(9)
— Originally published in the Antietam Review (Spring, 1999)
Continued from page (8)
Riley pulled patrol that night and went off with his squad into the jungle.
McCaffery roused Kerney and Griffin before dawn to go in after Riley—he’d
been wounded by a booby trap. The VC had dipped a punji stake in toxic
juices and splintered the point so that it splayed as it entered Riley’s flesh
and lodged firmly in the ball of his foot. Every time Griffin tried to pull the
stake out, Riley screamed.
Kerney turned away and stared into the darkness. Riley and that stake
are like me and Griffin. If only Griffin had never existed. Griffin condemned
Kerney. Kerney could never be Griffin. He could never possess Griffin. Griffin
would have to be gouged out of Kerney like that stake out of Riley’s foot.
The punji stake was just the beginning. More booby traps showed up.
Riley was medevaced back to Bien Hoa. Hit-and-run raids started. Kerney
and Griffin got word to move out. Griffin was ordered out first.
“Here,” he said, grabbing his gear and shoving a slip of paper into
Kerney’s hands. “Give this to company admin before you pull out, okay?”
“What is it?”
“Mail slip. So mail to me will get routed back to Bien Hoa.”
Kerney frowned at the rumpled slip.
“Please, Tom,” Griffin said, his eyes pleading. “I’m afraid to trust
anybody else with it.”
Kerney nodded.
As soon as Griffin was gone, Kerney squatted, wadded the slip, and put it
before him on the red ground. He took his lighter from his pocket and tested
it. It lit the first time. He picked up the slip, clicked the lighter, and moved
the corner of the slip into the orange flame. It caught. When the flames
burned his fingers, he dropped the slip. He watched it curl and blacken in the
red dust. He licked his lips and smiled.
Kerney got back to Bien Hoa at the end of the first week in May. Griffin,
with that numb look Kerney had seen in Bo Duc, mumbled that he was
shacking up with Xuan in a rented room over the San Diego. Kerney shook
his head and muttered to himself. As if he fucking cared. All he knew was
that he was about to explode. He ached to escape to the San Diego, to have
savage sex with Mary. But he pulled guard duty the first week and had to
stay on base. The following week, all personnel were restricted. One of the
guys had been found stabbed to death a block from the San Diego, his penis
hacked off and stuffed in his mouth.
TOM'S TALES