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Show In April, when Brian had only two months before his tour of duty would be completed, he wrote a long, sad l e t t e r . It was devoid of light, heavy with g r i e f . He seemed to have l o s t his desire to live I'They told us not to make f r i e n d s over here, but sometimes you can't help i t . The two guys I was c l o s e s t to - I ' v e written about Canada and Henry - are dead, k i l l e d within three days of each other. That's why I h a v e n ' t w r i t t e n . I hope I d i d n ' t cause pu too much worry. " "It makes no sense. Henry caught a mortar round. He's the black dude I t o l d you about - one of the good ones. He had a g i r l and"-his mother, both of them counting on him to come home. I had to write to them. What do you say? How do you tell them that you'd have g l a d l y gone in h i s place? •' "Two days l a t e r Canada was walking point for me - it should have been me, I was s e n i o r man, but the skipper sent him forward-to take my p l a c e because he wanted to see me. to Canada took over and I was coming back to r e l i e v e him. I reached out my hand to touch h i s shoulder when a A sniper got him. He took my b u l l e t , the b u l l e t meant for me. more than We hadn't traded p o s i t i o n s A t e n minutes before. His brains blew all over me, i n t o my mouth. I c a n ' t t e l l you how i t made me f e e l. It should have been me i n s t e a d of him. It should have been me." A great, t e r r i b l e ache burned l i k e a dragon--rising within me. 1 wanted to hold him and pummel him a l l at once. To say t h a t it should have been him, t h a t he, my Brian, should have died for a stranger! It wasn't f a i r - i t was wrong to bicker with ^stiny! What about me? What about our daughter? I wanted to scream at him. I wanted to shake him. Can't you see that *t was meant to be? Accept i t - you are meant to l i v e! |
