Daddy's Fireworks

Daddy shook and trembled and squeezed his eyes shut tight, as we ooohed and aaahed at fireworks in the summer sky that night. We squealed and hopped with laughter as mommy held him some more, when we asked why she told us; “It reminds him of a war.” On those nights so long ago he heard the booms and thuds, streaks of light were aimed at them his comrades and his buds. I remember that Independence day in nineteen eighty eight, when he jumped at every sound unable to escape. We didn’t understand it then being only six and eight, how memories of an old old war carried such crushing weight. Until Grandma told us of the year she almost lost her son, on a muddy battlefield they just called Vietnam.