you ryi
"Oh yeah. You mean where you eat the rat and chase it with a piece of Hershey bar 'cause you ain't even gonna barf up the Hershey bar? It don't work, lady. I know a guy tried it. Says it just make you hate Hershey bars from then on."
fully. "Well, maybe it's better with peanut M&M's," I suggested hope
"Mmm," he said, lowering his voice a decibel or two. "Well, we ain't even gonna have to worry about it 'less we carefuler than this."
I took a quick look around and spotted no particular glows besides the amulet-enhanced phosphorescence of the greenery. "There's no one close," I said. "I think we're safe."
"Then you musta bumped your head in that chopper crash, woman. We not safe by a long shot."
"No, but there's no one close."
"You can't see 'em, lady. Thass the point."
"I think I could," I said, and then wondered how I would explain it to him without sounding like a superheroine refugee from Teen Titans comics.
"Yeah? An' how's that? Some special info only officers get?"
'."Well, maybe you could say I have unusually good vision," I said. I decided I wasn't up to explaining about the amulet right then and William didn't look as if he was in the mood for listening to such explanations if I was willing to make them.
"Umm hmm. Well, find us some food, then, if you that good."
'V didn't have that much survival training," I said. "What have you been eating? If I were home right now I'd be having steak at the mess hall."
"Steak? Jesus, lady, you been on the gravy train for sure. What make you get your dainty steak-fed little ass into somethin' like this, taggin' along after some one-leggity child?"
"Someone has to look out for these people," I said.
William gave me a look that said it was too bad I was braindamaged. "I been lookin' out for 'em okay. I lookin' real hard, and if any one of
'em come 'cross me, they ain't gonna need no more lookin' out for, and that, girl, is puttin' it polite 'cause you're a female and all."
Recalling what he'd just been through, I didn't argue with him but changed the subject. I didn't want to stop the conversation. As long as we talked, I felt less afraid.
"Where are you from, William?" I asked, only a little breathless from trying to keep up with him.
"Cleveland," he sad, still mad at me, his aura bristling dull red.
"I'm from Kansas City. That's where my folks and my brother live. You have brothers or sisters?"
"Yeah. And a wife and two babies. An' I'd like to stay alive to see
,em again. Look, lady, it real nice talkin' to you and all, but I don't want no VC catchin' us shootin' the breeze."
I shut up, at first a little resentfully-after all, if we were all stranded out there, it seemed pretty lousy not to be able even to talk to each other. Before long, we were climbing the side of a ridge, pushing through vines and shrubs that tore at my poncho and stands of elephant grass that made a ripping sound as we brushed through it, so it sounded as if our clothing were being shredded. Any VC in the area should be able to hear us for miles before we ever saw them. I remember Duncan, who was a hunter, telling a story in which he said something similar to klutzy hunting companions when they complained of not seeing deer. "Nope, you haven't seen them, but they've sure as hell heard you,"
Duncan would quote himself. Unlike the deer, the VC would not be scared away by hearing us. With that to think about and the work of climbing to occupy my energy, I was fresh out of conversation anyway.
Not that William was hurrying-he just sort of oozed up that slope like so much oil compared to me. He did let Ahn down, and the boy made good use of his foot, both hands, and, though I winced for him, his stump, as he climbed. He stopped and rubbed his stump occasionally, but didn't complain, and twice grinned at me as I stood panting for breath, trying to keep up. Nursing involves a lot of walking, stooping, bending, lifting, and running, but it's blessedly short on scrambling up steep muddy hills in dripping, steaming rain. The exertion more than made up for the slight drop of temperature caused by the wind and rain. Whereas in the clearing I'd been cold, within the heavy cover of jungle growth with big leaves overlaying bigger leaves, I felt like a pig at a luau.
Sometime in late afternoon we broke through the thick cover into light rain sprinkling the top of the ridge. Here the trees were tall but the undergrowth was rocky and relatively free of tangly growth. I leaned against a rock and almost slid off it, I was that slippery from my own sweat. William looked like a ghost, wrapped in his own cloud of congealing moisture.
My head roared and my eyes weren't focusing all that well. The rain was warm but it was water, and I raised my head and let it trickle into my mouth. Ahn crawled over to me, dug into his shorts pocket, and offered me a Baggie of salt tablets. William was already on his stomach, lapping from a hollow rock. He gave me a turn, as he might at the drinking fountain in some park, and after a few laps I popped the salt tablets and lapped some more. It helped, but I couldn't knock it back and reach the most parched part of my throat. Still, I knew the systemic effects would save my life anyway.
When my eyes and mind had cleared a little, I looked at Ahn, who was pocketing his tablets again.
"Babysan, where'd you get those?" I asked him.
"I find them, mamasan. Numbah one, huh? I think maybe I sell when I fini hospital."
The Vietnamese version of free enterprise had for once proved useful. I had my own salt tablets, but having two supplies was better than having one. I had no idea what a salt lick looked like and doubted we would just run across one every time we got dehydrated. William had swallowed a couple of tablets too, but he had been in the bush long enough that his body had adapted somewhat. My sweat glands were spouting like Old Faithful and his just seemed to flow gently, like the Danube, adding a polishing gloss to his skin. Of course, he stank like a billy goat, but then, I was building up quite a pungent fragrance myself. The grunts were all warned against using scented American hygienic products like toothpaste and deodorant and after-shave. I wondered if it mattered.
I'd heard that Americans smelled bad to Orientals, that eating red meat gives us a special odor they find objectionable. I wondered if the VC
would kill you quicker for smelling good from toothpaste and after-shave or smelling bad from stinky pits, toe jam, dragon mouth, and crotch rot.
We walked along the ridge and over onto another one, with just a slight dip between hills. Once I stopped and removed the amulet for a moment, to see the country with normal eyes. I thought how much my mother with her love of nature trails and bird-watching would have loved this.
Fields of elephant grass rippling like summer wheat were the only resemblance between this country and Kansas. The country was spined with ridges protecting low-lying areas of grass, paddies, and more jungle. Atop these ridges, spindly trees clawed their way out of rocky ground strewn with explosions of thin green tongues. The hillsides and valleys brimmed with forest green, emerald green, peridot green, bright, light, medium, dark, and drab olive green, lime green, chartreuse, and other shades of green I had no name for. Through the valley to the east of us, a stream glinted between the trees like fragments of Christmas tinsel.
"What you stoppin' for?" William asked.
"I bet you can see all of Vietnam from here," I said.
"I bet all Vietnam can see us too; think 'bout that and move your ass."