Question
Then he was back in the gym in Fallujah. It was hot because there was no air-conditioning, just overhead fans that paddled the soupy, jock-smelling air around and around. They had let all the interrogation subjects go except for two Abduls who were unwise enough to snot off a day after two IEDs had taken six American lives and a sniper had taken one more, a kid from Kentucky everyone liked—Carstairs. So they’d started kicking the Abduls around the gym, and pulling off their clothes, and Barbie would like to say he had walked out, but he hadn’t. He would like to say that at least he hadn’t participated, but he had. They got feverish about it.He remembered connecting with one Abdul’s bony, shit-speckled ass, and the red mark his combat boot had left there. Both Abduls naked by then. He remembered Emerson kicking the other
one’s dangling cojones so hard they flew up in front of him and saying That’s for Carstairs, you fucking sandnigger. Someone would soon be giving his mom a flag while she sat on a folding chair near the grave, same old same old.Question 1: Does“flew up in front of him ” mean that his testicles flew out of his scrotum after being kicked by Emerson?

Question 2: What’s the meaning of “Someone would soon be giving his mom a flag while she sat on a folding chair near the grave, same old same old.”?

Question 3: “his mom”refers to whose mom?

Question 4: What does “same old same old” in this case mean?

Question

Question
Then he was back in the gym in Fallujah. It was hot because there was no air-conditioning, just overhead fans that paddled the soupy, jock-smelling air around and around. They had let all the interrogation subjects go except for two Abduls who were unwise enough to snot off a day after two IEDs had taken six American lives and a sniper had taken one more, a kid from Kentucky everyone liked—Carstairs. So they’d started kicking the Abduls around the gym, and pulling off their clothes, and Barbie would like to say he had walked out, but he hadn’t. He would like to say that at least he hadn’t participated, but he had. They got feverish about it.He remembered connecting with one Abdul’s bony, shit-speckled ass, and the red mark his combat boot had left there. Both Abduls naked by then. He remembered Emerson kicking the other
one’s dangling cojones so hard they flew up in front of him and saying That’s for Carstairs, you fucking sandnigger. Someone would soon be giving his mom a flag while she sat on a folding chair near the grave, same old same old.Question 1: Does“flew up in front of him ” mean that his testicles flew out of his scrotum after being kicked by Emerson?

Question 2: What’s the meaning of “Someone would soon be giving his mom a flag while she sat on a folding chair near the grave, same old same old.”?

Question 3: “his mom”refers to whose mom?

Question 4: What does “same old same old” in this case mean?

Answer

1: I want to think it wasn't too literal.  I'm sure it was a pretty violent hit but I think they stayed attached.

2/3/4: When a solider dies, their family is presented with their burial flag.  For the 7 soldiers that died, all of their families will get a burial flag.  What Barbie is describing is one event where they'd kept 2 "Abduls" (enemy combatants, prisoners of war) just to take out all their aggression on them.  The US soldiers are just beating them to take revenge for the deaths of the 7.

Barbie is playing out this scene from his memory and I'd guess that he's been around this type of thing many times before.  When he says "same old same old" it's something that rarely changes.  It's a shortened version of the saying "Same old shit/crap/thing".  It's usually used in response to "How are you doing?"  "Same old crap."  It's a slightly depressing way to say that nothing good is happening or that your life is boring.

What Barbie is showing us is a situation he has seen happen multiple times.  There's always prisoners who get beaten.  There's always someone yelling at a prisoner about a friend that had died.  When he says "his mom" it means any one of the dead soldiers' mothers.  It's just a piece of dialogue he's used to hearing in that situation.

Answers · 2

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