The Gathering of Stones

John B. Kachuba holds advanced degrees in Creative Writing from Antioch University and Ohio University. In addition to his published short stories, he is the author of five books of nonfiction. For more information, go to JohnKachuba.com

There are consequences of war that remain hidden, buried deep within the minds and hearts of, not only the soldiers, but those who wait for them, those who may be many miles removed from the front lines. The Gathering of Stones tells the stories of some of these people, such as the jaded newspaper reporter who is shaken to his core by the massacre of Lakota Indians at Wounded Knee in 1890; or the personal photographer of Adolf Hitler, who fears for his Jewish wife in 1930 s Germany; or the young man who faces an impending draft to fight in Vietnam. Here, also, is the story of the WWII infantryman who returns to Anzio, Italy only a few years after the war to find out why he didn t die there; the Black Vietnam vet who returns to an America that has no use for him; the New York deli-store owner who feels himself threatened in the wake of 9-11, and the man who is haunted by the memory of his brother, a U.S. Marine who committed suicide in Iraq. Yet, The Gathering of Stones remains hopeful that, through stories such as these, we may know that war is never the answer.