So tonight, six years after Caleb’s service ended, Brannan is cautiously optimistic but ready for anything on Lasagna Night. Early in the morning, she talked to their dog, Shilo, about it while she browned meat for Caleb’s favorite dish. “Daddy will be really happy,” she told the German shepherd sitting on her kitchen floor. 

“Of course, he’s too cranky to be happy about anything, and he’ll be mad because Katie won’t eat it because I spent all day making it and the only thing she wants to eat right now is pancakes.”

1.  Later, she reminds me that Lasagna Night can come apart in an instant, if Caleb has a “bad PTSD moment.” 

Causal claim: The cause is that Caleb can possibly have a bad PTSD moment and this can affect the lasagna night he will have with his family. This shows how PTSD is contagious and how it can affect everyone’s mood, not only the one dealing with hard emotions to control.

These are supposed to be her easy months, she sighs, April and May and June, before the anniversaries of his worst firefights—many of them in Ramadi;

2.  a lot of bad things happened in Ramadi—exacerbate his flashbacks and nightmares. 

Categorical claim: PTSD consists of many different side effects, two of them being flashbacks and nightmares which are both expressed in the passage and show how these symptoms can impact someone very negatively.

3. That’s usually September through January, the “really bad” months, whereas in the spring, she gets a bit of “vacation,” time to clean up the house and catch up on work, rest.

Ethical/Moral claim: The vacation that is given is not enough time for Caleb to recover from the trauma and stress that was placed on him. This means there is no opportunity for even a slight amount of change to occur either now or for a long period of time. This can become frustrating for the people around him.

It’s April at the moment. But: “He’s processing’ somethin’ right now.”

4. She used to ask Caleb what was wrong, why he was coiled so tight and poisonous, screaming and yelling at everybody. That just agitated him more. 

Categorical Claim: PTSD can be expressed in different ways such as desiring isolation and rejecting help. As described in the sentence Caleb is coiled tight, screaming and yelling which is a way to express anger and emotion when it comes to PTSD.

Now, she lets it go, until eventually, after a couple of days or weeks of refusing to leave the house, or refusing to stay home and just disappearing outside, he comes to her. Haven’t you noticed I’m having a bad time? he’ll ask. And then she’ll just sit and listen while he says 

5. he cannot get it out of his head, about how if he had caught that fucking sniper, that enemy sniper he’d been trying to get, that’d been following them around, terrorizing their unit, if he’d have managed to kill him like he was supposed to, then the sniper wouldn’t have gotten off the shot that killed his buddy.

Causal Claim: Caleb not being able to save his friend led to his PTSD for not protecting his beloved buddy. Caleb’s emotions got to him so deeply that he could not forget about the moment he had the chance to save his friend’s life and seems to blame it on himself.