Joy

Lucky:

Did you go straight to the Philippines from boot camp? Fred:
No, we stopped in Tarawa and Okinawa on the way, just to show them what fer. Lucky:
Tarawa, Jesus Christ. Loretta:
Here you go. Fred:
Oh, thank you, dear. Loretta:
You're welcome. Fred:
Thank you very much. I still think about those people on the islands, hiding away in caves, afraid of us. The Japs said that we were going to rape and kill them all. So, we secured the beach and the locals who survived that goddamn fire fight, start throwing their children off the cliffs, and then following them. I guess they thought suicide was better than facing us. I remember this little girl, couldn't have been more than seven, in rags. I don't know, she saw us coming, I guess, and right out of nowhere, out of a hole or wherever it was... and she had this... God, this beautiful smile on her face. And it wasn't a facade, it was coming from somewhere inside, from the center of herself. Good Lord, in that shit hole, something like that really stands out. It stopped us in our track. Here we were, all covered with shit, pieces of people everywhere, and I couldn't see a tree left. And she's grinning from ear to ear. So I said to my corpsman, I said, "Look at this, we got somebody who's happy to see us." And he said, "She's not happy to see you. She's a Buddhist. She thinks she's gonna be killed, And she's smiling at her fate." When I think about that little girl's beautiful face, and that smile, in the midst of all that horror, and how she summoned... [protracted pause] Fred:
joy