We did end up going through a boot camp before they sent us over seas. Some of the men who had been on the bus with us ended up being sent home because they weren't cut out for the military. However, Joe and I weren't among them. Instead, we found ourselves geting on the plane that would take us over to Vietnam along with around thirty others including a few nurses who looked just as nervous as I felt. Of course, the stories that some of the men on the plane were telling didn't help any. A few of the other soldiers who wee going with us, had already been over there and were trying their best to scare those of us who hadn't.

"Yeah, you'll see people lose arms and legs," One guy told us. "But you'll get used to it."

"We'll also see people die," I pointed out.

"You become numb to that stuff," Another guy who was called Shorty even though he was the tallest one there told me. "And when it comes to the Vietcong, you just don't care. You leave their bodies in the streets all day until night fall until you drag them into the river to rot."

"You're not serious, are you?" A nurse sitting across from me asked. "They're people just like us, don't you have any remorse for them?"

Shorty gave her a sad shake of the head. "At first, you do feel kind of bad about them losing their lives. But then you see all the traps they set for us and remember your fellow soldier who died as a result of one of those traps and you don't care if the Vietcong dies because all you want is for them to experience that same pain that your buddy went through."

I looked at Shorty, thinking about Soda. If I had to watch Soda die because someone had killed him, I'd want to kill the bastard myself. I wondered if maybe Shorty had watched his own best friend get killed while he was over there before.

"Are we going to be fighting as soon as we get there?" Joe asked. He had been listeneing to the conversation as intently as I had been.

Shorty laughed. "I highly doubt it. They'll probably have you guard the base camp at first. But you will end up fighting eventually, everyone does. It's just a matter of when they decide to send you into battle."

"You look to young to be fighting in a war," One of the older nurses said to me. "How old are you, hon?"

"I just turned eighteen," I replied.

"You're not much more than a baby," She commented. "That's what's so sad about this draft. They send young men to the war before they have a chance to really live their lives. I've seen several young men lose their lives already in this war. A few have even died in my arms."

"Why are you going back?" I asked.

"Hon, as much as I hate to see young men such as yourself die before their time, I enjoy trying to help the soldiers. Many more would die if weren't for us nurses. Besides, someone needs to play the role of your mother while your over there, right?" she winked at me and I found myself grinning.

"We all call Esther 'mom'," Shorty explained. "Get to know her. She's probably the only parental figure you'll have over there."

"That's right," Esther agreed. "If you ever need anyone to talk to, just find me."

"I'll do that," I told her.

"Hey Steve, are you up for a game of polker?" Joe asked me.

"Why not?" I asked. "It's still going to be several hours before we get off this plane."

"Deal me in, too," Shorty said, moving over to where Joe and I were sitting. "I like playing a good polker game. You get to play a lot of polker over there when you're not fighting. It keeps you from getting too bored."

"So, why are you going back?" Joe asked him as he dealt out the cards.

"I was only back in the states to attend my grandmother's funeral," Shorty replied. "She had a heart attack."

"So, you should still be over in Vietnam?" I asked.

"That's right," Shorty told me. "But, they were going to move me, anyway. That's something else they do. As soon as you get used to where you're at, they move you to a different location and sometimes, you don't even stay with the same people."

"So, if my friend gets drafted in a few months, he could end up fighting next to me?" I asked as I looked at the cards in my hand.

"There's a slight possibility," Shorty tould me. "But don't count on it. This war covers a pretty good sized territory. You might never see him if he gets drafted with all the men over there."

I laid down my cards and watched as Joe and Shorty laid their cards down, too. I won the hand with a full house. It's too bad that winning at polker was more of a guarantee than what we were about to face. Shorty had already seen what was happening in the war and he had to go back. Joe and I were going for the first and hopefully last time. I didn't want to think about what the war could do to me or worse, what it could do to Soda if he was to get drafted, too.