docsavage
08-06-03, 07:01 AM
“Sgt. Honkey, you had us going didn’t you?” he stated. “You with your salty tales of survival and horror in the ‘Nam.’ But you went too far. How do you feel now?”
“I feel the same way that I did when I walked into this squad bay,” Will lied. He was scared, but not necessarily for the reasons that the FNGs might have suspected. Will didn’t want anything to interfere with or affect his return schedule to CONUS and he certainly didn’t want to die this close to returning. Or did he? The events of the last couple of hours made him reconsider the thought. He had been through thirteen months of a man-made hell in the Vietnam War and now he faced an emotional hell that was borne of woman. He wondered if he was up to it. What shone through during this period of reflection was a resolve not to buckle to these punks.
The FNG continued, “If we are such deep ****, why shouldn’t we just wax you right now, we don’t have anything to lose, do we Sgt. Honkey?”
“Just the chance,” Will responded.
“What chance?” the FNG inquired.
“The chance that you will survive, that you will go home in-tack and not tacked-in, that you will learn from this experience and that you will put your lives on a successful and rewarding track. If you were to wax me, you would surely spend the rest of your lives in the brig. Hardly worth it, don’t you think? This is where your life and its experiences have brought you. To this spot in time, an important and life effecting decision.”
The brother realized that Will had a point and that there were far too many witnesses in the squad bay. He shrugged his shoulders suggesting that Will was right. Will relaxed and for a brief instant revisited those feelings of control that he had experienced earlier in this bizarre episode. This too proved to be a mistake. The brother appeared to sense Will’s reacquired sense of control and responded by drawing back his right hand. Will thought that he was faking and did not attempt to protect himself, not that he could since he was still pinned to the wall. However, it was not a ploy on the brothers’ part. He landed a magnificent right hand, which came down on Wills’ nose and glanced onto his upper lip pulling it downwards momentarily hanging out over his mouth. A split-second later, the brother landed an equally devastating left hand from below, which crashed into Will’s chin. The left also bounced from its primary target and caught the protruding upper lip forcing it into and through Will’s upper front teeth. Will hit the deck as if he had been shot.
The squad bay was awakening to the commotion and the brothers were satisfied that Will had been adequately punished for his verbal assault upon them. Will dragged himself to the wall that he had seconds ago been involuntarily pinned to. Blood was everywhere. Will smiled as he watched his assailants scurry off to their assigned spaces. He had been in “Nam” for thirteen months without so much as a scratch and had never seen blood; his or his colleague’s flow like this. But here and now in a transit battalion, squad bay in Okinawa he was bleeding like a stuck pig. The source of all this blood was Will’s mouth. It hurt terribly and he was shocked when he discovered an additional insult to the pounding that he had taken. When he reached up to caress the throbbing upper lip, he felt something very hard. This at first caught him off guard and he hurried back to the shower to peer into one of the mirrors. Although his mouth was awash in blood, he could detect the origin of his profuse and intense pain. One of his upper front teeth was actually protruding through his lip and blood was squirting in synchrony with each beat of his heart. Since his pulse was rapid, the frequency of squirts was significant. Will reached up with both hands and tugged gently on his upper lip. He felt some progress on freeing the lip from the tooth, but only a little. He began pulling with more authority and wiggled the lip as he pulled. There was progress and finally the lip broke free from the tooth. Still there was the matter of blood everywhere and continued seepage from the hole in his upper lip, which obviously remained after the tooth was dislodged. Will went back to the squad bay and finally found his bunk and footlocker. He removed a few towels from the box and returned to the shower. He briefly reflected on the events of the evening from the time he entered the shower to read Carol Lynn’s letter to the present. It had been strange and it was not yet over. He still had to take care of the blood and his bleeding lip. He showered with the hopes of terminating the bleeding and obviously to clean up the blood. As Will stood in the shower, he filled his mouth with water that was coming from the showerhead. He swished this water around in his mouth to clean any blood that had accumulated there. To his surprise, after closing his mouth and applying pressure within his mouth, pink colored water was squirting through the hole in his upper lip. Years later, Will thought, this would be a great story, but for now, he needed to eliminate all evidence of the events of the evening. He continued to fill his mouth and watched in awe, as he was able to squirt blood out of his upper lip. Eventually, he realized that this was not helping in the healing process. He completed his shower and applied pressure to the upper lip with his towel. He set about finding band-aids, which he hoped could be used to stop the bleeding and draw the opposing sides of his hole together, the latter to facilitate healing. Will secured a couple of band-aids from a first aid kit located in the fire-watch office. He applied them to the outside of his lip in a manner that brought the two sides together as efficiently as he thought possible. He cut up a wash cloth and stuffed pieces in his mouth behind the hole taking care to ensure that the pieces did not actually enter the hole. Having taken care of his wound from the outside and the inside, Will finally made his way to his bunk and attempted to get some sleep. He had no idea what time it was. He just knew that the morning wake-up call was not far away.
