blue-collar docks of Fells Point. He walks toward his great-grandfather's home, hoping to cool down from a heated argument with his mother, and away from her unbending attitude about him joining the Marines. She sees the war in Europe edging closer to home. Ninety-two year old Civil War vet, David Werner, greets his grandson by calling him Pete; a name Gramps began calling him two years ago. Edmund knows this a prologue to a night filled with banter and stories. "Pete? That’s someone else’s name, Gramps. I’m Edmund." "I know who you are, Pete. You're here to get away from my granddaughter. Come on, sit a spell, we'll talk. What's the topic?" "War." David regales his grandson with stories from his past. Gramps amazes the eager boy with tales of the time he lied about his age, and joined the Union Army at the age of fourteen. He talks about his experiences in 1861, training with the 55th Ohio Volunteer Regiment. Edmund and David connect like never before. In the following days Edmund becomes more aware of the ugly reality of war, and then, something else changes. In an odd turn of events, he asks the neighborhood beauty, Athena, if she will accompany him to a dance. She accepts. Fate's plan intervenes in his life. In this coming of age moment, two young people begin on the road toward an epic romance. Weeks go by and Edmund is no longer as concerned about the drumbeat of war in Europe. Now, Athena joins Edmund on his visit to Gramps' home. She too becomes mesmerized by the story of the boy from the 1860's. Now both of them are caught up in the account of a Civil War sniper and his soul-stealing reminiscence of battle and death. As the year passes, all of their lives move on toward a fateful day in December of 1941. Edmund is now at war. Instead of Gettysburg or the campaign through Atlanta, Edmund finds himself battling the Japanese in the Pacific. He too is a sniper but in, Tulagi, the Solomons, and Bougainville. The story is now Edmund's story. In the lives of common soldiers, death is always possible. Waiting back in Baltimore, are the people he loves. Edmund hopes he will return to his family and leave behind this crucible of conflict. He holds on to the promise of his great-grandfather. Gramps made it back, and if the vagaries of war cooperate he will too. At 5AM, a breeze from the south causes the palm trees to rustle. It brings him back to his present situation. Bougainville is just one more island on the way to Japan, but with each stop he finds that he is less and less familiar with his battalion. On each island he sees new faces. When feeling depressed he recalls his grandfather’s philosophy. "It’s best to relax, and enjoy the breeze, Pete." He is alone again. If the enemy is going to flank them in response to the Marines advance, this will be the place they’ll try. Edmund takes some time to gather his nerves. Edmund steadies his breathing. He looks through his sniper scope. One of the enemy steps out in the open. He notices a flicker of sunlight reflecting from the man’s glasses…he waits, it is too soon. He stills himself with a verse that he’d been taught by a Civil War sniper. Gramps had told him to think of someone you love. He considers Athena to calm his heart, and once again gives up his soul … "And thus did Venus learn to lead, as if the wind, not she, did walk…" As if the wind, not she, did walk … he caresses the trigger and all hell breaks loose. During a lull, something breaks his concentration, a tickle on the nape of his neck. With steady resolve he lays his rifle carefully aside and reaches for whatever crawls behind his ear — a spider. He places it gently on a log near his covering rock. It is the last conscious act and thought in his mind as a shell from a mortar lands ten feet behind him. In a microsecond, the spider ceases to exist.

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