Duke
Ipulled Pearl against me and her hand went to the tuft of hair on my otherwise bare chest.
“I thought you’d have more hair on your chest,” she said smiling up at me.
“What? Like that Burt Reynolds guy?” I chuckled.
“How would I know what Burt Reynolds’s chest looks like?” she asked innocently.
“Don’t play the good girl with me,” I replied. “We both know you’ve seen plenty of that guy. He takes his shirt off every chance he gets, and he showed a hell of a lot more in that magazine a few months back.”
“I’m sure I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“I know, I know. You’re as wholesome as they come. Well, I’m not sure you’re missing out on much.”
“What, Burt Reynolds isn’t your type?” Pearl teased.
“When I got back from Vietnam, everyone was talking about his latest movie. You know, the one where him and his buddies get roughed up by a bunch of hillbillies.”
Pearl shrugged.
“Anyway. I went to go see this movie because it was about guys in the wilderness, but I ended up walking out.”
“The movie wasn’t any good huh?”
“I dunno. I’m sure it was fine. I’m not really a film critic,” I replied.
“Then why’d you leave the theater?”
I rolled over to face her. The soft light from the lamp on the dresser created a halo effect around her blonde hair and I couldn’t stop myself from running my fingers through it. “I can’t tell if you’re really as innocent as you let on, or if this is all some sort of put on.”
“What?” Pearl asked, with what sounded like a tinge of hurt in her voice.
“You asked about my leg earlier, and about coming home,” I said.
“Yes?”
“Well, I’d like to talk to you about…well, about everything really. But I’m not sure you really want my dirty boots tracking mud and blood all throughout your sparkling clean house.”
“I told you my father is in law enforcement, didn’t I?” Pearl said sternly.
“A detail I’m trying to block out,” I replied.
“I’ve seen and heard some pretty awful things, Duke. You’re safe to share whatever you’d like with me.”
At that moment I could see that Pearl was both sweet and innocent, but tough as she needed to be. With every passing moment of discovery, I was falling deeper and deeper in love with this woman. She should have been barely more than a stranger and yet I felt as if I’d known her all my life.
“I left the movie early because at one point in the film, one of Burt’s buddies is tied up and some good ol’ boys have their way with him. They’re fixin’ to do the same with all of them, but guns are drawn, and… you can imagine the rest.”
“Sounds charming,” Pearl said. “But I’m surprised that type of movie would bother you so much. I’m sure you’ve seen much worse during war.” Pearl’s hand shot to her mouth. “I’m sorry, that sounded horrible. What you must have gone through while in the Army is none of my bus—”
I stopped her from apologizing further. “No, you’re right. Dead right, as a matter-of-fact. The reason I walked out is because I’d seen much worse during the war, I didn’t want to be reminded of it.”
“I’m sorry,” Pearl said softly.
“Don’t you ever apologize for something that someone else did.
You hear me?” I leaned in and covered her mouth with mine, wrapping my arm around her and rolling her back onto my chest before continuing, “That movie brought back my most painful memories of Vietnam, and more importantly, reminded me why I’m back home when so many of my buddies are still there. ”
“I heard you were wounded and awarded the Purple Heart.”
“Where’d you hear that?”
“Your family is kind of a big deal in Georgia. Just because I’m not in Savannah, doesn’t mean I don’t get my fair share of local news, especially when it comes to war heroes.”
“I’m not a hero,” I said gruffly and felt Pearl’s body stiffen. “I’m sorry, I just don’t like it when people call me that is all.”
“But you were wounded in battle.”
“I was wounded before battle,” I corrected.
“What do you mean?”
“The bullet that tore through my leg wasn’t fired from a VC rifle,” I said.
“Then who shot you?”
“Corporal James Stover.”
“One of ours?” Pearl gasped. “You mean it was friendly fire?”
“Nothin’ friendly about a man pointing a gun at you and firing.”
“He shot you on purpose?”
