Last night was his last night in America for the next year. Today the army ships him to Korea. I hope he doesn't die there, although everyone keeps saying that no one dies in Korea. I gave him a hug goodbye. I was still a little drunk and trying to pretend like I didn't care as much as I did. I thought about it all night, even after he walked down the stairs and left the apartment. I wonder if he'll shoot anyone. I wonder if he'll sleep with a whore or bring home a Korean wife. I wonder if I'll ever see him again. Last week a woman came on my line at the grocery store and said how she knew someone who came back from Iraq with no eyes and legs. I cringed. Could that happen to him?

I might never see him again. I don't plan on returning here next summer because people have changed and people move away, and if I stay I'll moving backwards. He will be just another instance of someone walking into my life, leaving their footprints, then exiting just as quickly. What have I learned from him? That your emotions are all but logical. That just because you start feeling something for a new person doesn't mean you automatically stop feelings for the person who came before. I thought I had figured it all out, I had a plan. He would leave, I would forget, that would be that. Sometimes I hate myself for missing people.