Long Way Home (eBook)

Terry Raycraft (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2021 | 1. Auflage
330 Seiten
Bookbaby (Verlag)
9781098398842 (ISBN)

Infos

Historical fiction about two veterans who journey across America after returning from the Vietnam War. They reflect back on episodes from the war and attend events that are occurring in the U.S. as students and veterans rally in anti-war protests. The journey becomes more complex as the trip unfolds, For Ben, the main character, who has a promise to keep before returning home, the journey becomes longer than he could have ever imagined, as the war rages on.

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When Ben lands in Oakland, California, after one year in the Vietnam War, he decides to take a slow journey across America to ease back into "e;the world."e; Joining another Vietnam vet, the pair leave California in an old bread truck headed for Boston. Along the way, they reflect on episodes that occurred in Vietnam, help some stranded students, attend anti-war rallies, meet other veterans of the war, and, ultimately, must deal with the sad consequences of the war. Ben has a promise to keep before returning home. But home seems further away than he ever imagined. His journey continues as he learns and reaches his own conclusions about America.

Textauszug

8.

Ben leaned back against the large grey-black rock, closed his eyes, felt the warming air easing across his skin, and listened to the soothing caw of the seagulls.

“You are right. This place can do wonders. I probably need to just stay right here for a year without moving,” said Ben.

“Well, I guess you can. Other than that, what do you want to do?” inquired Tom.

Ben opened his eyes and took in the scene. They were sitting on a rock overlooking the sandy beach only ten feet below their perch. From there, it was several hundred yards to the water’s edge. The waves were singing their rhythmic timeless song of ebb and flow as they crashed and washed the sand, a sound that relaxed Ben’s strained nerves. He watched a few surfers in the distance.

“I’m going to go back to school,” offered Ben. “But ‘when’ is a tougher question. My plans were to go right back, you know, as soon as I got home, but now, I just don’t know for sure. I guess I am not sure of anything at the moment. I need some time to think about things.”

“I know what you mean,” said Tom. “I have been thinking about my future for a while. I just can’t seem to get past the next 24 hours. But, really, I have started back to school. I mean, at least I am enrolled. My classes start soon. We can get the GI bill, you know. And school is not a bad life. Why don’t you stay here? We can be roommates.”

“HaaHaa! I think you already have a roommate.”

“You mean Carol? She is in Boston. I do not see her that much.”

“Are you two like serious? I mean, do you date other girls? “

“Well, yeah, I do. But, I do like Carol. Maybe she will come out here when she graduates. I guess there is some potential there. But, man, the girls out here are nice. And beautiful. You need to go with me to some of the surfing spots in summer. Damnm!!”

“I will have to do that. I will have to consider going to school out here,” Ben mused almost in a whisper, more to himself than to Tom.

“What about your parents? Are you going home soon? I am sure they worried like heck every minute you were in Nam,” said Tom.

“You know, that was the first thing I was going to do. But something changed my plans. Also, I started wondering about why I should rush home. Here I am in California. I may not get back here again, who knows? I am not too confident about making future plans anymore. I mean, I never planned on being in the military. And I never had plans to go to damn Nam either. So, I have decided that I am going to do what I want to do, when I want to do it, at least for a while. Right now, I just want to sit here and relax. At some point, maybe I will decide to get up and go somewhere else,” said Ben.

“I told you I came here a lot. Hey, have another beer,” stated Tom, reaching in the cooler and tossing Ben a cold can. “You said ‘something changed your plans.’ What do you mean?”

“A lot happened in my last month.”

“Really? Like what?”

“Big Mac, Crazy Joe, and Jack were killed. They were ambushed while heading north in a jeep. Nobody expected anything. You know, things had been relatively calm for a while,” stated Ben.

“Damn!! Oh man, I hate to hear that,” said Tom.

“Then Arrowhead got run over. Everybody on that hill was medivac’d to Japan. I have no idea who survived.”

“My God. So were you out there at the time?”

“No. I don’t know why. I had spent so much time out there. But they called me in for some reason.”

“We spent A LOT of time on that hill. I would never have guessed it got overrun. That is scary. Man, you remember when just you and me and a case of Budweiser stayed out there alone?”

“Yeah. And I had actually walked to it by myself one week before it was overrun. I have had nightmares about what could have happened. I could have been sniper’d for sure.”

“We were lucky, you know.”

“Then Billy Bob was killed. He and Mickey got a call about 4:30 in the morning. They were on duty. Some grunt was needing help on Hill C. So Mick and Billy took off to pick him up. They hit a mine. Billy Bob died instantly. Mick is in Japan. I think he survived,” added Ben.

