Just One Point of View - July 2015

The Yellow Company

Word Count: 2450

“So what’s your story, friend?”

Lewis grinned. The lanky Texan looked at the inquisitor and pushed back his helmet. “You sure you want to know?”

“It’ll pass the time, for sure.”

“Since you asked,” Lewis said, “I’ll tell you anything.” Lewis chuckled and went back to work.

The work consisted of throwing dead bodies into shell holes. One decaying corpse at a time. The hot tropical sun blistered the bodies from a recent battle. The fetid smell of the jungle mingled with the repulsive smell of dead humanity. The stale air provided no relief from the heat or the smell. No breeze blew away the stink or cooled the workers.

“You see, I have had enough,” Lewis said. He wore a helmet, ripped and torn fatigue pants and scuffed leather boots. He had scrounged a pair of work gloves for a better grip on the rotting flesh. His partner, a stout man called Eibner, tugged at a pair of burned legs as Lewis spoke.

“I have had plenty of action in this war. I don’t feel like the war needs me anymore,” Lewis said. He had a body by the arm and dragged it to the crater. The battle had stalled. Old Man Mallard tapped his discontented workers to do the job and clear up the carnage. Lewis and a half dozen malcontents tugged the human remains into shell craters. It was nauseating work.

“I don’t think Uncle Sam agrees with you, Tex,” Eibner said.

“You see, that’s where we disagree. I mean, me and Uncle Sam. He got me in March, 1942 and I have been down here since August of that same year. Almost two years, you know. Hitting the beach and clearing out these jungles does a number on you. You know how many are left in my platoon? How many that I came ashore with on that first beach?” Lewis asked.

“I bet it is a pretty damn small number, Tex,” Eibner said.

Lewis paused his work and looked up at the sun. “Three. Half of the rest dead, the other half wounded and out of action.”

“Not good odds, I’d say, Tex,” Eibner said.

“Not good at all. Not at all. So, I said to Sergeant Wolf, I said, I am done. Just as calm and polite as you please. No more for me. Here’s my rifle and ammo and grenades. Wolf, well, he blew up. It was right after we had cleared out some pillboxes and the platoon was already down by half. And here I was quitting,” Lewis said.

“You’re right about that, Tex,” Eibner said.

“What?”

“You quit on them. Can’t look at it any other way, Tex,” Eibner said.

Lewis smiled and finished dragging the body to the crater. He met Eibner and together they pushed and kicked the Japanese bodies in the hole. Lewis stood for a moment, wiping the sweat from his face. He inhaled a deep breath, drawing in the sickening smell that surrounded him. A familiar smell.

“I come up the hard way, Eibs. I ain’t never quit anything before in my life. Hell, my momma raised five kids in a shack in the worst part of Texas. My daddy run around the whole of the southwest looking for money, booze and women,” Lewis said. He stood at the shell hole, gazing at the contorted bodies. “You see this right here?” Lewis turned his left arm toward Eibner.

“What’s that, Tex?” Eibner replied. “Looks like a hell of a scar. Grenade?”

“Momma with a hot iron when I was ten. She got all angry about something I said or did and whooped me good. The she got the hot iron out and made her mark on me,” Lewis said. He looked at the scar, visible under the tan and grime that covered his body.

“Must have been a terror growing up, Tex,” Eibner said as he looked at the scar.

“You know, I was, a bit. But I didn’t mind. No daddy around and Momma struggling to feed us five kids. It was hell,” Lewis said. He wiped his brow and spat in the shell hole. “I left as soon as I could. Hit the road at seventeen and lit out. I decided that she was better off without me around. Even though I was the oldest boy, you see. It was just better that way. I always tried to send some money back. Hell, I still do, right out of my army pay.”

“That’s right nice of you, Tex,” Eibner said.

“It is,” Lewis said. “I never tried to be a bad kid. But, I like to have some fun. Especially with the ladies.”

“You’re a ladies man, Tex?” Eibner asked. “One of them is too much for me.”

