Colin grabbed a beer and offered Zoey one which she accepted after the way the night had been doing.
Colin then says, "I am apologizing in advance, you are the first person I have even tried to talk to about this and this is a lot so I don't know how it will come out or sound or I don't know. At this point, maybe I should just drink my beer and leave."
Zoey, "No Colin. Whatever you have been holding in, has been eating you alive. I am here, you are here, it is time to talk and let it all out. How do you and Bryan know each other, and why is he so upset and calling you a killer?"
Colin begins to shake. Zoey reaches over for his hand and says "listen, I told you and I told your Pop, I am here to listen. No judgment."
Colin replies, "if I tell you everything, you will kick me out and never speak to me again. Next time you see me on the beach, you will kick sand on me and call me a leper. Are you sure you want to be a friend to me and listen to me because once I tell you, you will never look at me the same?"
Zoey shook her head. "Colin, if you are here right now, then you know me better than that and know that I am not like that. When you were leaving for Afghanistan and you were terrified, I did not think any less of you. We talked and laughed and made the best of the last few days before you flew out."
Colin took a deep breath and began.
It was November, this year will be two years. I had been home and medically discharged from the military with PTSD which is Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. I had watched as the Humvee my buddies were in were blown up by an IED as it drove over it. In the Humvee was my girlfriend who was also the corpsman as well as a paramedic at the firehouse at home. When they sent me home, I was a mess! I could not work, could not sleep, and all I did was drink and get high. Bryan was my best friend and had been since we were babies. He had also been in Afghanistan but came home and found healthier wave to deal with the pain of what we saw and gave back to the community.
We lived next door to each other until his parents moved off the island when his sister who was supposed to get married was left at the altar by a low-life alcoholic who was already married and lived in the city and had two kids. Sorry I got sidetracked.
In any case, I was a mess, and Bryan tried to get me to stop being such an ass. We got in fistfights, wrestling matches, knock-down-drag-out wars, with Bryan trying to get me straight. He even tried to have me locked up, and committed, but it never worked as he had hoped. I am not sure if it was lucky for me or lucky for him. In any case, I put myself in rehab after Bryan brought me home one morning covered in blood, some of Bryans, and some of my own, and my mom was so upset, that I thought she was going to have a heart attack. It scared me so bad, my mom and dad have always been my greatest supporters, and when I saw what it was doing to them, it was very sobering, and I was scared and embarrassed. I had Bryan drive me to the rehab up north that same day.
When I got out of rehab, I got my resume and applied to work at the Police Department. Don't know if you remember that I worked there in the summer in high school, and when I got back from basic training."
Zoey nodded.
Colin continued, "it was November, and I had been working long hours as we were short on staff, and I was in the motor unit. We had gotten a call of a 10-46, sorry a bank alarm was going off and we were informed of a 10-65, active robbery. When I was 10-17, en route, there was a second call that the assailant had left the building and was headed toward the bridge. There were already units on scene at the bank, so I followed the assailant across the bridge. The assailant knew he had no way to go. I was behind him as was JB, another officer in a police cruiser, as well as two, were headed the other way on the bridge from the mainland. The assailant cut across the road into the line of traffic head-on, and crashed, killing him instantly. The car behind him swerved to miss hitting the car that he hit head-on, and they hit me head-on, throwing me across the bridge under an oncoming truck, and hit the side of the bridge. There were 7 automobiles involved in total, 5 deaths, and one critical. There should have been 6 deaths, the sixth one being mine."
