The Girl From Yesterday

I guess I thought I'd be back with my buddies, but they were mostly new guys. I was promoted to staff sergeant and made a team leader on a rifle squad. I had two riflemen with M16s, one guy with a M79 Grenade launcher (and a .45 caliber pistol), and one man with a Browning Automatic Rifle. The squad leader carried the radio, but most of the time he gave it to me 'cause I knew it better (and because he knew the Cong always tried to kill the radio operators).

This was an E5 slot and the squad leader was an E6 slot, Sergeant First Class. Normally SFC was used for platoon sergeant, but for some reason that's the way it was here in paradise. We were still doing mostly search and destroy missions, and it wasn't a lot of fun. The VC had learned the hard way they couldn't handle the massive firepower of our units in large set pieces. They just nickel and dimed us to death. There were more traps than ever before, and they destroyed morale. Even when we never encountered the enemy we still had regular casualties.

The VC had figured how to do a quick ambush, and then fade away in the jungle or deep grass. To keep us off balance, when they had a clear superiority of force, instead of fading away they would hit us a few minutes later from the sides. When we were ambushed we would drop to the ground. We would carefully get up. Usually we would send a scout out to find out where they had gone, and the tendency was to relax, have a smoke and take care of anyone that had been hit.

When they had a bigger edge on us, that's when they would hit us again. They knew the jungle so well that it was their biggest weapon. A couple of months after I was back in the field our squad leader was killed when a helicopter was shot down. They put me in charge of the squad since I had the most time in combat situations. The first sergeant told me, "I can't do anything now because you don't have enough time in grade. When you finish your tour I'll do my best to get you promoted to E6, but I don't know if it will fly."

I didn't know then that I would never finish my tour. I thought about Mel a lot. The times we made love stayed with me, a series of videos I would run through my head during the darkest times. But I would always come back to her betrayal. Some days I didn't care if I got killed or not. I guess I was depressed about the entire situation. I was risking my life each day "for the folks back home." Then I would think that I was doing this to protect Mel and her fiancé. Damn!

My world turned to shit a couple months after I took over the squad. We were taking a rest stop. We were in the middle of two other companies. The platoon leader called for a meeting of the NCOs in his group, the platoon sergeants and squad leaders. I started to walk back on the path we came in on, but I needed to take a dump. When I finished I noticed another path that looked to be shorter—because I had stopped I was late for the meeting. I had to cross a shallow stream. As I got to the middle I felt a slight resistance in front of my left boot. I had time to think, "Oh shit!" and didn't know anything else until I woke up on a hospital ship, the USS Repose.

I was heavily sedated and it was only gradually, over a period of days that I was able to think clearly. The surgeon didn't beat around the bush—I guess he had done this so many times it was automatic. "Your left foot is gone. There was nothing to put back together. You have severe lacerations on the lower parts of both legs, but we hope with time they will clear up okay. Your surgery was at the hospital in Chu Lai. You were sent here for observation and stabilization before being sent stateside. I believe you are being shipped on to Fitzsimons Army Hospital. That's in Aurora, Colorado, just outside Denver. There you will get your rehabilitation and therapy, and get fitted for a prosthesis."

"Doc, which one is it?"

"Which what?"

"Which foot did I lose."

"Oh, it was your left. It looks like our repair of the stump will allow you to wear prosthesis in a few months. We get all too many that are just too mangled to repair." He said that like he was fixing a flat tire on my car.

The clerk at battalion HQ stopped by to give me some of the stuff I'd left in my locker.

"I had to guess what you might want; the rest of it I shipped to your permanent mailing address."

I thanked him, and asked, "Do you know what happened? I remember feeling something pulling against my boot ... then I was here."

"Yeah, the VC place grenades along likely paths across or along streams. They embed two stakes under water on both sides of the creek or stream with a grenade tied to one and the safety pin partially removed from the striker lever and tied by trip wire to the other stake. It your case it was across a marked trail crossing the stream. They usually do this in heavily foliated jungle so there won't be much light. I hear they are almost impossible to see."

He wished me luck, and then someone came in from the administration office to tell me the plans for my move to CONUS (Continental United States).

"You'll going directly to Denver, and you will stay there for an extended time. On your release you should be able to live a somewhat normal life. I'm talking out of school here, but you will most likely wind up with a forty per cent disability pay, and lifetime care at VA Hospitals."

At the time I wasn't interested in the disability pay, and later I was to find out it wasn't worth all that much anyway. I would gladly pay them twice what they paid me if I could have my foot back. I had two days left before shipping home, and all I had to occupy my mind was lay around and think. I was lying in my bed wondering where my life was going. I knew I no longer could be on the police force. Who would want a one legged cop? As I lay there I thought about Mel and what might have been.

I found a packet of letters in the stuff the clerk left me. I was holding a few unopened envelopes from Mel. I just couldn't get myself to open them while I was in 'Nam. No soldier wanted to receive a Dear John letter from home.

I figured it was Mel telling me how sorry she was but chose another man. Hell, maybe she made the right choice. Who wanted a one legged gimp around. I know I was feeling sorry for myself but I earned the right.

I decided to open the letters from Mel now. It wouldn't make much difference. In the first one all she said in the letter was she didn't move away and that she didn't love him. Also, she told me she had something very important to tell me.

