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View Full Version : Doc Randall's Revenge - Chapter 2 - Part 1



docsavage
08-06-03, 06:53 AM
Because of the overwhelming demand (smile) for Chapter 2 - here it is - You must have read Chapter One to appreciate the setting here:

Chapter Two
March 1969

W
ill blinked, no longer in the classroom at OSU, but in a shower in a transit battalion in Okinawa twenty-seven years in the past. He was sitting with his back braced against a wall in the corner of a multi-user shower. It was three a.m. The USMC issue flashlight balanced on his shoulder, while the beam shone through the misty, damp, dark shower and came to rest on a letter that he had propped between his knees. A sporadic drip of water could be heard in the distance, but Will could not distinguish that sound from the tears that trickled down his cheeks and splattered on the shower’s floor. Will read and reread the letter, each time looking for some grain of hope.
In anticipation for this evening’s reading, Will had drank beer from the time the post exchange bar opened at 6:00 p.m. until it closed at 2:00 a.m., something beyond even Will’s routine, albeit normally excessive, intake. He intuitively surmised that this letter contained unpleasant news and had appropriately numbed himself prior to the actual reading. The fact that the letter had successfully reached him was a remarkable feat. It had been delivered to him that morning at formation. He had not written to Carol Lynn for the better part of 1969. He could not explain why he had not bothered to converse with her, it just happened and now he was going to pay for his insensitivity. He read again:

March 11, 1969

Dear Will:


It has been so long since I have heard from you. I have been through so many emotional peaks and valleys worrying about what you are doing and how you are coping with the War. At first, I found comfort in my friends and both of our families. Your mother is a pillar of strength. I think that we would all be lost without her, especially your Dad.

After Christmas, you stopped writing. Nobody seems to know why. Can you tell me? Actually it doesn’t matter anymore. Something has happened. It started when you didn’t take the time to write and evolved from concern to madness to apathy. And now there is someone else.

I won’t bother to tell you much about him, only that he is older (a plastic surgeon in a residence program at Akron General) and that we will be married on Saturday April 12, 1969. He proposed on our second date and I accepted – we both feel that we have found our life-long soul mates. I pray that you will be so lucky when you find your life’s companion.

Our relationship will always hold a special place in my heart. I know you will forgive me for this or perhaps you won’t even care. The time has come to move on! I pray that you return from Vietnam in one piece in body and soul and that your life will be a successful and wonderful adventure. I just won’t be part of it.

Love,

Carol Lynn