But the MP?s couldn?t be everywhere. Sometimes things went a little sour. One night we smoked
enough dope to get paralysed and we headed down to Dodge and we ended up in a whorehouse. It
was nothing but a hooch divided up by screens. You could hear GI?s humping all over the place.
“Let?s get about five or six of „em,” Teddy said. “Have a little gang bang.” It wasn?t for me. I wasn?t
that stoned and I still had a little Catholic left in me. So he went behind one screen and went into the
next stall. He started kidding me; it was like being in the same room.
“How?s the foreplay going, Junior?”
“Will you shut up!”
“Having a problem?”
“Yeah, you!”
He started to laugh and then the laugh turned into a scream and the scream turned into a muffled cry
that sounded as though he were underwater. I jumped up and smashed through the screen.
The girl was gone already. It was a fairly common trick. She had a single-edge razor blade held
between her teeth when she kissed him, cut off his tongue with the razor and, while he was gagging in
his own blood, slit his throat for closers. He died in my arms before I could even yell for help. I don?t
remember what the girl looked like; all I remember is that it could have just as easily been me instead
of Teddy.
“I knew what it would do to Doe and Chief Findley, finding out he died like that,” I told Stick,
finishing the story. “I forged a set of records saying he was killed in action and I forged a
recommendation for a Silver Star and the Purple Heart for him. The captain didn?t give a shit. He
acted like he didn?t even notice
it.
“Then I wrote the letter telling them how Teddy had died in action, that it was quick, no pain. I don?t
know which is worse anymore, Teddy?s death or the lie. Reducing it all down to a fucking piece of
paper like that.”
Stick sat there for a long time after I finished, smoking and staring at his feet. It was not a shocker;
that kind of thing was common. Just another day in paradise.
Finally he started shaking his head. “Man, you have really done a number on yourself, haven?t you?
What?s the big issue here? You told a lie and made your best friend a hero. Big fuckin? deal.”
“It?s what it represents. Somehow Nam should be more important than that.”
“Nam was a fuck-up. It?s like a scar on your belly. You cover it up and forget it; you don?t paint it
red, white, and blue. You?re one of those steel-covered marshmallows, Kilmer old buddy. You?re a
sitting duck for the vultures. You know what I say? Forget the lie part. Stick to the story; nobody