“I guess I got out of there in the nick of time,” Tom pondered.

“But to answer your question. A new Battalion commander came in. The son-of-a-bitch wanted to go on maneuvers AT MIDNIGHT!! I had three days left, so I didn’t want to play any more war games. But I was on duty and had to go. That bastard is a total idiot. He wanted to win the war himself, be a hero, or whatever. Probably just wanted to get some stupid metals to beef up his resume. But he was putting our lives at risk. Anyway, as usual, the gooks knew what was going on. Big shocker, huh? We got hit only a few clicks out. We hit the ground. Calvin was next to me in the bush. Neither of us could see exactly where the fire was coming from. Then it opened in front of us and from our side. All hell broke loose as we all unloaded at them. We were lying on our bellies shooting into the bushes. I heard Calvin yell at me, pointing. I turned and saw a damn gook grenade about four feet on my right. I was about to roll away when Calvin’s body fell between me and the grenade. The damn thing went off. I thought I must be dead. My ears were ringing so loud I couldn’t hear anything. It all happened so fast. But I was OK. I heard Calvin moaning. He had taken the blast. He was bleeding bad. His stomach was ripped open. Some of his guts were hanging out. I grabbed his arms and pulled him back. The fire fight was over quick. Our guys were looking for the gooks. I went with Calvin in the chopper. He was still alive but really messed up. His face was all cut up. He told me to take his necklace to his fiancé. I told him he was going to be OK. He laughed, of all things. He was dying and he looked up at me and laughed. Said he would get a purple heart. Then he grimaced and told me to give the damn medal to his Mother, along with a locket he had around his neck. He saved my life, Tom. So I got to go find his Mother and his fiancé.”

Tom looked at Ben in silence. He finally spoke in a solemn tone. “You know, the blacks stuck together over there. They were nice to us, but they had all that crazy fist-tapping, elbow-knocking, fancy hand-shaking thing going on with each other. It pissed off a lot of whites. I asked Calvin about it one day after I had waited in the chow line for about five of them to finish all that jive. He just looked at me and smiled, then started laughing.”

“Sounds like him. Everything was funny to him. Even dying.”

“Later, I was in my bunker. In comes Calvin. He apologized for having taken so long in the chow line. He was smiling of course. Then, all of a sudden, he got serious. It was like night and day. He said, ‘Man, you don’t know what it is like to be black. What we are doing, man, is just recognizing our brotherhood, you know, like we are all in this damn thing together. We do not mean it to be offensive to you white boys, but some take it that way. I know it has started some fights.’ So I said, ‘Well, the whites are in this thing, too. Aren’t we ALL in this hellhole together?’ Calvin looked at me like I have never seen him before, I mean like a different person. He says, ‘We are all fighting this stupid war in this god-forsaken country, yes, whites and blacks, yellows and reds. But when you go home, your war is over. But not me. I will go home to another war. A bigger war really. My people are at war in America. We have graduated from being slaves to being free but hated. We are being beaten, shot, hung from trees. Not here in Nam, but in the good ol’ USA. We are actually safer in Nam than in America. So we are different than you. We fought together here, but I guess we will fight each other in America. We are bleeding in the streets as I speak. There are riots, you know. It is getting bad. So what am I fighting here for? I don’t want to kill any gooks. Hell, they are like me. I understand them more than I do the white Americans. It is a mess, man.’ He stopped talking, and just stared into my eyes, like he was looking right through me. Then he smiled and laughed. ‘Let’s get back to doing our duty for our great country,’ he said. He stood up and walked out. I was stunned. I have thought about what he said. He was right, you know. And then when you add Carol constantly feeding me all about how screwed-up our government is and how the war is so wrong, I am really wondering about everything. So I get to thinking, and the only thing that makes sense is getting drunk. So pass me another one, man.”

Ben reached into the cooler and tossed Tom a cold can.

“I spent some time with Cal in those bunkers on Arrowhead,” added Ben. “A few times, we talked about segregation, Martin Luther King, the riots. You know, you could talk to Cal. He was a good guy. I remember him telling me about some things. Like when he drove from Birmingham to visit an aunt in North Carolina. His Dad told him where to get gas, to make sure he had a full tank so he would not have to stop between Birmingham and Tennessee. And to not travel at night in some cities. It was all because of the Ku Klux Klan....

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 28.9.2021
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Politik / Verwaltung
• ISBN-13: 9781098398842 / 9781098398842