Indivisible
By Julia Camp
()
About this ebook
Charlie returns home from Afghanistan to discover that his battles are just beginning.
- WINNER: Pinnacle Book Achievement Award - Best Literary Fiction
"Indivisible by Julia Camp is a serious book. You know a book is serious when there's a suicide on page two and when tears are streaming down your cheeks on page three. ... All war veterans deserve our respect and often our sympathy, but this book helps us see and especially feel why. ... Like all great works of art—Hamlet, say—there are no answers. Great works leave us with questions, not resolutions. They don't satisfy; they provoke. They change us. Indivisible has left me with all those questions I thought I'd solved long ago. It's a serious thing to ask those questions, and Indivisible is a serious book." ~ Readers' Favorite Book Reviews, Jon Michael Miller (5 STARS)
Ever since the death of his best friend, Charlie can hardly look in the mirror. He feels alienated from himself, and suddenly, things that used to feel simple seem unexplainably complicated. The weight of his past presses heavily on his soul. He wonders if everything that he did—letting his best friend enlist, deciding to enlist with him, being unable to talk about the war after they got home—all somehow led to his best friend's suicide.
As time moves on, Charlie keeps one foot in the past and one in the present. He feels himself getting stretched thinner and thinner. The weight on him only piles up, and whatever clarity he has about his life seems to only get more and more foggy. He talks to everyone he can, trying to get answers about why his best friend, who once seemed so happy, decided to die. It's a puzzle that he tries to solve like a mystery, trying to piece together parts of his friend's past, seeking a simple answer that'll make everything seem rational. He believes that then, he'll be okay. Then, he'll move on. However, for every answer, there seem to be ten more questions.
EVOLVED PUBLISHING PRESENTS an in-depth look at the trauma of returning from war, PTSD, and at suicide by war vets and the struggles of those they leave behind. [DRM-Free]
Julia Camp
I’m currently (as of 8 September 2020) a law student at the University of Texas at Austin. Prior to law school, I taught creative writing at John Hopkins’ Center for Talented Youth program, and worked as an editor for 1966: A Journal of Creative Nonfiction. I’m a graduate of Trinity University, where I majored in English and minored in creative writing. I’ve always had a passion for writing literary fiction, and after continuously reading and rereading my two favorite novels, The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien and The Yellow Birds by Kevin Powers, I decided to write my own story about a soldier’s return home from Afghanistan. My novel Indivisible is about the way that time itself both heals and scars us, how time pushes us to points where we must choose between breaking or making peace with senselessness and tragedy. It’s a novel about strength and, at times, the absence of it. I recently had a flash fiction piece, A Bookmark Near the End, published by the NY Times, which is pretty exciting.
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Indivisible - Julia Camp
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~~~
INDIVISIBLE
Copyright © 2019 Julia Camp
~~~
ISBN (EPUB Version): 1622532112
ISBN-13 (EPUB Version): 978-1-62253-211-7
~~~
Editor: Jenni Sinclaire
Senior Editor: Lane Diamond
Cover Artist: Kabir Shah
Interior Designer: Lane Diamond
~~~
PUBLISHER’S NOTE:
At the end of this novel of approximately 84,162 words, you will find two Special Sneak Previews: 1) ALONG THE WATCHTOWER by David Litwack, an award-winning look at the consequences of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), and; 2) LOVE, LOSS, AND LAGNIAPPE by Richard Robbins, another literary gem about personal loss. We think you’ll enjoy these books, too, and provide these previews as a FREE extra service, which you should in no way consider a part of the price you paid for this book. We hope you will both appreciate and enjoy the opportunity. Thank you.
~~~
eBook License Notes:
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~~~
Disclaimer:
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination, or the author has used them fictitiously.
BONUS CONTENT
We’re pleased to offer you not one, but two Special Sneak Previews at the end of this book.
~~~
In the first preview, you’ll enjoy the Prologue and First 3 Chapters of the critically-acclaimed, multiple award-winning literary novel, ALONG THE WATCHTOWER by David Litwack.
