#sooooo intriguing to me how Darry is the only one to remember a time their dad wasn’t there

[damthosefandoms]

can I be cruel tonight. vietnam vet soda who admired his dad for being a soldier for years bc as kids we’re blind to the truth of war and sacrifice and all he knew growing up was that his dad had to go fight in the korean war like weeks after he was born and didn’t come home until soda was at least eighteen months old. darrel sr. never talked about the war, he acts like it didn’t happen, except he wore his dogtags under his shirt every day for the rest of his life after—and then soda wears them when his dad dies because it’s like keeping a part of his dad with him, something he was proud of his dad for.

and then soda gets his own, when he’s eighteen and they send him that letter condemning him to the same fate he realizes that there was a story behind that blank expression his dad would have some nights, stories similar to the ones sod’s has now and he feels sick to his stomach. but he also feels closer to his dad than ever. and now sometimes if darry and pony can’t find soda they go to the cemetary and soda will be sitting on the ground in front of their parents’ graves and his fingers will be tangled in the chain of his dogtags as he just stares into the middle distance, like their dad used to, once upon a time