ALONG THE WAY

by Roger Summers

The barracks were dark and their inhabitants were asleep by now. Moonbeams glistened off the wire fence before him as the moon danced from cloud to cloud. Ronnie grasped the fence with both hands and leaned his head against its cold metal, the only barrier between the outside and this sadistic world in which he found himself trapped.

How long had he stood there? Five minutes? Ten? He was cold as the cool night air nipped through his T-shirt.

A plane flew overhead somewhere in the darkness and Ronnie began. to climb the fence.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" A voice shot through the stillness.

Startled, Ronnie jumped to the ground and whirled around.

It was one of the other recruits, assigned to guard duty around the barracks. How he managed to get so close behind him, Ronnie's numb brain was unable to answer.

"Going over the hill, huh?" His voice boomed; yet, actually uttered only slightly above a whisper. "What's-a-matter? Can't take it?

Ya wanna run home and cry to your mommy?" He continued sarcastically. "Are they asking you too much, to have you stand on your own two feet?"

Was this the boy in front of him talking or was this still the voice within him that Ronnie kept hearing as he stood before the fence. These were the words he had been trying to keep trapped, unacknowledged, within his mind, trying desperately to understand them and trying just as desperately not to face them.

"You have to take that step sometime." The sentry reasoned, each word slapping Ronnie in the face. "You have to cross the threshold into manhood alone."

Were these the words he had been so afraid to hear? These were things Ronnie knew.

"Thousands like you have passed through here. They could take it. How different were they from you?" This was not the sentry talking now. This

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