COMING BACK
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In an unnamed hospital a wounded soldier lies hooked up to machines that keep him alive. His arms and legs already amputated, he lies in limbo, clutching feebly at his memories. When the faith and determination of a noble doctor allow him to rise from his coma into semiconsciousness, his sole request is to return to what remains of his family–a request he can make only by banging his head against the table in a crude rendition of Morse code. But his wish cannot be granted, for those in charge at the hospital assert that the shock the soldier’s family would experience at his return far outweighs any rights the quadruple amputee might still possess. This is the final injustice visited upon this tragic figure, who gives up any hope of returning to the world and slips forever into his memories.
Jeffrey Lieber’s Coming Back, inspired by blacklisted novelist Dalton Trumbo’s Johnny Got His Gun, presents the brief, grim life of a naive, awkward young man. Robert had dreamt of playing the saxophone and settling down to a quiet life with his bright-eyed girlfriend Lillian, but after returning home for his mother’s funeral he abandoned his hopeful fantasies and joined the Army, where he was critically wounded in battle.