“I do like the ladies. Back then, I liked the older ones. See, they got the experience and they get lonely and they don’t mind the company. Especially a nice young fellow like me, Eibs,” Lewis said. He turned and smile at Eibner, registering a soft punch on the other man’s arm. Eibner smiled in return.

“So you get a beating from an older woman and then you chase them older skirts. That’s one way to get it out of you,” Eibner said. “I guess you found a keeper, though.”

“I did, Eibs, I did. Good old Maybelline. She is the apple of my eye,” Lewis said. “She and I are the same age, though. She’s pretty. Real pretty. But, it’s a war, you know.”

“Yeah, I can see that, Tex,” Eibner said.

“I mean, I am out here and she’s back in Texas all by her lonesome. And you get lonely and it happens, you know. I mean, I ain’t been the best of husbands. I wouldn’t expect her to deprive herself of anything,” Lewis said.

“You mean cheating?” Eibner said. “Hell, Tex, you’re fighting a war. Risking your neck every damn day. What’s she doing? Sewing and knitting? She can keep her legs closed and wait for you.” The agitated Eibner turned and pointed at Lewis. “She ain’t risking her neck like you.”

“Well, I just understand it, is all,” Lewis said.

Eibner shrugged his shoulders and Lewis grinned. The two men stood at the shell hole. The other work parties plodded across the wrecked jungle.

“How many you counted?” Lewis asked. He continued to stare at the sun.

“Oh, has to be ten so far. Another twenty or so to go,” Eibner said.

“Plenty of work. I guess the boys cleaned out all the goodies,” Lewis said. He blinked and walked back to tree line. The recent battle had scarred the jungle. Shell holes and decapitated palm trees marked the artillery barrage. The tree trunks showed scars from the raking machine gun fire. The same fire that had snuffed out the Japanese attack. The battle line moved a few hundred yards into the jungle. The work party heard the occasional explosion or rifle shots.

Lewis reached the next body. “Now look here, Eibs,” Lewis said. “This fellow has been through the meat grinder.”

The body lacked a head and right arm. The chest had erupted and the organs had bubbled up out of the rib cage. The left leg showed evidence of several rifle bullets.

“Yeah, some of them been worked over, Tex,” Eibner said. “This one is pretty clean, though.”

Lewis gazed over at the body prostrated before Eibner. “Looks like a shot in the chest.”

“Maybe two, but yeah, pretty clean. Must of bled out,” Eibner said. He began to grab the legs. Eibner lacked work gloves. He looked for a clean spot on the legs to place his hands. “Dirty, dirty, dirty.”

“Yep, pretty clean,” Lewis said. “Now this fella, he went quick, as soon as the head came off. I remember my first time out, seeing a headless horseman. Well, infantryman. One of our guys, caught a blast from a mortar shell. Just took his top off. That was something to see.”

“It usually is, Tex,” Eibner said.

“They don’t prepare you for that in basic, do they Eibs. I got yelled at, beaten, kicked and punched by the drill sergeant and the corporals. Now, I was a bit of a smart ass. I always had to ask a dumb question or make a wise remark. And they beat it out of me,” Lewis said.

“The green machine don’t care for comedians, Tex” Eibner said. He paused for a moment, the profound nature of his utterance settling over the two men. “They just don’t like to laugh.”

“I learned to shut up and just do it,” Lewis said. “I learned a lot of stuff, but not how to react when a buddy gets blown up.”
“That’s true, Tex,” Eibner said. “You have to see it to believe it.” Eibner nodded at his words and continued to drag the corpse to the shell hole.

“Wolf was leading the platoon,” Lewis said, continuing the story. “The L.T. had taken some hits in the chest so he was down and out. And the Japs was giving us all kinds of hell. And here I was handing in my rifle and ammo and grenades. He gave me a pretty good licking, but I took it. I didn’t throw a punch or anything. I didn’t budge none. And Wolf gave up, said just to get the hell out of the platoon area and head back to the company post. Which I did. I told Top MacGee what I done and he gave me another hiding. A good whooping. I took it the same way I took it from Wolf.”

