War Stories

As Daniel drives the rental car through the French countryside, Jacob forces him to pull over near a fence of hedgerows. The green shrubbery is centuries old, and Jacob recalls fighting through the area: “These hedgerows—they may look pretty in the aerial photographs, but they’re murder for fighting. You can’t drive a tank through them!” (89). They slip through the foliage and enter an open field. Soon, they are hailed by a Frenchman who offers them a picnic basket of food to express his thanks for Jacob’s service.

Jacob’s narrative resumes in the same location in 1944. He and his company are fighting their way through one hedgerow and field after another in pursuit of the retreating Germans. Their progress is grueling: “The combat raged on. Bravo Company had the advantage, but the enemy made them bleed for every inch they took” (94).

As the Firestones continue toward Saint-Lô, Trevor seems disappointed that the hedgerow battles were so lacking in drama. His grandfather attempts to explain how a soldier’s perspective in real war differs from a player’s perspective in a video game: “‘The battles were every bit as big as your video games,’ G.G. assured his great-grandson. ‘But when you’re in the middle of it, it’s personal and small. Your job is all that matters’” (97). Saint-Lô appears to be a bustling modern town, but Jacob reveals that the entire place was leveled during the war and had to be rebuilt. This fact startles Trevor, who is accustomed to stability: “Trevor tried to picture his own hometown bombed to rubble, but the image just wouldn’t come. Marlborough had always been there” (99).

Once the family settles into their hotel room, Trevor looks out the window and realizes that the same blonde girl is standing outside. He dashes downstairs to try to follow her, but she climbs onto a motorcycle driven by a teenage boy. When Jacob and Daniel catch up with him, they refuse to believe Trevor’s claim that the Firestones are being followed. However, when they pack the following morning to continue their journey, they discover that their car tires have been slashed.

Near Saint-Jean-de-Daye, Jacob and his company are settling into their foxholes to rest when they get the unexpected order to move out. The previous seven weeks were brutal: “Sometimes they would be on the go for as long as three days and nights. The exhaustion was so constant that it had become their normal state” (107). As the company marches down a country road, Jacob spies a downed plane with the British pilot pinned inside. The men pry the door open to rescue the pilot, whose mood seems surprisingly pleasant. The pilot even remarks on his own injury with a pleasant detachment: “‘Blimey,’ he observed. ‘My leg’s been shot through with anti-aircraft fire’” (111). The company gets an ambulance, and the pilot is carried to safety while they resume their march.

The men take a lunch break at an abandoned farmhouse outside Saint-Lô, where they talk about an aerial strike named Operation Cobra intended to drive the Germans out of the village once and for all. Soon, they hear the approach of the planes. Unfortunately, some of the bombs miss their targets and fall dangerously close to Company Bravo.

Jacob, Beau, and Leland run into a barn and crawl under a buckboard. The airstrike continues for over an hour. When they attempt to emerge, they realize the barn has collapsed: “If it hadn’t been for the shelter of the buckboard, they would surely have been crushed” (116). As the soldiers dig out from under the rubble, they see the destruction of Saint-Lô off in the distance. Jacob found the aerial bombing to be terrifying, but he thinks how much worse it must have been for the people inside the town.

As the Firestones drive toward Paris, Trevor can’t believe that Jacob was nearly killed by American bombers. He doesn’t like the concept of friendly fire. His father again takes the opportunity to emphasize that the reality of war is messy: “‘It may be glamorous to imagine fighting an enemy,’ Dad added. ‘But bombs and bullets don’t care who they hit, and the real enemy is the fighting itself’” (119).

Jacob abruptly orders Daniel to stop the car. He has just spied a cistern with pure spring water and remembers the day he and his company drank from it. They were tired and thirsty, and their canteens were empty. Jacob declares it was the best water he had ever tasted: “From the whole war, my best memory is right here. Try it. You’ll go nuts” (122). Daniel and Trevor dutifully sip from the spring.

