Chapter 4

When Jessica received a call from Kyle's school she was shocked. Kyle had been suspended for fighting and had badly injured another boy? Jessica could not believe it. Kyle was so sweet, gentle, and good-natured that she felt certain that the whole thing must be some kind of misunderstanding. She left Joe in charge of the motel and drove her battered little pickup to school. When she saw Kyle she quickly realized that there was no misunderstanding. They boy looked horrible, dirty, wounded, and disheveled. His hair and skin were ground with dirt, while his face and eyes were bruised and black. She hugged him and quickly escorted him to the truck. As soon as they were out of the school lot she began to pepper him with questions.

"Kyle. What happened?"

"I got in a fight."

"I know that!" Jessica replied testily. "What were you fighting about."?

"I don't know. It just happened. I didn't want to fight anybody."

"The principal says you started the fight. You must have had a reason. Did this other boy do something to you?"

"No."

"Well then... What happened?"

"I was playing with this new guy, umm, his names Kevin, when Phil and his friends came by. We just got in a fight. I didn't mean to fight nobody."

"Kyle. You know fighting is wrong. You can't hurt somebody just because you don't like them. Fighting is immoral. You need to find a better way to solve problems. Fighting is not the answer."

"I know mom. I didn't want to fight him. It just happened."

Jessica quit arguing with her son. She knew that she was not getting the whole story, but she knew better than to pursue the issue right then. Jessica knew her son well. Kyle was honest and decent. He must have been fighting for a reason. Eventually she was sure that she would find out why and then she could help him. Kyle sat sullenly and gazed out the window hiding the tears on his bruised face from his mother. He could not tell her the reason for the fight. He would never repeat the terrible things that Phil had said.

When they arrived back at the motel both of them avoided Joe. Jessica went to work cleaning rooms. Kyle started raking some of the fall leaves that had started to accumulate. Joe waited a few minutes in the office, and then he locked the office door, grabbed another rake, and went to help Kyle. Joe and Kyle raked leaves in silence for fifteen minutes until they filled a large leaf bag. They faced one another as Kyle held the bag for Joe to fill.

Joe said, "I'm guessing that you were either hit by a train or you got in a fight."

"I got in a fight."

"What does the other guy look like?"

"He's OK. I didn't hurt him too bad, but I might a knocked his tooth out."

"Are you OK?"

"Yeah."

"What were you guys fighting over? Was it a girl?"

"I don't want to talk about it."

Joe and Kyle continued to rake leaves in silence for several more minutes. Finally Kyle broke the stony silence.

"Joe?"

"Yes?"

"Did you ever get in a fight?"

Joe responded without thinking, "Nope. I've never been in a fistfight in my entire life. I never wanted to."

Kyle said, "I never wanted to fight nobody either."

Joe thought for a moment. It was true that he had never been in a fight, but he had been bullied as a boy. He had suffered in silence without fighting back for the entire duration of the fifth grade. Joe had not thought about that for years. He suddenly felt like a hypocrite. He had been in a hell of a fight once as a young man at a place called Hue city. He had not thought about that for years either although the events that took place in Hue during 1968 still haunted his dreams. Joe flew to Vietnam as a young engineer assigned to do some development work on a new radar system. The war was going well. People in the Pentagon were expecting to wrap up the Viet Nam war by 1970. The Pentagon was worried about the Russians, and Viet Nam was the perfect laboratory for testing new weapon and radar systems.

The Pentagon was not anticipating the surprise that the North Vietnamese had in store for them as they unleashed an uprising and invasion during the Tet holiday nine days after Joe arrived in Hue. Joe found himself right in the middle of the fighting when the peaceful, beautiful city erupted. Enemy fighters were emerging everywhere, many of them little more than children, as the fighting went house-to-house and sometimes hand-to-hand. Joe had killed then using first his service 45 pistol and then an M16 rifle that had belonged to a dead marine. He had killed a young girl who could not have been more than thirteen years old. The soldiers and marines won the Tet offensive and every other battle that came their way during that war, but Joe was already home by then.