First, the bare description of events. The dream, so real (I, too, thought this was going to be a story of Mick's boyhood at first), dissolving into the cacophony of sensations as he struggles to remember, to hang on to his surety that, whatever else has happened, Ray's all right... and then the horrible knowledge that the unthinkable has happened.
This just grabbed me, because it's so very Mick:
Mick would so gladly have exchanged his life for Ray's...But it was okay. If I was lost, if I was dead, it was okay. My family would mourn, my friends would drink away their passing grief and life would go on. It was okay because Ray was beneath me, safe. He could go home. He could have the life he deserved with Lilah. He could have my life.
Then there's the beautifully done parallel between this experience and Mick's turning, which was described so richly by grace. I'm just awestruck by how subtly you've drawn it. Two huge turning points for him, two places where he'd rather have died than survived. But he wasn't granted his wish either time.
Then there's the amazing loop back from the beginning of your story to the ending: Mick wanting nothing more than to go back to the summer heat, lazing in an old boat with his friend. This is what finally did me in... that image of a devastated young man, bereft of everything, just wanting to crawl back into his dream.
But there's so much more to this story, because we know the future...
You're right, Red; Mick's war experience should have been the worst thing to ever happen to him. And young people are resilient; they find a way to cope with the tragedy they've experienced. They move on. But there was no "moving on" for Mick. It was all a series of detours and dead ends and barriers. He tried to make his way through the experience of losing Ray by going home and taking care of Lilah. But that duty led to a detour. They fell in love, and he pushed down the guilt, because the comfort he and Lilah gave each other was so precious, it brought Ray back to them at the same time it made them feel they were betraying him... And then another dead end, another detour. Ray came back, and Mick's joy and relief that his best friend was still alive were lost in regret and still more sacrifice, as Mick had to leave.
So he struggled to recover from that, tried to make his way, find a life, and met the woman of any man's dreams. Rich, gorgeous, classy, exotic - and she loved him! But his marriage to Coraline was another, truly horrible detour... or maybe the ultimate dead end... and we know how long he struggled to free himself from that tangled relationship. And how ironic, how much in parallel to Ray, that Mick thought he'd killed Coraline, only to find out he was wrong about that, too! And just like the bookends in your story, Mick's story with Coraline is bookended by his mortality. She took everything he loved away from him at the very beginning. And then she sacrificed herself at the end, to give it back to him... and she left him free to try to find a way forward at last, with Beth.
This one brought a tear this morning. 
I love that - and I agree. I think his friendships with Ray and Bobby and, eventually, Josef, are the most important relationships in his life. I also think it's part of his conflict about Beth - he recognises Josh as one of the good guys. Someone who, in different circumstances, he would have called friend.