~~~
~~~
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FIND LINKS TO YOUR FAVORITE RETAILER HERE:
DAVID LITWACK’S Books at Evolved Publishing
In the second preview, you’ll enjoy the First 2 Chapters of the critically acclaimed, multiple award-winning literary gem, LOVE, LOSS, AND LAGNIAPPE by Richard Robbins.
~~~
~~~
OR GRAB THE FULL EBOOK TODAY!
YOU’LL FIND LINKS TO YOUR FAVORITE RETAILER HERE:
RICHARD ROBBINS’ Books at Evolved Publishing
Table of Contents
Copyright
BONUS CONTENT
Table of Contents
Dedication
INDIVISIBLE
Epigraph
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Interview with the Author
Acknowledgements
About the Author
More from Evolved Publishing
Special Sneak Preview: ALONG THE WATCHTOWER by David Litwack
Special Sneak Preview: LOVE, LOSS, AND LAGNIAPPE by Richard Robbins
Dedication
For my family, friends, teachers, and everyone who has taught me to believe in the power of my words.
Epigraph
~~~
WHAT SAVES US
A Poem by Bruce Weigl
***
We are wrapped around each other
in the back of my father’s car parked
in the empty lot of the high school
of our failures, the sweat on her neck
like oil. The next morning I would leave
for the war and I thought I had something
coming for that, I thought to myself
that I would not die never having
been inside her body. I lifted
her skirt above her waist like an umbrella
blown inside out by the storm. I pulled
her cotton panties up as high
as she could stand. I was on fire. Heaven
was in sight. We were drowning
on our tongues and I tried
to tear my pants off when she stopped
so suddenly we were surrounded
only by my shuddering
and by the school bells
grinding in the empty halls.
She reached to find something,
a silver crucifix on a silver chain,
the tiny savior’s head
hanging and stakes through his hands and his feet.
She put it around my neck and held me
so long the black wings of my heart were calmed.
We are not always right
about what we think will save us.
I thought that dragging the angel down that night
would save me, but instead I carried the crucifix in my pocket
and rubbed it on my face and lips
nights the rockets roared in.
People die sometimes so near you,
you feel them struggling to cross over,
the deep untangling, of one body from another.
Chapter 1
He’s made a game of this—standing in front of the mirror, feeling inhuman, trying to feel as little as possible. His vibrant, blue eyes have dulled into a soft gray, and his shoulders slouch as if gravity itself weighs too much to bear. The lines on his forehead have grown thick with worry. He doesn’t look like himself, and something about that makes him feel like a stranger, a shadow of the man he once was. Somewhere, somehow, the joy has retreated from his eyes, and he can’t recognize himself anymore. He tries to ignore how much that terrifies him.
Sarah comes in, and he looks down, away from himself and her. He puts his tie around the back of his neck and begins to straighten it out underneath his collar. Sarah stands by him for a second, silent, but he can tell that she’s thinking—thinking of what to say without making everything fall apart. He can tell by the way she moves that she’s debating whether or not to touch him.
She sways, just slightly, back and forth as if being gently rocked by the wind.
If you can’t do this,
she says, there’s no shame in that.
Can’t do what?
Charlie asks.
All of it.
He doesn’t say anything.
He turns back to the mirror. For a moment, he wants to think about everything, about his sleepless eyes and terrible posture, but that kind of thinking seems too cynical, so he goes back to attempting to knot his tie. His shaking hands fail him again and again.
Sarah cautiously and gently moves between him and the mirror.
I got it,
she says, and begins to help him with the knot.
He pays attention to how softly she moves, how cautiously and slowly, as if afraid to rattle him even the slightest bit.
She moves the cloth back and forth, carefully and precisely, as if trying to balance a scale, as if trying to make at least one thing perfect. When she finishes, she steps back.
He whispers a thank you, and he runs his fingers through his gelled hair, and tries not to think about anything other than the rising and falling of his chest. He looks in the mirror again, but just seeing himself in that suit makes him want to sit down. Instead, he puts his hands on the counter and leans forward, letting his arms support him, and closes his eyes trying to escape. Sarah doesn’t move—he can feel her trying not to even breathe. It doesn’t seem fair, how little power she has.
