Making Mr. Bamff

by Kevin Prochaska

During the winter of 1944, American and German armies fight a bloody battle in the Hurtgen forest on the German-Belgium border. American soldiers on night patrol detonate a landmine, paralyzing the lone survivor. A mysterious figure emerges from the darkness and drags the wounded man to a remote quarry where dead soldiers from both armies are neatly stacked. The soldier soon realizes that his rescuer, an army medic, has been severely traumatized by the carnage of war. Wracked with guilt as soldiers under his care constantly die, the medic is a broken man seeking escape through the morphine he carries. The soldier becomes a silent witness to the man’s spiraling descent into madness. The medic has deserted his unit and roams the forest at night, collecting the dead. He is determined to bring back to life Mr. Bamff, the wise and kindly janitor from his high school days. Convinced that, with Mr. Bamff’s resurrection, he will once again live in the utopia of his youth, the man has a plan.

124 pages, Paperback

First published October 3, 2013