We are the dead

On Memorial Day, Senator Kennicott walks home through Arlington Cemetery with his political ally, Hobson, who is pressing him to support a bill intended to strengthen American military interests abroad. Kennicott is uneasy: the legislation may lead the country toward war, yet Hobson hints that supporting it could secure the senator’s nomination. Their argument takes on a darker tone when they encounter a painfully young soldier standing beneath an elm.

The stranger says he cannot sleep, and that the torment is always worse on Memorial Day. Kennicott, moved by the boy’s exhausted face and worn uniform, offers a small remedy, but the encounter leaves him unsettled—especially when the youth speaks as though he has lived through a war long past. As the cemetery’s quiet deepens, political ambition, forgotten sacrifice, and the unseen cost of military decisions begin to converge in this eerie, compassionate tale.