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Excerp from "Di Bo Chet"
Part of chapter 1, Ricky's Long Journey
By R.K.Jeromin

Aboard the plane, all the passengers looked excited and happy except one. He did not smile like the others; he only looked out the window with an emotionless stare. The flight attendant walked up and down the aisle asking the passengers if they needed anything before takeoff. Not one offered help to him; they just walked by to the next person. On a plane carrying one-hundred and seventy-five people, only one had the courage to speak with him.

"What's your name son?" The man asked.

"Ricky" He replied.

The man extended his hand to Ricky offering a shake.

"I'm Doug." He said. "You have that look."

Ricky looked at Doug at a loss for words. He thought to himself what does this guy know. He is too old to have been in country. This Doug looks like every one of the tourists that fill the chairs in the plane. Ricky looked at Doug with his emotionless stare.

"What look?"

Ricky knew the look he had, but who was this man to ask. He was not in the jungle with him, nor did he serve at Ricky's side. Even though Ricky did not know this man, something about this man was familiar.

"Son I've been there, lost my legs on Saipan."

Lost in his own world Ricky never looked at the man's legs to notice they were missing. For some odd reason relief fell over Ricky. He felt at peace with the stranger whom in a small way felt the same pain Ricky felt no more than a few days ago.

"Let me buy you a drink." Ricky said.

Just a little over ten hours ago, Ricky was standing on the tarmac on the airfield in Da Nang. Him and dozens of others stand joking the plane will be shot down as they takeoff. It is the last day the group has in Vietnam. The attitude of the men is high, and they all laugh at the jokes learned while they were in the jungle.

The men filed into the aircraft in single file. Ricky entered the plane and let out a big good bye. He took his seat standing on his knee, as did everyone else on the plane. The Marines yelled and joked waiting to get off the cursed land they have called home.

Once loaded, the plane taxied to the end of the runway. The Marines including Ricky instantly grew quite. There was an eerie silence over the craft. The Jokes stopped along with the smiles. Their faces grew long when the loud speaker barked the safety procedures. Unlike civilian flights, this one posed a much greater threat. Ricky continued to look out the window at the Vietnamese skyline. The words flowed from the speaker explaining

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