The General Store

Chapter 7: Vung Tau

The girl beside me on the plane was what some might call, infuriating or inconsiderate. She wouldn't sit still, she would yabber on about something in the middle of the night, keeping most of us awake for the whole 12 hours. Thankfully I was on a window seat, I watched the sun set mingle with the clouds and then the soft star light appear in the night sky.
'Excuse me?' The girl asked frantically.
'Me?' I questioned, being yanked from my daydream.
'You'll do, are you nervous cause I am.' She swallowed hard. I pursed my lips together and looked at her with sympathetic eyes.
'I'm terrified.' I whispered beneath the dim lights. The girls' breaths were rugged and heavy.
'I'm sorry I'm being a nuisance, my name is Penny Jones, from Hawkesbury River.' She put out her shaking hand, I stilled it with my grip.
'Brooklyn Murphy, Thornton Beach.' I replied.
'Real pleasure to meet you, Andrew will be happy I've met someone.' Penny smiled, I could tell she'd calmed down slightly.
'Is Andrew your boyfriend?' I asked.
'Yes, well we're engaged, we decided to wait until the end of Vietnam to get married, plus 20 is awfully young.' She responded almost sadly.
'Fair enough.' I yawned.
'Do you have a significant other?' Penny cocked her head to the side in question.
'Well I have Patrick, Patrick Carmondy.' I replied, her eyes bought out the astonishment in her face.
'As in the cricketer, Patrick Carmondy?' she clarified. I nodded, handing her the photo from my pocket.
'That's unbelievable! How'd you meet him?' Penny's voice was lower now and a smile was stuck to her face.
'He came into my general store.' I stopped for a minute to calculate my thoughts. The General Store. Our love blossomed in a general store. One side of me knew it was inevitable, that I was bound to meet some traveller and fall in love with him, but the other side was so stunned that a simple place like that held such a future for me.
'What did he think when you told him you were going to Vietnam?' Penny sipped at her orange juice.
'I didn't tell him, he needs to focus on surviving not me.' My breath hitched in my throat as I spoke.
'Andrew practically forced me here.' Penny sighed.
'Why's that?" I asked, the hostess handed me a muesli bar which I tore open hungrily.
'He wants me to get out of the house more, he's always working late, and he think I should find a way to pass the time.' She explained. I was curious about this Andrew, he was either a really nice guy, who wants the best for his fiancé or a snake in the grass.
'What's he do for a living?' I gnawed on my bar.
'He's a lawyer, he works very hard so when he is home, he sleeps.' She shrugged and continued to drink the orange juice that was clenched in her hand. Penny was naïve, I could already tell. Her blue eyes held innocents and her blonde hair seemed like it had been cared for under strict rules and a lot of money. I didn't know what I was getting myself into either, but I did know she was clueless.

Vung Tau was terrifying. I hung my head as wolf whistles came from intolerable American marines and cocky Australian soldiers. Nothing stood still, even the buildings shook, people were bustling about carting bodies or ammunition. A hazy stench of cigarette smoke and death lingered in the air, stinging my eyes and screwing up my nose.
'Welcome to ya new home sweetheart!' the insolent comment caused my toes to curl.
'Thank you it's great to be here.' Penny replied joyfully. The group of men burst into hysterical laughter, confusing Penny and breaking my heart.
'Ladies! Welcome to Vung Tao!' Matron Cleary's voice was a booming echo that sounded in our ears as we slept. Right now, we were wide awake, sweat pouring from our foreheads and our stomachs growling. Matron Cleary assigned us to dorms, where we dumped our bags and pulled back our hair.
'Is this number 12?' an American accent burst into the room.
'Yes!' I replied quickly.
'Hi, my names Viv and this is Maggie, we're sharing with you girls I believe.' Viv's voice was happy and excitable. I smiled at them and told them to pick any bed they pleased. The two of them picked the ones on the right side of the shed so Penny and I were given the left. Matron's voice once again echoed just as we began to unpack.
'Right ladies, we aren't here for a slumber party, we are here to serve, Sister Penny Jones, Sister Brooklyn Murphy, Sister Vivian Potter and Sister Maggie Hopkins, you four are on high dependency, do your best, we all have faith.' Matron Cleary smiled a smile I had never seen before.

The moment I stepped inside the high dependency tent was the moment I knew my life was never going to be the same again. Different accents screamed at me from all corners of the world, I pressed my hand to my heart and asked God for strength.
'Hello Sir, my names Brooklyn.' I stated, the young man looked at me with sad eyes.
'You're not going to let me die are ya?' his broad Australian accent had a nervous tone to it.
'Course not, now what've you done?' I asked, drawing back the sheets. I'd completely missed his injury; every inch of his body was red raw, and skin was peeling away. He burst into a fit of laughter, not a happy laughter.
'Napalm! Napalm! Napalm.' His face dropped. 'It singed every hair follicle off my body including my eyelashes, burnt off my fingerprints and every other piece of skin showing and killed every nerve.' I couldn't speak, I could hardly contain my emotions.
'I was going to play footy for the VFL when I got home, I'm 18-years-old and I've lost everything.' Then he started to cry. Not the hysterical screaming cry but the distraught, no noise, heart breaking cry that made you salivate profusely and not be able to breathe. The boy probably wasn't actually going to, but who knows. All I could do for him was dress his wounds and offer him some water, the next day his bed was empty. The death of the unknown soldier was my first realisation of how cruel this world really was.