Remember When it Rained?

Norman Bowker arrived home with one of those unnamable injuries. He’s living in this own private hell with his own type of craziness to deal with. He faces his pain in “Speaking of Courage” by driving the circle around 7-mile Lake 12 times alone in his truck. It’s July 4^th, and he’s searching for his own Independence; freedom from the pain and loneliness he’s suffered from ever since he returned from Vietnam. Each time he makes a loop around the lake, he replays to himself the night Kiowa died. In each loop, he imagines a different friend to whom he can tell the story of that night. Even though the story is just a little bit different every time he tells it, certain elements are always the same. The memory starts with the recollection of just how much it rained. He recalls the stench and how he almost won the Silver Star. Also, on each lap he makes around that lake he feels the pain of having no one real to talk to about his pain, especially his father who only cared about goddamn medals:

Ohhhhhh Remember when it rained.
 I felt the ground and looked up high And called your name.
 Ohhhhhh Remember when it rained. 
 In the water I remain Running down