It’s just one day,
he says, turning to her. We’ll be fine, right?
She reaches out and holds both of his hands, letting their fingers interlock as she stands on her tiptoes and kisses his cheek.
For a minute, he finds himself staring at her tight-fitting black dress. He’s always thought she looks particularly beautiful in black. Something about the contrast of the darkness of the black cloth against her soft, light-green eyes and long, blonde hair, makes her irresistible to him, as if she can somehow be everything at once.
You’re a good man, Charlie,
she says.
He wants to say he loves her, but somehow, as if the words are lost in translation from his brain to his tongue, all that comes out is, I’ll see you there, okay?
***
The funeral is being held at the very church where Charlie found his best friend, 22-year-old Wesley Andrews, dead. The irony is lost on no one.
Do you think he wants us to suffer?
Natalie, Wesley’s mom, asks Charlie as they sit together on a bench outside St. Ann’s, an hour before the funeral begins. It’s a beautiful fall day, sunny without being hot, a heavy breeze. Natalie wears a face full of makeup to hide her sleepless eyes, and she promises Charlie she’ll be brave so that she won’t smear her mascara all over her face. She won’t make herself into a spectacle. She won’t do anything to take the focus off her son.
Charlie looks into her glazed-over, absent eyes. He’s come to know this look, the one she always wears, so disconnected, when imagining memories with her son.
Charlie knows which story haunts her, a story she’s told over and over since Wesley’s death. In this memory, Wes is a five-year-old boy, and she’s dressed him in a white button-down shirt, with ironed khaki pants, and dress shoes. It’s a Sunday and time for mass. Wes keeps telling her that he doesn’t want to go, and every time she tries to carry him, he slips away from her like a spaghetti noodle. He asks her why they have to keep coming to this boring church. She tells him that this place will give him hope when he has none.
Later, he would fall asleep during the mass and sprawl across the front pew, his head on his mother’s lap, limbs limp.
Seventeen years later, Natalie says he looked no different, as he lay across that same pew after shooting himself, dead. That’s the memory that haunts her.
He must have wanted us to suffer,
she says.
He would never want that,
Charlie replies. Never. You know that.
But she doesn’t. By committing suicide in that church, Wes had taken away the one place he knew could bring his mother comfort. He’d taken away any chance of her finding hope.
Did he hate me?
she asks Charlie. Was there something I did? Did he tell you anything?
He loved you,
Charlie says confidently. I know he loved you.
She nods, as if slowly trying to convince herself that Wes could simultaneously commit suicide and love her.
He loved you too, Charlie,
she says.
I know.
But he doesn’t. Not completely anyway.
Did you know he was struggling like that?
she asks.
There doesn’t seem to be a right answer. If he had known, he should have done something more, and if he hadn’t, he should have made a better effort to have known.
I don’t know.
You don’t know?
I’m sorry.
Sometimes, she forgets that he doesn’t have answers to every little thing. Sometimes, she leans on him like a crutch, and he tries his hardest never to break around her, so that she’ll never fall.
Is Sarah almost here?
she asks.
Yeah, she’s coming.
You two should be together. It’s important in times like this.
He nods. The truth is, he’s trying not to think—at all—about what he’s going through.
I’ll meet you inside, okay?
Charlie stands up from the bench. He leans down to hug her before leaving. We’ll be okay. Try to remember that.
She grips his arm tightly, as if afraid that if she lets go, she might never see him again.
For as much as being at the funeral is itself a living nightmare, what really haunts Charlie is the phone call he’d gotten from Wes the night before he’d killed himself.
***
Charlie’s ringing phone woke Sarah and him up, and Charlie stepped outside their bedroom.
Wes kept telling Charlie about how hard it was for him to go to bed at night. He couldn’t fall asleep, he said, and when he did, he’d wake right back up thirty minutes later.
Charlie tried to think of the proper thing to say, but he could never quite find the right words. He just ended up responding, Why do you think that is?
I keep seeing them.
Seeing who?
Charlie asked.
All the people I killed.
