left me for dead." "And now for years you run from the truth." "And I carried the pain alone." "But no more!" "So, now it is time to spill your guts." "Now, you know American Indians spilled one's guts to reveal one's most intimate secrets." "I want you to spill your guts to me." "Or I will spill them for you." "Want good cut?" "Like this, and everything spills out on the ground." "Please, stop." "You live alone." "This is good, because I want you to see all the little creatures will come down and nibble on your insides." "You'll be late." "Looks like you missed your little nephew's baptism." "But you would rather be up here with me, wouldn't you?" "Do you believe in God, Benjamin?" "Who gives a shit?" "Did you hear what I said?" "Fuck you." "I believe in him." "I know he exists." "And I'll tell you why." "It was walking home from the factory in Lukomir." "And I see a crowd of people in town square." "The soldiers were dragging Serbs from their houses." "They raped my mother, my sister, and they poured petrol all over the wounded bodies." "The men, they were not so lucky." "They used the axes to split their heads open and let them die in square." "And I asked myself, if God truly exists, how could he allow such terrible things?" "Then I think all the things that happened in my life and I realized that is not the proof of the absence of God, this is the proof of his existence." "Because men alone could not be capable of such magnificent evil." "Now, I spilled my guts." "Your turn." "Your turn!" "Your turn!" "Maybe I'm coming in more clear now, eh?" "Dad?" "Dad, you around?" "Come on, Dad." "Is he here?" "There's his car." "He might be asleep." "It's okay." "Dad?" "Maybe he doesn't want to see us." "Which is exactly why we should have called." "Leave it up to my dad not to be around." "Benjamin." "Be quiet, don't move." "Hey, at least we have a three hour car ride home to look forward to." "At least he's asleep." "Oh." "Hi, but he's awake." "You want this baby to have a father or no?" "Let's play." "Put that fucking bow down." "Otherwise, I have to put one more head on your wall." "That's my family, goddammit." "You threaten my family," "I will end you, mother fucker, you hear me?" "Put that fucking bow down." "I can't hold it much longer." "You wanna play?" "You want your war, goddammit?" "Yeah." "Yeah." "We can play." "You want your war?" "Come and get it." "I'll give you a head start." "It is Murphy's Law, no?" "Whatever can go wrong will go wrong." "Bullshit cabin." "Bullshit wine." "Hey." "It's okay." "It's okay." "Hold still." "Hold still." "Let me see." "Let me see your tongue." "Oh, there it is." "Yeah, you'll still be able to talk." "That's good, 'cause I know how much you like to talk." "Yeah." "I know it hurts, but it's okay." "Very superficial." "Yeah, let me help you." "Getting that removed." "Risky." "You proud of what you did?" "Or maybe you don't want to forget." "It's like with your shot." "Sometimes things become part of you, whether you want it to or not." "Scorpions, Serbian death squad, tried for war crimes against Bosnian Muslims." "Some did terrible things." "Some were simply caught up in circumstances beyond their control." "Yeah, which one were you?" "You know, I got an idea." "I think this time you should be the old Italian guy, I should be the priest." "Not talking anymore?" "Not giving me any long dissertations on the meaning of war and life?" "I'll give you a very simple one." "When life gives you lemons... that's right." "Nice and simple." "And my mother, she used to always have a fresh pitcher waiting for us when Dad and me came out of the woods." "One morning we went hunting and I got one in the chest." "But I missed the heart." "Probably punctured his lungs, so we had to chase him down." "Like the bowl?" "Yeah, me too." "More natural this way." "So, anyway... we finally caught up." "He made me put that knife in his throat." "Made me watch while it bled out." "Got to do it quick, he said, otherwise the meat will spoil." "You know, you wouldn't think it, but even in an animal you can see that exact moment when the light leaves its eyes." "Almost done." "Damn." "No sugar." "I'm just going to have to substitute." "This ought to do." "Well, now." "You think a little bit of pain is going to make me break?" "I sure don't know." "What if I like pain?" "This might be your lucky day." "Here we go." "Want another?" "Yes, please." "You like