Wesley Miller is miserable in the military, wet and cold as he stands with his fellow soldiers in Bravo Company in the trenches, where they wait for the enemy to approach. Suddenly, a jeep rolls onto the territory, and a lieutenant informs him that his mother has died and that he will need to leave the trenches to report to the Red Cross. Unbeknownst to the lieutenant, there is two people by the initials of WP Miller in this company, and they have told the wrong man that his mother has passed. Wesley, however, is happy to leave them uninformed, and glad to be able to leave the trenches and rest until they realize their mistake. Being driven to the Red Cross by two soldiers named Lebowitz and Kaiser, they notice that he copes well with the sudden loss, but don't pry as to why he appears unmoved. Miller had realized the lieutenant's mistake the moment he mentioned his mother, for she was not sick. The relationship between Miller and his mother was strained because of her decision to marry his high school biology teacher, Phil Dove, after he had told her that he would never see her again if she did. He knew that joining the military would spite her, because his father had died there as well, and after Miller is recruited he declined all communications from her. In the course of the drive to the Red Cross, Miller is forced to reconcile what he has chosen to ignore for the years that he's spent in the military; his mother will die someday. Prior to her engagement to Mr. Dove, Miller and his mother had been very close, and he had promised to never leave her. Though he planned someday to end her suffering and return to her, he decides that she has suffered enough, and travels back to visit her, only to be greeted by Mr. Dove.