{"id":232,"date":"2016-01-28T11:24:49","date_gmt":"2016-01-28T17:24:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nicholls.edu\/mosaic\/?p=232"},"modified":"2016-01-28T11:24:49","modified_gmt":"2016-01-28T17:24:49","slug":"a-marines-rifle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nicholls.edu\/mosaic\/2016\/01\/28\/a-marines-rifle\/","title":{"rendered":"A Marine\u2019s Rifle"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>By Hans Allen<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Jimmy knelt in the sand and held the rifle by its barrel. The desert cooled as the falling sun stained the sky orange, pink, and red. Jimmy stared at jagged mountains that rose like shark\u2019s teeth in the distance. His grip on the rifle tightened as the noise of shuffling feet and murmuring voices inched up his neck. He would have to go soon. Go back to the mountains, back to crawling up scree, ducking behind boulders, and trying not to get devoured. Jimmy rested his head against the rifle for a long moment before standing. He took a step back and came to attention. Raising his hand to his helmet, he saluted the dog tags that hung from the rifle and the boots that stood empty on either side.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGoodbye, John.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Hans Allen Jimmy knelt in the sand and held the rifle by its barrel. The desert cooled as the falling sun stained the sky orange, pink, and red. Jimmy stared at jagged mountains that rose like shark\u2019s teeth in the distance. His grip on the rifle tightened as the noise of shuffling feet and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-232","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fiction"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>A Marine\u2019s Rifle - Mosaic Literary Magazine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nicholls.edu\/mosaic\/2016\/01\/28\/a-marines-rifle\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Marine\u2019s Rifle - Mosaic Literary Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Hans Allen Jimmy knelt in the sand and held the rifle by its barrel. 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