Lung Shot

Evening descended with a glow. A gust of wind swept across the street. And then there was a knock on the door. I never saw him before But my parents knew the man. Mother served tea. The visitor talked about the war and how he was shot in the lung. The bullet, he said, went straight through his chest and it came out between his ribs. I was about five years old then and listened to the story intensely. I thought that there was still an open hole In his body and when he removed his shirt the wind would blow through it with a whistling shriek.