Torn Apart

“Papa San and I will help Mai-Le take care of you and make you strong again quickly,” she said fighting her tears.

I was able to make it up the stairs with only some minor assistance from Mai-Le. My strength was returning quickly as the drugs had worn off and the pain was diminishing. The sight of my room and the thought of spending a few days in the warm sun with my beautiful lady was enough to send my spirits soaring.

Mai-Le waited patiently for me to rest for a while, lying beside me without a word.

She was staring right into my face when I opened my eyes-----“What happened the day you were shot?” she finally asked.

I paused not really wanting to tell her ----“As the doctors probably told you, I was shot four times on the left side,” I said matter of factly.

“They wouldn’t let me see the wounds, can I see now?” she asked pulling back the covers.

 “I will have to change the bandages tomorrow and you can see then if you’re sure you want to.”

 “Why are you so bruised?” she said as tears welled up in her eyes.

“I think the bullets knocked me across the truck and I was thrown against the other side causing some of the bruising, but most of it is just from the actual battle and I don’t really remember exactly what happened.”

“You must have been very scared,” she said looking directly into my eyes.

 “I was afraid for only an instant, and then I thought of my promise to you not to get killed and I fought like crazy,” I said trying to ease her anguish.

“How many others were hurt?’ she asked.

I was leery of telling her the truth knowing it would tell her of the viciousness of the ambush and scare her forever. I couldn’t even imagine how she could deal with being madly in love with a soldier who was in constant threat of dying and having no power to do anything about it. I could see the toll it was taking on her and I wanted desperately to calm her anxieties, not add to them.

“Sixteen Montagnard soldiers were killed and twelve were wounded.” I said as she held her hand to her mouth in an attempt to hide her astonishment.

“What about Bob?”

“I don’t want to tell you the rest but I must. I will always be honest with you so you will always trust what I say, as you always have,” I said as I couldn’t hold back the tears.

 “Bob gave his life to save mine.”

Her tears followed as she put her hand to her mouth to quell the gasp. “Oh no, Bob is dead?”

“Wally and his wife and daughter were killed too, but they never knew what hit them. They all died instantly without pain.”

She buried her face in her hands-----“What about the other women and children?” she asked afraid to hear the answer.

 “Thirty eight were killed, but they all died instantly,” I told her trying to limit her anguish.

 She broke down as the enormity of the battle started to sink in and she couldn’t deal with the thought of such a disaster and how close she had come to losing me. I held her close to me for a long time as we sobbed in silence, each of us trying to console the other.

She jumped to her feet ----- “Ces Diables (Those Devils),” she screamed beating the bed with her fists. “Why must so many innocent people die?”

“How many of the VC were killed?” she asked with fire in her eyes.

“More than two hundred, and perhaps as many as three hundred,” I said realizing she was turning her anguish to anger and hatred for the VC.

“All the VC should die for what they do to our pe