In the second letter she said she made a mistake for not telling me about Dan but that's what she wanted to explain to me on Sunday. Again she said she had something important to tell me but wasn't going to tell me till she heard from me. I wondered what she had wanted to tell me.

The third letter was pretty much the same thing asking me to call her or at least write her. The fourth and last letter she wrote that she woke up scared in the middle of the night. She had this eerie feeling that something had happened to me. I looked at the date on the letter and it was the day I was injured.

After I was checked into Fitzsimons, I received a call from my parents, and they said they would be traveling to see me. They also said they had a surprise for me. I had to wonder what kind of a surprise you give a guy who just lost a leg.

My parents were crying when they came in to see me. I couldn't help having tears in my eyes also. They were always there for me and here they were traveling to see me.

"Hey, I'm ok. One leg is a little shorter than the other but I can live with it. In a few weeks I'll ready to start trying on an artificial leg. I might walk kind of funny for awhile but everything will be alright."

I was trying to be brave for my parents. Inside I hurt like hell. Lonely and empty, not knowing what I was going to do next.

"I guess being on the police force is out of the question." My parents knew I always thought I'd be a cop.

My dad looked at me. "Mike I've always thought that maybe someday you might want to work in the sporting goods business. Your mom and I were talking; we thought 'Amore and Son Sporting Goods' sounds like a pretty good name.

"We could increase the size of the store and add inventory. I would have done it before, but it was a lot to handle with basically just your mother and me working there, along with Joe, part-time. What do you think?"

"Dad, I'd love to be in business with you. We can use some of the money I've saved up to help build."

"Don't worry about the money right now. You might need your savings for other things."

"I don't understand Dad, what other things?"

"The surprise we brought with us. Wait one minute." My parents walked out and in walked Mel.

I know I had mixed emotions when she walked in. "Is it safe for me to come in? Do you still want to see me? I have a lot to tell you and I want to start by saying I'm so sorry for not telling you about Dan. He's not part of my life since you saw him kiss me."

She was crying and came up to the bed and hugged me and put her head on my chest. "I'm so sorry for everything Mike. It's my fault that you went back to 'Nam and got injured. If I had just told you everything when we were together none of this would have ever happened."

"You can't blame yourself for me getting hurt. I acted too quickly after seeing you and Dan together. It's just that your father said you were a couple and you might move away with him."

"Mike, I never lied to you and I never will. I'll admit that Dan and I had a relationship, and he did ask me to move to Indiana with him but I turned him down. I told him that it was you I loved. What you saw was a goodbye kiss."

"So, what is this important thing you said you had to tell me? I did read your letters a couple of days ago."

At that instant my mother came in holding a baby. He was dressed in blue. He couldn't have been more than a month old. Mom was crying again when she handed me the baby.

Mel Spoke, "You have a son. His name is Zachary. It's what you always said you would name your child. You always said it was a masculine name. Before you even think about it, he is your son. I was positive but I had blood tests done to prove it to you."

"God, he's so tiny," I said while holding him in my arms. Mel and both my parents were watching me.

"He was a month pre-mature. He came a month early. You see, his father was hurt in this horrible war and I was a wreck and wondered if my son would ever see his father." Mel had tears running down her cheeks.

My dad put his arm around her. "Everything is going to be fine Mel," he said to her.

He added, "I guess it's all up to Mike now. He's got a woman who loves him and a child to support."

"Mel, as soon as I'm able to walk down the aisle, would you do the honor of being my wife?"

Mom took Zack as Mel came to me and kissed me. "I love you so much and yes, I'll marry you." She was now crying some really big tears.

"Oh, by the way, just before you came in I was offered a job. I'm going to be a partner in a sporting goods store, 'Amore and Son'. Maybe someday Zack might be interested in being the Son." We all smiled. It seemed that things were going to work out pretty well.

Epilogue:

I was released from the hospital four weeks later. I wore a prosthesis on my left leg, but I needed a cane until I got used to it. Since we already had the baby, our parents didn't mind us moving in together. About four months after that I was walking with hardly a limp.

I did help out at the store as soon as I arrived home from the hospital. We were already thinking of new ideas to improve the store. Rifles and guns were my specialty. We decided we would put in a shooting range for pistols, pellet guns, and .22s in the basement. We made arrangements with a nearby shooting club to provide a one month free membership to anyone who bought a rifle or shotgun from us.

Mel returned to work at the hospital. Her mom watched Zack while Mel was at work. We spent most of our evenings at home, just the three of us. As soon as Zack was asleep we made love. It felt so right the two of us being together. Weekends we went and visited our families.

We set up a date for our wedding and all our friends and family attended. When Mel and I stood up to dance at the reception there wasn't a dry eye in the place. I stuck to the slow dances for now.

Mel requested the song, 'The Girl from Yesterday' she said it so reminded her of our situation.

She only knows the pain that comes from waiting for so long

And she doesn't count the teardrops

That she's cried while he's away

Because she knows deep in her heart

That he'll be back someday

And she became the girl from yesterday

We were lucky. We were able to overlook each other's faults and work out our problems. We believe it was because we truly were in love and promised to keep our lines of communication open.

As our old friend 'The Wanderer' always says, "Life goes on," and Mel and I were going to make the best of it.

Thank you for reading our co-authored story.

Comments are welcome and appreciated—DG Hear & Jake Rivers