Page 27 of Green Ravens

“You all right over there, Chief?” Oakley asked.

“This rock doesn’t feel as good as lying on your chest, but other than that…yeah, I’m good.”

“You’re not good. You were asleep.”

“I wasn’t fuckin’ asleep. I was doing some meditative breathing.”

He could hear Sawyer’s grin in the dark.

“You were about to fall asleep.”

“I said I’m good.”

“What were your parents like?” Oakley blurted. “I told you about my nutcase, Steve Irwin-wannabe father and how he left my mom and traipsed me through every dangerous environmentimaginable, all because his own dad was just as big of a nut. What about you?”

“Yeah, your dad does sound pretty fuckin’ intense, man.”

“What’s the word for intense to the tenth power?” Oakley scoffed. “I tell you what. Once he gets wind that I’m MIA, he won’t grieve. He’ll fuckin’ say I should’ve died as a Ranger, not a sailor.”

“Jesus.”

“My old man retired at sixty-two from the Army, then went into isolation because he didn’t get killed like his lineage demanded.”

“Are you serious?”

“I haven’t seen him in eleven years. He doesn’t wanna see me, and I don’t wanna see him either.”

“Damn.”

“Now, tell me about your father.”

Sawyer was quiet for so long that Oakley thought he’d dozed off again.

“I never knew him.” Sawyer’s sigh was cut off by the scuttling of some animal taking a drink. “It was just my mom and me. She never married. Worked her ass off, sometimes two and three jobs at a time.”

“She must’ve been something.”

“What makes you say that?”

“She raised one helluva man to have done it by herself.”

Oakley hoped he hadn’t raised a sore subject.What if his—

“She died during my third year in college. Had a heart attack on the bus on her way home from work.”

I’m a goddamn idiot.Oakley was kicking himself in the teeth.

“When anyone asks how she died, I tell them she worked herself to death.”

“Damn, Sawyer. Look, man, I didn’t mean to—”

“It was a long time ago, Chief. I’m good. I know I made her proud by graduating from college and serving my country. That’s all that matters.”

Oakley didn’t say another word, and when he heard Sawyer’s breathing deepen again, he let him rest.

Chief Styles Sawyer

The thousand-mammal orchestra of the jungle woke Sawyer from his fitful sleep. He squinted at the rays of sunlight filtering through the vast canopy of leaves and groaned in anguish that his current predicament wasnota dream.

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