Charlie didn’t know what to say to that. He ended up just telling him that it was all going to be okay, that they were going to be fine. They’d made it home.
Of course, that wasn’t the truth. Charlie didn’t feel like everything was going to be fine, but he thought Wes needed strength, so he tried to give him that.
The other end of the line went dead.
Hello?
he said. Wes, are you there?
For the rest of the night, Charlie sat in bed and tried to convince himself that Wes’s phone battery had just died, or that he’d accidently hung up and decided not to call back. He didn’t want to face the fact that Wes had purposefully shut him out. Deep inside, Charlie knew that it was no accident. It was Wes’s way of saying that Charlie didn’t get it. He hadn’t made it back at all.
That was the last conversation that Charlie and Wes ever had. Charlie would replay that conversation in his head thousands and thousands of times, wondering if he could have saved Wes if he’d said something different, if he’d offered to come over, or if he’d asked more questions. Those sorts of thoughts were useless though. Nothing was more permanent than the past. No matter how hard Charlie wished differently, he’d have to live with Wes’s last words, All the people I killed, playing on a never-ending loop. All the people I killed. All the people I killed. All the people I killed.
Charlie never knew that Wesley himself would become another person to add to that list.
***
After Charlie leaves Natalie, but before going into the church, he walks away from everyone, toward the parking lot. He wants a moment to himself before the chaos. He closes his eyes and tries to breathe in as calmly as possible.
He pulls out a cigarette from his pocket. He hasn’t smoked since high school.
At that moment, Sarah pulls into the church and parks the car. She hates it when he smokes, and she’s blown up about it more times than he can remember. She nearly broke up with him when she caught him smoking at senior prom, but that was five years ago.
Now, the cigarette feels like the smallest of their concerns.
As Sarah waits in the car for a few more minutes, Charlie wonders why, but he doesn’t think too hard about it. He tries to hide the cigarette when she approaches, but it’s no use.
I wish you wouldn’t do that,
Sarah says.
I’m sorry. I won’t smoke again.
Not just the smoking,
she says. I wish you wouldn’t hide anything from me.
He can tell that she’s waiting for something, affirmation that they’re a team, maybe.
I’m sorry,
he repeats.
She drops the subject. Have you figured out what you’re gonna say?
He hangs his head and stares at the ground. Not yet.
Wes’s mom had asked Charlie to give the eulogy a few days earlier. She said she couldn’t even think about it without breaking down.
He didn’t even hesitate when asked. He’d do anything to help her.
Since then, though, he hadn’t been able to sleep, and he can tell that it worries Sarah half to death. He’d sit at his desk and stare at a blank piece of paper, never attempting to write so much as a single word. Sometimes, late at night, he’d pull out a notepad from the desk drawer and begin to draw. He’d once drawn a portrait of Wes’s face, whose eyes were filled with such deep pain. He drew the eyes of a man who couldn’t stop thinking about all the people he’d killed. Around Wes’s face, Charlie drew hand after hand, all stretched out. Wes’s eyes just stared straight ahead, though. He didn’t see all the hands.
Sometimes, Charlie wishes he could just raise that picture up in front of the church and let all the people stare at it until they understood. He wishes he could transform that picture into words so that he’d know what to say in the eulogy, but he can’t, so he has no idea what to say at all.
He rubs his head, suddenly feeling exhausted, as if he’s hung over.
Headache?
Sarah asks.
He can tell that she hopes he’ll say yes because his pain would then be physical, and she could run to the store and get him Advil or tell him to get some sleep.
Yeah, something like that,
Charlie replies.
She nods. You’ll know what to say when you stand up there.
He doesn’t believe that, not fully anyway. He knows that she doesn’t either, but he doesn’t say anything.
This was never supposed to happen,
he says, and something about the obviousness of it makes his words unbearable. He feels uncomfortable and antsy, as if his own skin is the wrong size and he’s trying to figure out how to adjust.
She reaches out to hold his hand, but their hands barely touch before they both pull back.
I’m gonna go get ready,
he says.
Sarah nods, and as Charlie passes her, she hands him a piece of gum.
