“Okay, so these people keep on getting killed,” I said in regards to the movie. “How come they keep stepping in these traps?”

“Well that’s what happens. The traps are there, the mines are there and people step in them.”

“But you don’t.”

“No, I never did.”

“Well have you ever thought about why that is? How come all these people get caught in these traps but you did not? I just wonder about this. People are getting jacked up left and right. They’re getting killed and they’re getting maimed and here you go walk around these booby traps and you don’t do it short term. For a decade you manage to step over or around the traps. For more than a decade! You were going on 2 decades of stepping around traps that other people step into. 16 years of avoidance so how do you think you did that? I want to know how you managed that,” I said.

“Well, you have to develop a 6th sense. And you have to be born for it, too. For example, we’d get these guys from New York and they’d sound like a herd of elephants running through the jungle. You could train them all you wanted and it wouldn’t do any good. They’d still sound like elephants. Train them some more. Elephants. Train them even more and they still moved… elephants were quieter than these guys. They were just used to concrete and you couldn’t teach them anything else. They would be trying with all their might to be quiet while making all kinds of noise that you knew would probably get them killed. And I’d tell them too. I’d tell them, if you can’t learn to walk quieter than that, you’re going to die.”

I stared. “And they died?”

“Oh course! You can’t go to war in the jungle sounding like an elephant and think you’re going to last. But yeah, I was born for war, and knew what I was doing. You have to know what you’re doing and you have to have a 6th sense on top of that and I have these things. I have a 6th sense, you know I do. Especially when it comes to war so I generally knew when an attack was coming and I knew where it was coming from too. I could just sense this stuff, P, almost always. I almost always knew but even with all this and even with keeping my wits about me every minute and every second I was out there, I still got hurt. I got hurt all over the place. I got hurt all over my body, and I got hurt many times.”

“But you didn’t get killed.”

“No, I didn’t get killed. I guess I’m going to have to suffer some disease for that,” he said sounding dejected.

I noticed because I already know he thinks dying in war is a pretty good fate. It’s one of the better fates you can have, according to him.

“Okay, well disease it is. You are stuck with disease, I’m sorry about that.”

“It’s okay, P. At least you’re here. At least I’ve got you.”

“Yeah, you do. So we’ll have fun, okay? Let’s have all the fun we can since you have accidentally lived somehow. Since by some freak, you happened to live.”

“I did live,” he said.

“Yeah I know, I can see you.”

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