Read Online Sand in the Wind by Robert Roth - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Robert Roth
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Just give ya the shits. There’s one type of malaria they don’t prevent. It just so happens that’s the type everybody gets around here.”
“Can’t they fix the pill up?”
“They got another one, a white one.”
“When do we get it?”
“We don’t.”
“Why not?”
Forsythe shrugged his shoulders. “I dunno. The captain and the rest of of the CP get it.” He looked past Chalice and yelled, “ Childs, you mother fucker. ”
Tony 5 added, “Well, no shit, look who’s here.”
They were referring to a skinny Marine approaching them wearing a pack, helmet, and the rest of his fighting gear. He had obviously just gotten off a convoy or a helicopter. Childs shook hands with a few of the men while Chalice stood ignored off to the side. His skinny neck tilted forward, making him appear slightly hunchbacked, and his eyes squinted from behind a pair of thick, dirty glasses. He removed them, exposing two large, blanched circles, spat on the lenses, and wiped them on his shirt.
Forsythe reached out and jabbed Childs’s shoulder. “You sonofabitch, are you just visiting or do you plan to stay a while?”
“I haven’t made up my mind yet. I was getting kind of bored in the rear. Let’s go inside so I can drop this gear.” They followed him into the hootch and sat down around him.
Forsythe asked, “How long were you in the rear? It must of been two months.”
“No, ten weeks. Anything happen while I was gone?”
“Not much,” Tony 5 answered. “We still haven’t gotten a new lieutenant.”
“Good!”
“How’d you manage to skate that long?” Forsythe asked.
“Well, my R and R in Japan was two weeks. I brought the clap back so that was another week. Then I lost my glasses and it took about ten days to get a new pair. I was really in bad shape; couldn’t go on working parties, couldn’t stand lines, just about the only thing I could do was fuck around. Then the heel fell off one of my boots. They didn’t have my size so I had to walk around in Gook sandals. By the time they got my boots in, I got this thing.” He pointed to a lump on his forearm the size of half a golf ball.
Forsythe leaned closer. “Hey man, that’s a real work of art. How’d you grow it?”
“I don’t know. It grew by itself.”
“What do you feed it when it gets hungry?”
“Oh, it’s not picky. It eats anything I do. Anyway, they sent me to Da Nang. I felt kinda important because I thought I was making medical history, but the doctors there acted like it wasn’t much — like some postpuberty thing that happens to everybody. They’d come around, look at it, say ‘Very interesting,’ then walk away. They weren’t sure what it was, but they all agreed I wasn’t pregnant.
“Anyway, they got tired of looking at it, so they medivacked me to a hospital ship to get it removed. What an abortion that was. After waitin’ around about a week, I asked when they were going to operate. They said they’d do it when they got a chance. ‘A chance for what?’ I asked. They said, ‘When we get the time.’ I told them that that was a real load off my mind, and that I’d originally thought they were gonna do it when they didn’t have the time.
“Anyway, the hospital got to be a real drag. We had to eat after the crew did, and they never left anything good. We couldn’t buy anything in the PX except cigarettes — we were Marines and the PX was for the crew, they said. And we had these ass-busting working parties every fucking day. ”
“Are you shiftin’ us?”
“That’s where the trouble started. We were doing the squid’s work. One day me and a guy named Simpson were swabbing the squid’s recreation room. Here we were mopping their floor while these lazy sailors were playing Ping-Pong, shooting pool, and watching TV —”
“War is hell,” Forsythe commented.
“— Simpson had one arm in a cast and was having a heck of a time with the mop. When he was doing the floor in front of the TV set,
“Can’t they fix the pill up?”
“They got another one, a white one.”
“When do we get it?”
“We don’t.”
“Why not?”
Forsythe shrugged his shoulders. “I dunno. The captain and the rest of of the CP get it.” He looked past Chalice and yelled, “ Childs, you mother fucker. ”
Tony 5 added, “Well, no shit, look who’s here.”
They were referring to a skinny Marine approaching them wearing a pack, helmet, and the rest of his fighting gear. He had obviously just gotten off a convoy or a helicopter. Childs shook hands with a few of the men while Chalice stood ignored off to the side. His skinny neck tilted forward, making him appear slightly hunchbacked, and his eyes squinted from behind a pair of thick, dirty glasses. He removed them, exposing two large, blanched circles, spat on the lenses, and wiped them on his shirt.
Forsythe reached out and jabbed Childs’s shoulder. “You sonofabitch, are you just visiting or do you plan to stay a while?”
“I haven’t made up my mind yet. I was getting kind of bored in the rear. Let’s go inside so I can drop this gear.” They followed him into the hootch and sat down around him.
Forsythe asked, “How long were you in the rear? It must of been two months.”
“No, ten weeks. Anything happen while I was gone?”
“Not much,” Tony 5 answered. “We still haven’t gotten a new lieutenant.”
“Good!”
“How’d you manage to skate that long?” Forsythe asked.
“Well, my R and R in Japan was two weeks. I brought the clap back so that was another week. Then I lost my glasses and it took about ten days to get a new pair. I was really in bad shape; couldn’t go on working parties, couldn’t stand lines, just about the only thing I could do was fuck around. Then the heel fell off one of my boots. They didn’t have my size so I had to walk around in Gook sandals. By the time they got my boots in, I got this thing.” He pointed to a lump on his forearm the size of half a golf ball.
Forsythe leaned closer. “Hey man, that’s a real work of art. How’d you grow it?”
“I don’t know. It grew by itself.”
“What do you feed it when it gets hungry?”
“Oh, it’s not picky. It eats anything I do. Anyway, they sent me to Da Nang. I felt kinda important because I thought I was making medical history, but the doctors there acted like it wasn’t much — like some postpuberty thing that happens to everybody. They’d come around, look at it, say ‘Very interesting,’ then walk away. They weren’t sure what it was, but they all agreed I wasn’t pregnant.
“Anyway, they got tired of looking at it, so they medivacked me to a hospital ship to get it removed. What an abortion that was. After waitin’ around about a week, I asked when they were going to operate. They said they’d do it when they got a chance. ‘A chance for what?’ I asked. They said, ‘When we get the time.’ I told them that that was a real load off my mind, and that I’d originally thought they were gonna do it when they didn’t have the time.
“Anyway, the hospital got to be a real drag. We had to eat after the crew did, and they never left anything good. We couldn’t buy anything in the PX except cigarettes — we were Marines and the PX was for the crew, they said. And we had these ass-busting working parties every fucking day. ”
“Are you shiftin’ us?”
“That’s where the trouble started. We were doing the squid’s work. One day me and a guy named Simpson were swabbing the squid’s recreation room. Here we were mopping their floor while these lazy sailors were playing Ping-Pong, shooting pool, and watching TV —”
“War is hell,” Forsythe commented.
“— Simpson had one arm in a cast and was having a heck of a time with the mop. When he was doing the floor in front of the TV set,
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