Thanks,
he whispers. He kisses her cheek before leaving, then takes a few steps before turning back. Hey, Sarah?
Yeah?
You know that I love you, right?
The way that he says those words sounds nothing like how he used to say them when he was younger. He says the words as if they might be some tragic result of disillusionment, the way a child asks if Santa is actually real.
Yeah, Charlie, of course I know that.
***
Charlie goes into the restroom to splash some water on his face and gather himself. He tries to think of something eloquent to say, something that will make Wes’s mother feel like she’d picked the right person to honor her son’s life, but all he can think of is the fact that his friend is dead, and that Wes had chosen to die. How could there be anything at all eloquent to say about such a thing.
He heads into a stall then, feeling as if he might throw up. He doesn’t though, so he heads back out to the church.
Charlie’s mom, dad, and sister wait for him in the lobby of the church.
He thanks them for coming.
His mom reaches up to touch his cheek. I’m so sorry, Charlie.
She goes on to give him a speech about how terrible his situation is and how he has handled it so bravely. She tells him once again how much she always loved Wes and how it’s a loss to the whole world to lose him.
Whenever Charlie’s mom speaks, he only half-listens. She’s a good person, always kind and gentle, but as Charlie grew up, she’d spent all of her time at work or traveling for business. Sometimes, when she came home from those trips, it felt as though she’d been gone for so long that he could no longer remember what it was like to be around her. He loves his mom but in a vague and generalized sort of a way. He couldn’t tell you her favorite food or what sort of music she liked, and she couldn’t tell you his favorite movie or what number he’d worn on the football field. Over the years, all those unknown facts and missed memories had lodged between them, creating a distance that neither could bridge. Because they didn’t—and still don’t—really know each other, whenever his mom tries to comfort him or advise him, Charlie feels only ambivalence, along with a twinge of anger.
His father hugs him but doesn’t say anything at all. His father is quiet but close-minded, certain about what he believes. He believes that to kill yourself is an evil and selfish act that victimizes the people who love you the most. His father simply and deeply hates Wes for what he’s done. If it were up to him, his dad wouldn’t even have come to the funeral. He’s incapable of understanding the complex blend of love and hate that Charlie has for Wes in the moment, and because of that, Charlie both envies and despises his father.
Haley, can I talk to you for a moment, please?
Charlie asks.
His big sister, Haley, always knows what to do. Of those in his family, she’s the one who really understands him.
Haley steps toward him, and his parents go to sit down.
I have no idea what I’m gonna say in front of all of those people,
he admits.
Did you talk to Sarah?
She told me I’d figure it out.
You will.
Charlie can feel his own body shaking.
You’re sweating,
she says.
I know.
Haley studies him for a few seconds. Charlie, when’s the last time you slept?
He doesn’t reply.
You look exhausted,
she says.
You think I don’t know that?
Don’t speak to me like that.
I’m sorry,
he says, and takes a deep breath. God, I’m so sorry. I haven’t been feeling like myself, and—
It’s all right.
She reaches out to comfort him, but he pulls away, as if he knows he hasn’t earned the comfort.
Tell me what you’re thinking of saying,
she says.
That’s the thing... I can’t think of anything to say at all. There’s too much that I don’t know, and I can’t make sense of it. I don’t know why he died.
Stop. Charlie, breathe for a second.
He tries, but he can’t.
Listen to me,
she continues. This funeral isn’t about you or what you know. It’s not even about Wes, really. It’s about all the people listening to you. Do you get it?
He shakes his head no.
Tell people what they want to hear. Every single person in this church feels upset and scared and lost, and all they want is for you to be the opposite. Be sure. Be optimistic. Be hopeful.
He looks away from her.
If you can’t feel that way in your heart, then fake it,
she says. It’s not time to find all the answers, Charlie. It’s time to console.
I don’t know if I can.
He sounds so tragically disappointed in himself.
You can.
He takes a moment to stare into the church. It’s a small, homey, traditional church with wooden pews and stained glass. He looks at the candles and the stations of the cross, and the people dressed in black, but most of all, he imagines what it’ll feel like to stand up there at that podium.
