Chapter 22

Flashback – Ben and Jack – The trip to hell ... Ramadi

Just when I thought things were going fairly well, there was a huge fucking explosion that ripped into the Humvee. It blew me the hell out of the gunner's position and tossed the Humvee like a toy against the far wall of the street. As I flew through the air my first thoughts were of Jack and my rifle. I smacked back first into the same wall as the destroyed Humvee and was stunned for a very brief moment, but then the rounds which the fucking towelheads fired into my body armor rudely brought me back to the real world.

I jumped up, looked at the Humvee and saw it was practically blown in two. I ran toward it and yelled, "Jack, are you okay?"

I reached the wretched Humvee, looked inside and saw Jack beginning to crawl toward the missing back door. I ordered, "You stay inside the Humvee until I get Ma Deuce set up."

The Humvee was resting on its side so I moved to what was left of the roof, pulled the pin that secured Ma Deuce to the gunner's position and headed to the back of the Humvee. Jack handed me the portable tripod for Ma Deuce and said, "Here you go Banzai, make the fuckers pay!"

I set the tripod on the uphill side of the disabled Humvee, making sure it was wedged into some holes in the Humvee, put Ma Deuce on the tripod and began to give us covering fire which worked to keep the fucking towelheads away from us...

Jack yelled...

I hauled out our footlockers, then I went up front to check on the Captain and the Corporal. Unfortunately, the Corporal caught a piece of shrapnel in the head and he was dead. As I moved to the Captain, he woke up and complained, "Sgt. Reynolds, I can't feel my legs."

I replied, "Well Sir, we need to get you the fuck out of this Humvee because I'm not sure how long Banzai can keep the towelheads away from us."

The Captain needlessly cautioned me, "Sgt. Reynolds be careful when moving me because of my back and legs."

I moved Captain M as carefully as I could out of the destroyed Humvee and placed him on the ground. Then I said, "Sir, I really need to help Banzai keep the towel heads off of us."

Then I reached into my pocket, took out the bottle of pills, handed them to the Captain and said, "Sir, take one or two of these - they will help with the pain."

I watched him take two of them and figured that soon we wouldn't have any more problems with the Captain then I ran beside Banzai and asked, "Do you need anything?"

Banzai answered, "I could use some more ammo for Ma Deuce."

I ran to the back of the destroyed Humvee, grabbed a couple of ammo cans and dashed back to Banzai. Then I pulled up my M-14 and began to help keep the fuckers off of us.

Finally there was some help when another Humvee stopped.

The gunner of the new Humvee yelled, "You guys look like shit!"

I replied, "The driver is dead and the Captain can't feel his legs. Do you have room for the three of us?"

He was busy firing, but then caught a break and said, "Hell yeah! You guys need to hump your Captain over here and then dump a WP grenade into your Humvee.

Banzai complained, "Like hell I'm leaving this Ma Deuce."

The gunner answered, "As you wish, just move your asses because we can't stay here forever."

Banzai dashed to the new Humvee with Ma Deuce and dumped it inside. Then he ran back to the destroyed Humvee, grabbed our two foot lockers and humped them to the new Humvee. The gunner complained, "Hell, what else do you two need?"

Banzai flipped him the bird and yelled, "That's all other than the Captain."

Banzai and I met at the Captain and the Captain continued, "Shit just leave me because I can't feel my legs."

Banzai bent down, checked his back and said, "Sir I think your back is broken, but don't worry, we will be careful and you still might be able to walk."

Banzai looked at me and said, "Jack, I have an idea, wait here."

He ran back to the destroyed Humvee, grabbed his rifle case, ran back to the Captain and said, "Sir, we are going to transport you on my rifle case so we don't damage your back any more."

We carefully log-rolled the Captain onto his side, Banzai put his rifle case against the Captain's back, we rolled him upon the rifle case as the Captain swore, "Son of a bitch" and passed out. Once he was on the case Banzai grabbed one end, I grabbed the other and we ran to the new Humvee.

They opened the back, we slide the Captain in on the rifle case, then carefully log rolled the Captain off the rifle case then Banzai said, "Wait the WP grenade."

He jumped out, ran back to the destroyed Humvee, hauled the dead driver out of it, dumped a WP grenade into it, fireman carried the dead driver to the new Humvee and slide him in the back beside the Captain.

Then he ran back to the new Humvee and he no sooner took a seat than the driver took off like his ass was on fire...

Flashback – Masha – child care

Louise thanked me profusely for dinner which made me blush. I told her, "You may have liked the dinner, however I know it was not up to my normal standards. I promise to do better tomorrow."

Louise smiled and declared, "Masha thank you! You are such a help to me. Now I'd better get home and clean my clothes for tomorrow."

I asked for verification, "Will you be here again tomorrow at about six in the morning?"

She smiled and answered, "Of course I will. And if you wouldn't mind, it might be nice if you took Linda for a walk tomorrow and came to the market. I really miss her while I'm at work."

I gave Louise a sincere smile and answered, "Of course, it would be my pleasure."

Louise picked up Linda, thanked me again and then they were gone. And I was once again the only soul in this big, lonely, empty house.

I sat on the couch turned on the television and tried to assuage my loneliness...

Flashback – Jennifer and Glen – trying to solve a huge problem

I was still in my bed, sick as dog when mother left to go to the store. However, the instant she left I jumped out of bed and renewed my search for the drugs which mother used to adulterate our food and drink. I had searched almost everywhere and was ready to give up when I urgently needed the toilet again. I knew mother didn't like me using the downstairs 'guest half bathroom' but I knew I couldn't make it to my own bathroom without having an 'accident'.

Once again I had huge cramps and began to sweat because of the pain. I flushed the toilet and heard a funny banging noise come from inside which I had never heard before. I took all the stupid knickknacks off the top of the toilet tank, then removed the lid and there was a baggie filled with two different medicine bottles. I pulled the baggie out of the toilet, wiped it dry on the hand towel and read the two medicine bottles through the baggie. One said the medicine was diaren and the other didn't have a name on it. I replaced the lid back on the toilet, set the knickknacks back in the exact location where they had been (the dust on the toilet lid helped). And I quickly ran upstairs with my prize to research what in the heck mother had been poisoning us with.