that, huh?" "How's it feel to be the one getting tortured?" "Is that what you did during the war?" "Torture people?" "Huh?" "Tell me." "What?" "What'd you do?" "Who'd you kill?" "Bosnians?" "Croatians?" "Women?" "Children?" "Who'd you kill?" "No children." "No women." "What, then?" "What did you do?" "What'd you do?" "I made tools." "What for?" "What were they used for?" "Many things." "For sleeping tent and shredding muscles." "The goal was to make people talk and at the end, everyone talks." "You like tools, huh?" "I got tools, too." "Don't go anywhere." "See?" "That's that thing we were talking about." "That word." "Karma." "You torture me and I'll torture you." "Sound familiar?" "The Serbs attacked the Bosnians because the Bosnians attacked the Serbs." "Same goes for the Croatians and the Nazis back in World War II." "Truth is, you can go back 1,000 years and still not know how a conflict really started." "But we all know how it ends." "You think you're the only one that lost something in that war?" "Huh?" "It destroyed me." "You hear?" "You hear?" "The war is almost over, Colonel Ford." "For gallantry in action." "Move!" "Can't move, eh?" "I know this feeling." "For three years..." "I had very much the same feeling." "I was shot in the back and I was paralyzed from the neck down." "And I could barely talk." "And you know how much I like to talk." "And there was beautiful nurse." "Her name was Sophia." "She was always dressed in white." "She always had beautiful smile on her face." "I dreamed making love to her, fucking her." "You know what her job was?" "To collect the piss and the shit from the pan from beneath my bed." "But slowly the feeling came back." "You know, I taught myself how to write." "I taught myself how to eat." "I taught myself to speak again and to walk like a man, not like cripple." "I had no help." "I had no mother." "I had no father." "I had no wife or child." "And you know what kept me going?" "Not knowing if you would fight, and if you did, who would win." "Because you have been like such a won'thy adversary." "© P@rM!" "NdeR M@nkÖÖ ™" "© P@rM!" "NdeR M@nkÖÖ ™" "© P@rM!" "NdeR M@nkÖÖ ™" "© P@rM!" "NdeR M@nkÖÖ ™" "© P@rM!" "NdeR M@nkÖÖ ™" "© P@rM!" "NdeR M@nkÖÖ ™" "© P@rM!" "NdeR M@nkÖÖ ™" "© P@rM!" "NdeR M@nkÖÖ ™" "© P@rM!" "NdeR M@nkÖÖ ™" "© P@rM!" "NdeR M@nkÖÖ ™" "© P@rM!" "NdeR M@nkÖÖ ™" "© P@rM!" "NdeR M@nkÖÖ ™" "© P@rM!" "NdeR M@nkÖÖ ™" "© P@rM!" "NdeR M@nkÖÖ ™" "© P@rM!" "NdeR M@nkÖÖ ™" "© P@rM!" "NdeR M@nkÖÖ ™" "© P@rM!" "NdeR M@nkÖÖ ™" "© P@rM!" "NdeR M@nkÖÖ ™" "© P@rM!" "NdeR M@nkÖÖ ™" "© P@rM!" "NdeR M@nkÖÖ ™" "©" "©" "© P@rM!" "NdeR" "© P@rM!" "NdeR M@nkÖÖ" "© P@rM!" "NdeR M@nkÖÖ ™" "© P@rM!" "NdeR M@nkÖÖ ™" "© P@rM!" "NdeR M@nkÖÖ ™" "© P@rM!" "NdeR M@nkÖÖ ™" "© P@rM!" "NdeR M@nkÖÖ ™" "© P@rM!" "NdeR M@nkÖÖ ™" "© P@rM!" "NdeR M@nkÖÖ ™" "© P@rM!" "NdeR M@nkÖÖ ™" "© P@rM!" "NdeR M@nkÖÖ ™" "© P@rM!" "NdeR M@nkÖÖ ™" "© P@rM!" "NdeR M@nkÖÖ ™" "© P@rM!" "NdeR M@nkÖÖ ™" "© P@rM!" "NdeR M@nkÖÖ ™" "© P@rM!" "NdeR M@nkÖÖ ™" "© P@rM!" "NdeR M@nkÖÖ ™" "© P@rM!" "NdeR M@nkÖÖ ™" "© P@rM!" "NdeR M@nkÖÖ ™" "© P@rM!" "NdeR M@nkÖÖ ™" "© P@rM!" "NdeR M@nkÖÖ ™" "© P@rM!" "NdeR M@nkÖÖ ™" "©" "©" "© P@rM!" "NdeR" "© P@rM!" "NdeR M@nkÖÖ" "You win." "I know." "Just get it over with." "Yeah, I promise." "But not yet." "Well, what are you waiting for?" "I'm waiting for your confession, Colonel Ford." "Please, please stop." "Sit there." "Sit there." "You have no idea how lucky you are." "My country has beauty, but there is an invisible layer of blood caked over everything." "Most people cannot see it, but I have special eyes." "Everywhere I look, I see red." "Move!" "A young cowboy, Billy Joe, grew restless on the farm." "The boy filled with wanderlust, he really meant no harm." "Billy Joe fell to the floor, the crowd all gathered round and wondered at his final words," ""Don't take your guns to town, son." ""Don't leave your guns at home." ""We'll take your gun to town. "" "Ah." "Is little Benny tired?" "Benjamin?" "Benjamin." "The shooting pain again, eh?" "Is it the shrapnel trying to move its way out?" "There it is." "What if I try to help it along?" "Bless me, father, for I have sinned." "Bless me, but do not forgive me." "It has been one week since my last confession." "It has been a big week and I could go down the list, but there's short of time." "And of course you have better things to do." "So, don't forgive us." "Okay." "I confess my sins onto