“Yeah, I caught a few haymakers from him, Tex. He likes to get his point across with his fist and boots,” Eibner said.
Lewis grinned. “That he does. Well, the old man didn’t want to send me up to battalion. He was afraid of what it would look like on his perfect record. So he kept me back and I became the whipping boy.”

“And now we all get to be whipping boys,” Eibner said. He had reached the shell hole and paused for Lewis to catch up. “Old Man Mallard keeps a clean sheet and perfect attendance and he gets a labor pool. Unload supplies, help the cooks, dig latrines, bury the bodies.”

Lewis remained bent over the Japanese body. He stared at the appalling remains and pondered the damage done. Eibner took off his dented steel helmet and wiped his broad forehead with his arm. The wipe mingled the sweat and grime and provided no relief.

“I don’t mind dying. I don’t mind killing. I done plenty of that. And I can understand our fellas are gonna die, too. But for what?” Lewis said. “This boy,” he said, pointing to the Japanese corpse. “He fought and died for the Emperor. The Sun King, or whatever. He didn’t have no say in it. And look where it got him.”

“Tore up, that’s for sure, Tex,” Eibner said. “I respect the Japs. But they get shot up just like us.”

Lewis stood and grabbed the legs of the battered corpse. He trudged backwards, yanking and pulling the body to the shell crater. The body left a coagulated trail of offal and bits. When the body met resistance from a root or rock, Lewis pulled harder. Eibner watched the progression with a bored detachment. Lewis reached the shell hole and dropped the legs.

“Two more for the pile, Tex,” Eibner said. He and Lewis proceeded to kick and push the bodies in the shell hole. The bodies contorted and slumped over each other. “This hole is almost full.”

“We got a few more left,” Lewis said. The two men trudged back to the next pair of corpses.

“Do you think I am yellow?” Lewis asked. He wiped the sweat from his brow.

“It’s not for me to say, Tex,” Eibner said. “All I know is takes guts to do this. Be in the infantry. And if you been through it as long as anyone else in this unit, then only you know if you are a coward.”

“I guess I am a coward of a sort. I got to the point where these islands don’t mean a damn thing to me, Eibs. They all have big jungles and sandy beaches and Japs. Lots of Japs. And I killed lots of them. And they killed a lot of my buddies. All so some three star can put a little flag on it back at division,” Lewis said. He spat after finishing his outburst.

“That’s true, Tex,” Eibner said.

“I had enough. Simple truth. If the Japs ever tried to invade the US of A, I will be the first man on the beach. Build my own log bunker. Man the machine gun. Hell, they can splatter me with the naval gunfire or bomb me from the air. I’ll never stop fighting if they make it ashore,” Lewis said. “But this,” he said, stopping and gesturing around the jungle. “Ain’t worth it. Not anymore. Planets got a thousand islands. How many we gotta take?”

“Maybe all of them, Tex,” Eibner said.

“Not me,” Lewis said, and he started walking again. “I had enough. They want to punish me with the dirty details. So be it. They want to treat me like a coward and beat me up when MacGee gets a taste of that jungle juice. I can take a punch. They want to call me every name in the book. Sticks and stones, Eibs. Sticks and stones.”

“It’s the Army, Tex,” Eibner said. “They do things their way, is all. You sass a gold bar and they send me back to keep you company.”

“Something like that,” Lewis said. “I know I can die out here. Hell, a shell could come down right now, ours or theirs, and blow us up to Kingdom Come. But I ain’t going to be the first man in anymore. Not me. If that makes me yellow, well, I am as yellow as anyone.”

Lewis and Eibner walked to the next set of bodies to repeat the gruesome task. A muffled explosion echoed in the distance. The war carried on a few hundred yards distant.

"Let's rid up our share quick. We can catch a break under some shade, Tex," Eibner said as the pair walked back to the bodies.

"If they let us," Lewis said. "Ain't see hide nor hair from MacGee or Fowles. Must be busy up front today."

"Must be, Tex," Eibner said. "I suspect there will be more dead Japs for us to clean up."

"I suppose you are right, Eibs," Lewis said.