While they are paused by the side of the road, Daniel scans the most recent posts to the Saint-Regine Facebook page. La Verite’s messages are becoming more threatening: “We know the truth about your crimes against Sainte-Régine. If you come here, you’ll face vengeance. You will pay for the suffering you caused” (124). Jacob believes the comment comes from a harmless crackpot.

In Paris, 13-year-old Juliette Lafleur observes the Firestones. She has been following them for days and doesn’t understand some of the stops they’ve made on their trip. Her 17-year-old cousin Philippe is her accomplice. They have located the hotel where the Firestones will be staying, and Juliette has prepared a welcome present. She goes into the hotel with a gift-wrapped box and manages to gain access to the family’s room while they are away. After depositing the gift, Juliette leaves, wondering if this will finally be enough to scare the Firestones. Meanwhile, the Firestones are returning from a day of sightseeing. Trevor is enthused about the bravery of the French Resistance, and Jacob produces a ring indicating that he was also associated with the Resistance.

When the family enters the hotel lobby, Trevor stays downstairs, where the Wi-Fi signal is better. Jacob and Daniel go up to their room and immediately see the gift box. Jacob opens it and finds an alarm clock inside. Concluding that it is a bomb, he flushes it down the toilet, but the object is merely a clock. However, the message at the bottom of the box is somewhat more disturbing. It reads, “It could have been real” (130). The note is signed by La Verite. As Trevor examines the photos he took that day, he comes across a shot of the blonde girl walking toward another teen on a motorcycle. Trevor is now convinced that his family is being followed.

Back in the past, Jacob and his company ride into Paris on a tank as the entire populace of the city turns out to greet them and celebrate. At one point during their journey, however, German snipers begin firing at the tank and into the crowd. The tank successfully returns fire, albeit blowing the roof off of a building across the street. Jacob is disturbed, angry that he could have saved the building by simply dispatching the sniper with his rifle. He meditates on the pointlessness of this destruction: “Why did the damage done to this one row house in Paris—which was in great shape compared with those other places—bother him so much? Because it hadn’t been necessary” (136). The randomness of it affects him deeply, calling to the magnitude of devastation he has already witnessed during the war.

Four days later, the company is ordered to take a bridge over the Aisne River before the Germans can blow it up. When the soldiers arrive, the bridge appears intact, but Jacob spies dynamite charges fastened underneath. Jacob volunteers to defuse the first charge with some phone assistance from demolition experts. He and three other men, including his friend, Leland, are deployed to defuse the rest when a German soldier fires at them from the woods. Leland is killed in the blast that follows. As the bridge collapses, Jacob falls into the river.

He floats downstream but ends up on the wrong shore, behind a company of Germans. Thinking quickly, Jacob grabs a motorcycle and flees. He searches for another bridge that will get him back to his own company. Distracted, he nearly hits an oncoming car. Swerving to avoid it, he plows the motorcycle into a ditch and is thrown from the bike. As he falls unconscious, Jacob finds himself being helped by a man who wears the ring of the French Resistance.

Outside Soissons, Jacob, Daniel, and Trevor contemplate the new bridge over the Aisne River. Jacob has grown increasingly cranky during the trip the closer they get to their destination. As Jacob wanders off to study the bridge, Daniel tells Trevor, “The only thing I remember about war is I want no part of it. It breaks things and people. Like this bridge—and Leland” (151). Jacob suffers an unexpected dizzy spell, so Daniel insists that they find a doctor in Soissons to examine him. Jacob is pronounced healthy for 93, but the doctor recommends that the family postpone their arrival in Sainte-Régine for another day to get a good night’s sleep first.

That evening, Juliette and Philippe sit on a park bench across the street and watch the Firestones eat at an outdoor restaurant. Juliette remarks that they seem like such a nice family, but Philippe reminds her that Jacob is the monster who destroyed their own family. He leaves, and Juliette is about to follow when she sees Trevor crossing the street to speak to her. He wants to know why the Firestones are being targeted by Juliette and her cousin. Trevor insists that Jacob is a war hero. This pronouncement makes Juliette furious: “Her eyes sprayed sparks, and it almost erupted from her—the entire horrible story. But instead, she spat, ‘There is much that your American history books leave out!’” (158).