( he raises an eyebrow to that admission. oddly, it don't surprise him much. you learn to look for trauma in little places in the hush an' quiet of a soul. an' this place is already so far beyond whatever reckonin' he might've once assumed of purgatory that he ain't about to question it. what's the benefit to lyin'?

even if he is, it says hell an' gone more about someone willin' to lie about the subject than it does about someone willin' to believe it. gene takes his seat back near the boy, an' tips his head towards him. )

Well, even then I reckon there's no guarantee that it'd be the same each time.

( to say nothin' of the bodies he's seen, red in the surf at gela or littered through the ardennes near st vith, he's also seen as many ghosts as there are trees in europe. deaths can be similar, but ain't no two the same in every respect. )

What were your other ones like? If'n you don't mind the askin'.

( now that the boy's choked down a sufficient amount of the crackers, gene takes out the last of his k-rat chocolate bars, breakin' off a piece to hold across the space between them. the sugar'll help, and the crackers will ensure it don't get absorbed too quick in his blood. )