“I was a specialist and Stover had just been promoted to Corporal, which meant he outranked me. We were both enlisted men and had gone through basic training together, so I knew him pretty well. He was a “go getter” with career military goals and was a great soldier, for the most part, but war had changed him.”
“What do you mean?”
“Sometimes combat can twist a good man up ’til he don’t even know right from wrong anymore. Killing changes people, and some men handle that change better than others. Stover didn’t handle it too well...” My words trailed off and I paused, deciding on whether or not to continue my story.
“What did he do?” Pearl asked.
I suppose I’d always known I’d have to talk about all of this someday, but why here and now was beyond me. Even more so, why with Pearl. A woman I’d known for only a matter of hours.
“Our unit was sent to Loc Ninh, near the Cambodian border, for what was to be a battle of blood and shit. I lost more friends that week than any other and I wasn’t even there to help them fight. Stover’s bullet made sure I was on the first Huey out of there just as the shit started coming down.”
“Why did he shoot you?”
“On the road leading into camp, Stover and two other soldiers found a young Vietnamese girl whose entire village had been wiped out by the VC. She was scared, malnourished and caked in the dried blood of her family.”
“That poor thing,” Pearl said sadly.
“Yeah, well, that was just the start of her troubles, because rather than take her to medical, Stover and his thugs thought it would be a good idea to take her out to the jungle and rape her.”
“Oh, my Lord. No,” Pearl said in a panic, her eyes filling with tears.
“Don’t worry. They never got the chance. I saw the three of them disappear into the thick brush and followed them carefully. By the time I caught up with them, they had gagged the girl, stripped her naked and tied her to a fallen tree.”
“How could they?” Pearl asked through sobs.
“One of the men, Private Adams, had his pants down and Corporal Stover was goading him on to do unspeakable things to this poor girl.” She stiffened beside me, but I continued, “The butt of my M16’s stock to the side of his head convinced him to do otherwise.
Mainly lay on the ground and bleed. The second soldier, who I never got a good look at, bolted through the trees.
I ran to the girl and Stover pulled his side arm on me. ”
She let out a quiet gasp, hugging me tighter.
“Do you want me to stop?” I asked.
“No. Say what you need to say. I’m here,” she whispered.
“At first, Stover tried to pull rank, but I was having none of that shit. The Army could toss me in the brig for life for insubordination. There was no way in hell I was going to let this animal get away with rape.”
She nodded, kissing my chest.
“He tried a bribe, and when that failed, he shot me through the right thigh, which shattered my femur, nicked an artery and shredded my abductor muscle. Stover left me there to bleed to death in the jungle but in the end the joke was on him.”
“How?”
“Moments after Stover took off, the base was pelted by a barrage of VC mortar fire that would last for days. Turns out, one of those mortars had Stover’s name on it.”
“How did you survive?”
“Private Garner, a young soldier from Wisconsin heard Stover’s shots and came to investigate. He found me and called for the medics who took care of both me and the girl.”
“Whatever happened to her?”
“I have no idea. The next thing I knew, I was being released from medical and shipped back home. It wasn’t until several months later that I became privy to the official report, which claimed I was shot by enemy fire in the early part of the battle.
Then came the Purple Heart and the attention and I just couldn’t take any more.
I quit the army, bought a bike and have been riding through the South ever since. ”
“And you never told anyone about Stover?”
“I never saw an upside to reporting it. Stover and Adams were both killed in the war, and I have no idea who the third man was. Besides, bringing this all to light would only make the Army look bad, and my brothers don’t need this country to hate them any more than they already do.
I thought it best to shut up, be their poster boy for the moment, and then fade away. ”
“Don’t you mean, ride off into the sunset?”
“I told you, Pearl, I’m no hero.”
“I think that innocent Vietnamese girl would disagree with you.”
I could see she was losing her battle with sleep and I smiled, kissing her gently. “Maybe so. Sleep, Pearl. We’ll talk more tomorrow.”
Hearing her quiet snore, I smiled. Nothing felt better than her in my arms.