by Ningage on 10-03-2009 4:20 pm
You know, as strange as it seems, I fell in love during my period being drafted. Yup, in good ol' Vietnam, Gabey got himself a little crush. No, it wasn't with one of the natives, and it wasn't with a nurse.
It was with my commanding officer.
He was a strong, brave man. An idol to us all, but I looked up to him the most. People always called me 'Col. Johnny's Pet' because I was following him around all the time. Oh, the months we spent together. The funny thing was, when I was drafted, I left myself a little fiancee back at home, she was havin' my kid too. But I never felt anything for her the way I felt for Col. Johnny.
Through sun and rain, battle and peace, I always had his back, and he always had mine. We were protecting each other from the Vietcong, and landmines, and a whole other slew of threats. I would abandoned hope, cried out to my dying God that he wasn't seeing me, but as long as I had Johnny, everything seemed alright.
One night, on one very special night I shan't ever forget, we were watching guard while the rest of the platoon were sleeping. We told each other stale, old stories of home and what we missed, the first thing we would do when we got back, etc. We already told each other all of these things, so it got pretty uncomfortable after a while...
I woke up, and I noticed that I was sleeping in Johnny's lap, and he was staring down at me, eyes glimmering in the moonlight, I blushed a dark red and sat up as soon as I could. What was he thinking? I was sleeping on the job, and that wasn't the worst part of it. Oh Lord, how Johnny would let me have it!
But the strange thing, or strange at that time, was that he said nothing, simply stared at me. Now, my experiences with Johnny showed him to be a tough man, not afraid of anything, and not letting anyone penetrate through his tough skin to see his emotions, but that night, I saw something.
I neared him slowly, panting, my heart bursting through my chest as I kissed him. I don't know what I was thinking, or why I was doing it, or even if he shared my feelings, I just knew what I had to do.
He kissed back.
An explosion of joy spread throughout my nerves and veins, I felt something that I've never felt before, a pure ecstasy, a euphoric feeling. If I could stay like this forever, I wouldn't need a heaven, all of the happiness I'd ever need right then was enough for an eternity.
I sat back as we slowly parted our wet lips, and smiled at each other nervously, but, in a good way. Johnny opened his mouth to say something when we heard a shot, and a bullet whiz by my head. I swiveled around as the other soldiers were getting up and getting ready as I saw a whole squad of Vietcong head toward us, screaming their gibberish.
Johnny immediately reverted back to his cold, hard self as he barked orders at the platoon, and I ran off to fight. The fight was bloody, one of the worst fights I'd ever seen in the war. I saw a man decapitated by the enemy's bare hands. That night, I shall remember forever in my nightmares. Finally, after getting our numbers down by half, we luckily escaped, losing them, but when I looked around to find our courageous leader, he was no where to be found. As the second in command, I yelled at the platoon to stay where they were, while I scouted back to see the battlefield.
I ran back and saw a small group of Vietcong surrounding the still alive Johnny. I breathed a sigh of relief, knowing he was still alive. It seemed they were interrogating him, but he didn't even know their language. If he did though, I knew in my heart he wouldn't say a thing. I was waiting for them to turn their backs, to perhaps start a sneak attack against them. Then, one of the Vietcong pulled out a pistol, pointed it at Johnny, and pulled the trigger.
My whole world stopped.
His blood spattered among the grass as he fell over, I was too shocked to say anything, or even move a fiber of my being. The Vietcong walked off, then I snapped back to my senses and ran over to Col. Johnny. Luckily, he was still alive, but barely. I screamed at him to stay alive, and that he could pull through. He was good ol' Johnny! He could do anything! Anything! Anything!!!!!!!
He would have none of it, he simply asked for me to come closer, so he could utter something to me with his last breath. I came closer, and closer, and closer, until he gave me one last kiss to remember him by. If I remember correctly, which I know I do, that was the moment when my world ended.
I carried him back to the platoon. We buried him that night, and I shed not a single tear. No, I had to stay tough, the crying was for when I got home. I led the platoon throughout the rest of my term as a soldier.
I'm now a husband and a father with a family I barely love. I see Johnny on every one of my children's faces, and every time I make love to my wife, I'm sharing passion with Johnny. I just want to go back, to fix everything, to tell you how much I cared for you. But the thing is, I already know you shared my feelings.
You, Johnny.
I'm sharing my life with you.