you, but do not dare absolve them." "I want to be part of them for me to never forget them." "Okay, you." "Your turn." "You, you confess." "Now!" "It is only the three of us here." "You and me and him." "I will keep your secret, Colonel Ford." "In the end he's not even listening." "You are the only one getting in the way of the truth." "I give up." "You win." "You win." "But you lose." "Maybe you'll finally tell him the truth when you see him face to face." "You want to kill me?" "Look me in the eye." "October." "Like this, right?" "'95." "My unit was first on the ground outside..." "We were tasked with liberating the Bosnian Muslims from the internment camp there." "The first thing we noticed was the smell." "Got our attention right away." "Like my father's taxidermy shed." "And when we got to the camp, we saw boxcars sitting out on the tracks." "Looked like they were full of old clothes." "We got closer, we began to make out hands and legs." "It was the faces." "Faces just skin stretched over skulls." "Bodies stuck together." "Stuck to the ground from the frost, eyelids frozen open staring right at you." "Camp was run by Serbians, called themselves the Scorpions." "Dozens of these Scorpions, they surrendered." "They were all going to go back to a POW camp for a few weeks and then after the war, they'd all just go home." "I'd seen... we'd all seen firsthand what they'd done, the children they butchered, women they raped, tortured." "So we stripped them down, burned their uniforms, marched them up a hill in the middle of nowhere." "And we got to the top, my men lined the prisoners up on their knees facing away." "I joined up to make my father proud, but when I told him, he tried to talk me out of it." ""Remember the elk," he said." ""Remember the look in their eyes at the end." ""You see that happen to another man, doesn't matter if he's a friend" ""or an enemy." "You see that happen, it changes you forever. "" "Of course I didn't believe him." "Had to find out for myself." "Should have listened." "I been..." "I been in a lot of wars, but never one like Bosnia." "That war got into my head." "I saw it like a poison." "I just wanted it to stop." "I thought maybe killing a few of the worst ones would make it go away." "So I pulled the trigger." "Just like that I became everything I hated about that damn war." "Everything." "Then when I got home I couldn't even look myself in the mirror or my son in the eye." "Yeah, I figured he was just better off without me." "Then I was not prepared to die, but now... you should pull the trigger." "Put an end to this for us." "You can finish it." "Don't you know the things I have done?" "Don't I deserve to die?" "We are both killers." "Are we not?" "We're the same, you and I." "He is nothing but meat and flesh and tendon, put him out of his misery." "Please, God, pull the trigger." "Pull the trigger!" "So, this old Italian guy, he wants to confess to the local priest." "He's getting on in age and wants to make it right with God." "So, he tells the priest, "Father, back in the war" ""there was this beautiful woman that came to my house" ""and asked me to protect her from the Nazis," ""so I hid her up in my attic. "" "The priest says, "Well, that's a wonderful thing you did, my son." ""There's no reason to confess. "" "The old man says, "But it gets worse, Father." ""She started to repay me with sexual favors," ""you know, like, blowjobs and shit like that. "" "The priest says, "Well..." ""you both are in great danger, my son." ""War makes sinners of us all." ""So, you are forgiven. "" "The old man says, "Well, thank you, Father." ""It's a great burden off my mind." ""But I have one more question. "" ""What's that, my son?"" ""Should I have told her that the war was over?"" "I don't get it." "It's not that funny." "I believe I got something that belongs to you." "Yeah." "He's got your eyes." "Maybe I'll see them for myself." "Zivjeli." "The war is only just beginning." "Thousands are homeless and fleeing the province as the war escalates." "Troops have made progress in the province today, continuing a cavalcade of intense aerial shelling with no signs of anyone stopping." ""It's like hell on earth," said one woman when she fled with her three children for the border." "It never ends." "But for many of these now..." "Hey." "Sorry I'm late." "Come on." "There's someone I want you to meet." "©" "©" "© P@rM!" "NdeR" "© P@rM!" "NdeR M@nkÖÖ"