Shooting the Moon Chapter 4 Summary

  • When TJ's first letter arrives from Vietnam, Jamie is ready to rip the package open.
  • Hold up: Jamie's mom tells her she has to wait until her dad gets home from work that night to open it.
  • Huh? Jamie knows her dad isn't the sentimental type; she doubts he'd even care.
  • It turns out her mom is right, though—the Colonel gets eerily emotional when he sees the letter, even though Jamie thinks it's no big deal. Cue the waterworks.
  • The three of them open it together; inside, there's a roll of film for Jamie and a letter for the 'rents.
  • Jamie's bummed out. No letter for her? Besides, the letter to their folks hardly says anything interesting—it's all boring stuff about the food. Snooze.
  • The Colonel defends TJ. (Surprise, surprise.) He tells Jamie that TJ is just getting used to it over there.
  • He doesn't have time to write a long letter to each of them; they should be thankful they got anything at all. Right.
  • When the Colonel adds that TJ probably hates it over there, Jamie is shocked. How could he say that? Who wouldn't want to go to war?
  • The next day, Jamie meets up with Sgt. Byrd to learn how to develop the film. Hollister doesn't know how to himself, but he promised Jamie that Byrd would help her.
  • Right away, she decides she likes Byrd. It might have something to do with the fact that he says medics are war heroes. (TJ is a medic.)
  • Byrd lets Jamie practice first on a roll of his film. This way, if she messes up, it doesn't destroy her brother's pictures from the war.
  • She's a natural. Byrd walks her through it, but Jamie does a great job on her first try.
  • Now, onto TJ's film. Jamie can't wait to see what's inside.