“I feel the same way that I did when I walked into this squad bay,” Will lied. He was scared, but not necessarily for the reasons that the FNGs might have suspected. Will didn’t want anything to interfere with or affect his return schedule to CONUS and he certainly didn’t want to die this close to returning. Or did he? The events of the last couple of hours made him reconsider the thought. He had been through thirteen months of a man-made hell in the Vietnam War and now he faced an emotional hell that was borne of woman. He wondered if he was up to it. What shone through during this period of reflection was a resolve not to buckle to these punks.
The FNG continued, “If we are such deep ****, why shouldn’t we just wax you right now, we don’t have anything to lose, do we Sgt. Honkey?”
“Just the chance,” Will responded.
“What chance?” the FNG inquired.
“The chance that you will survive, that you will go home in-tack and not tacked-in, that you will learn from this experience and that you will put your lives on a successful and rewarding track. If you were to wax me, you would surely spend the rest of your lives in the brig. Hardly worth it, don’t you think? This is where your life and its experiences have brought you. To this spot in time, an important and life effecting decision.”
The brother realized that Will had a point and that there were far too many witnesses in the squad bay. He shrugged his shoulders suggesting that Will was right. Will relaxed and for a brief instant revisited those feelings of control that he had experienced earlier in this bizarre episode. This too proved to be a mistake. The brother appeared to sense Will’s reacquired sense of control and responded by drawing back his right hand. Will thought that he was faking and did not attempt to protect himself, not that he could since he was still pinned to the wall. However, it was not a ploy on the brothers’ part. He landed a magnificent right hand, which came down on Wills’ nose and glanced onto his upper lip pulling it downwards momentarily hanging out over his mouth. A split-second later, the brother landed an equally devastating left hand from below, which crashed into Will’s chin. The left also bounced from its primary target and caught the protruding upper lip forcing it into and through Will’s upper front teeth. Will hit the deck as if he had been shot.
The squad bay was awakening to the commotion and the brothers were satisfied that Will had been adequately punished for his verbal assault upon them. Will dragged himself to the wall that he had seconds ago been involuntarily pinned to. Blood was everywhere. Will smiled as he watched his assailants scurry off to their assigned spaces. He had been in “Nam” for thirteen months without so much as a scratch and had never seen blood; his or his colleague’s flow like this. But here and now in a transit battalion, squad bay in Okinawa he was bleeding like a stuck pig. The source of all this blood was Will’s mouth. It hurt terribly and he was shocked when he discovered an additional insult to the pounding that he had taken. When he reached up to caress the throbbing upper lip, he felt something very hard. This at first caught him off guard and he hurried back to the shower to peer into one of the mirrors. Although his mouth was awash in blood, he could detect the origin of his profuse and intense pain. One of his upper front teeth was actually protruding through his lip and blood was squirting in synchrony with each beat of his heart. Since his pulse was rapid, the frequency of squirts was significant. Will reached up with both hands and tugged gently on his upper lip. He felt some progress on freeing the lip from the tooth, but only a little. He began pulling with more authority and wiggled the lip as he pulled. There was progress and finally the lip broke free from the tooth. Still there was the matter of blood everywhere and continued seepage from the hole in his upper lip, which obviously remained after the tooth was dislodged. Will went back to the squad bay and finally found his bunk and footlocker. He removed a few towels from the box and returned to the shower. He briefly reflected on the events of the evening from the time he entered the shower to read Carol Lynn’s letter to the present. It had been strange and it was not yet over. He still had to take care of the blood and his bleeding lip. He showered with the hopes of terminating the bleeding and obviously to clean up the blood. As Will stood in the shower, he filled his mouth with water that was coming from the showerhead. He swished this water around in his mouth to clean any blood that had accumulated there. To his surprise, after closing his mouth and applying pressure within his mouth, pink colored water was squirting through the hole in his upper lip. Years later, Will thought, this would be a great story, but for now, he needed to eliminate all evidence of the events of the evening. He continued to fill his mouth and watched in awe, as he was able to squirt blood out of his upper lip. Eventually, he realized that this was not helping in the healing process. He completed his shower and applied pressure to the upper lip with his towel. He set about finding band-aids, which he hoped could be used to stop the bleeding and draw the opposing sides of his hole together, the latter to facilitate healing. Will secured a couple of band-aids from a first aid kit located in the fire-watch office. He applied them to the outside of his lip in a manner that brought the two sides together as efficiently as he thought possible. He cut up a wash cloth and stuffed pieces in his mouth behind the hole taking care to ensure that the pieces did not actually enter the hole. Having taken care of his wound from the outside and the inside, Will finally made his way to his bunk and attempted to get some sleep. He had no idea what time it was. He just knew that the morning wake-up call was not far away.