Okay,
he replies, looking back to Haley to steal the bravery from her eyes.
***
In the middle of mass, when it comes time for Charlie to speak, he stands under the lights.
Wes’s mom, Natalie, looks at him with admiration and faith.
His family sits next to Sarah in the third row. Charlie’s mother looks sad, his father angry, Sarah worried, but Haley looks confident.
Inside, he feels like all four of them put into one.
He gives a speech about how we don’t always get as much time as we’d like with the people we love. He tells stories about how some of the best moments of his life were with Wes, whether it was winning dodge ball at recess in the third grade or playing varsity football together. He talks about how Wes used to spoil his mother by buying her roses on Valentine’s Day, and how he had lunch with her each Sunday afternoon. Wes was a great son. Charlie talks about how honorable and brave Wes had been when he decided to join the army, and Charlie says that he himself never would have enlisted too if it weren’t for Wes’s bravery. Wes challenged everyone around him to be better, and Charlie believed that he was a better man for knowing him.
That’s the version of Wes that the people wanted to see—Wesley the friend, Wesley the son, Wesley the soldier, Wesley the hero.
That’s not the version of Wes that Charlie truly remembers. In fact, he started carrying around a picture of Wes in his pocket in order to even remember his smile.
***
On the day Wes died, Charlie was supposed to show up to the church at 6:45 AM to meet him there. Charlie was never religious, but he didn’t think anything of the invitation because Wes had always gone to church growing up, every single Sunday, and he used to invite Charlie all the time. Maybe Wes had figured out how to believe in something again.
He was wrong.
Charlie had arrived at 6:45 AM, not a second late, and Wes was already dead. He’d killed himself, and he’d wanted Charlie to find him like that.
Charlie had rushed to Wes’s side, and he called 9-1-1. He tried to explain that there was an emergency because his friend was dying.
Does he have a pulse?
the operator asked.
I don’t know.
We’re sending an ambulance.
I don’t know,
Charlie repeated. I don’t know. I don’t know.
What don’t you know? Sir? Sir, are you there?
I don’t know.
He didn’t know anything anymore because his best friend, whom he loved more than anything in the world, had shot himself, and Charlie was supposed to know if his friend had a pulse.
There was no pulse. Charlie knew that without checking. Too much blood. There would be no pulse.
He never checked, though. He didn’t want to know—not for sure.
Instead, he sat over Wes’s body, trying to ignore the fact that Wes’s brains had gushed outside of his head. Charlie kept pressing on Wes’s chest, over and over, as he cried and repeated, Why?
—again and again. Charlie tried to resuscitate him because he wanted to believe that, somehow, he could bring back something lost, something he couldn’t bear to lose.
A penny lay on the ground beside Wes’s body, and Charlie never took his eyes off of it. He focused on that penny. He saw only the penny.
The ambulance arrived and the attendants pronounced Wesley Andrews dead. The sun hadn’t even risen yet.
Chapter 2
When are you gonna start sleeping again?
Sarah asks.
It’s been three weeks since Wes’s funeral.
I do sleep.
Don’t give me that, Charlie.
Ever since he got home from Afghanistan, he’s had trouble sleeping. There’s something about the spinning of the ceiling fan that reminds him of a helicopter, but if he turns it off, the heat of the room reminds him of the desert. He’s never free. Things have only gotten worse since Wes’s death. These days, he can hardly sleep at all.
He turns away from Sarah and stares at the ceiling.
She says nothing more about sleep, and neither does he.
He adds sleep to the list of things they don’t discuss—a list that gets longer and longer with each day that passes. They don’t talk about the stack of bills on the kitchen counter, or the pack of cigarettes that he tries to hide in his sock drawer, or the penny that Charlie now keeps beside his bed.
One time, she tried to put the penny into their coin jar, but he freaked out, frantically begging her to put it back down, to never touch it again. His whole body shook, and she kept asking him what was wrong, not understanding what she’d done. In the end, she did put the coin back down but stared at him as if he were crazy. She didn’t look entirely free of blame, though, and in the