Mickey's Wars by Dave McDonald

Author:Dave McDonald [McDonald, Dave]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781701855069
Published: 2019-11-08T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fifty

The next day I was sitting up on a cot in the hospital tent eating breakfast, some cold gritty shit they called eggs along with grilled Spam, when Jerry Meyers walked in.

“So how’d you find me?” I asked him.

“I stopped by your tent this morning, and what’s left of your fire team told me what happened yesterday. They couldn’t stop talking about you, and what you did. You’re their hero. And if you did half of what they said you did, you should be everyone’s hero. How are your wounds?”

“Did they tell you about Sculini?”

“No. Who’s he?”

“A guy we lost yesterday, a friend.”

His brow furrowed. “Sorry. Based on all the bandages you’ve got; I‘d say you were lucky it wasn’t you. How are you?”

“Fortunately, nothing that won’t heal. A gook grenade got me. They had to dig a lot of shrapnel out of my legs and back, collectively over a hundred stitches. My legs and back are stiff from all the bandages and tape and just laying here. Ever since I got here, they had me lying on my belly. That got old real fast. It feels good to sit up, even though it hurt like hell to get here.”

He shook his head. “Wow, that’s a bunch of sewing. You’ve got to be sore.”

“They have good drugs, they keep me warm, feed me, and I get to rest. They said I’d be here until they take out the stitches. They don’t want me moving around and tearing them and getting an infection.”

“How’d you function yesterday with all that damage?”

I shrugged. “Adrenaline, I guess.”

“Your tent mates said you single-handedly—”

Gunny Johnson came into the tent and walked up to my bedside.

“Mackenzie, that was a fine piece of soldiering you did yesterday,” the Gunny Sergeant said. “Very impressive. So impressive that the Lieutenant wants to see you.” He glanced at Jerry. “Looks as if you can handle visitors.”

“Sure,” I said, looking away. “Gunny Sergeant, you know I wasn’t out there by myself. I got fragged. And the guy you assigned to me yesterday, Private Tony Sculini, grabbed my BAR and took on the enemy position by himself. By the time I got there he was down, alive but down. And-”

“Save it for the Lieutenant, Mackenzie,” Johnson said.

“I’d better get going,” Jerry said.

“You don’t have to leave,” I said. “Gunny Sergeant Johnson, meet my life-long friend, Jerry Meyers.”

Gunny Johnson gave Jerry a waved salute which Jerry returned.

“Has Mick always been like this?” Gunny Johnson asked.

“Like how?” Jerry asked.

“A crazy dare-devil.” Gunny Johnson patted my arm.

Jerry shrugged. “There weren’t any North Koreans trying to kill him in South Carolina. Back then Mick was the studious one, good at math and science. The one the rest of us thought would go to college and be successful.”

“I always thought Bob would be the successful one,” I said.

Jerry shook his head. “That’s not how the rest of us thought.”

“If it’s okay with you, I’ll see if the Lieutenant is ready to see you now,” Gunny Johnson said.

“Fine,” I said, wondering why he’d cut me off from telling my story.

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