At noon on July 30, as the last buffer zone on the east side of the camp was cleared, the patrol team, which had been busy for several days, finally no longer had to deal with the locusts, and was rarely allowed to rest for half a day.
According to the arrangement of the platoon leader who had a good relationship with Marshall, in the days to come, they only had to hide in the cool sentry tower and take turns keeping watch.
Taking advantage of this rare half-day vacation, Marshall rushed to the beach anxiously and picked up a canvas bucket from the wreckage of a tank.
The stuff soaked in hydrogen peroxide in this bucket was naturally a gift prepared for Tom for his sculptor wife.
Somewhat coincidentally, the wreckage of the tank used to hide the gifts was exactly where Tom was discovered on D-Day.
However, it was only then that Wei Ran noticed that the bucket contained far more than the skulls he thought, and there were actually some scattered bones of various sizes.
"Marshall, what are these hand bones about?" Wei Ran asked in surprise, but he remembered clearly that there were no such bones yesterday.
"These belong to other people, don't worry about them, someone will take them away later."
As Marshall spoke, he had already picked up the crystal-white skull from the canvas bucket, wiped it with a towel he had brought in advance, and then walked back.
Wei Ran shook his head dumbfounded, and followed closely, waiting to see how this generous Marshall could make Tom willing to accept this gift.
However, what surprised him was that when Marshall handed the clean skull to Tom, the latter didn't even ask where it came from, and all that came out of his mouth were words of thanks.
.
This contrasting scene, coupled with the Bible still studded with bullets on Tom's bedside, made Wei Ran couldn't help but shiver.
Afraid? Of course it’s not fear. Disgusted? Maybe not either.
What if this was not Guam, but the Chinese battlefield at that time? Then would I have done the same thing as Marshall?
Maybe... As long as conditions permit, maybe I won't let the other person turn into a corpse easily.
After Wei Ran was startled by the dark answer in his heart, he also gained some understanding of Marshall.
In this tent, among the American soldiers, the one who was most seriously injured was not Will, the black man, who was stabbed several times, nor Tom, who was shot in the butt, nor Randy, who was scratched on his back, but the one who seemed to be smiling the happiest.
Marshall.
Whether it was what happened on Saipan that they didn't understand, or the death of Sean that they witnessed with their own eyes, these things had actually overwhelmed Marshall long ago.
As for all the ridiculous things Marshall did later, for a man who wanted to die, they were probably just some adjustments to keep him alive.
"I will send this gift to Laura as soon as possible." Pastor Tom's voice woke up Wei Ran who was in a daze.
Under his gaze, Tom, who was lying on the bed, examined the skull in his hand for a moment, then took out a pen and tried it. Seeing that he couldn't write at all, after thinking for a moment, he reached out and took out a pen from the box beside the bed.
Wei Ran picked up a rifle bullet, dipped it in the shoe polish, and wrote a very familiar sentence on the white skull, "This is the best gift I can think of to give you.
Please don't worry about me. Although life here is boring, it is at least safe enough and I will go back soon."
"Tom, it doesn't matter anything else. With friends like us here, you feel bored?" Randy asked coaxingly.
"Randy is right."
Marshall said dissatisfied, "You have formed a band, sing and play guitar every day, and there are people who help you prepare gifts for your Laura. What about you? You are actually bored."
"If I didn't say that, she would definitely think that I was looking for a woman." Tom explained with a grimace, "Laura is good at everything, but she is always worried that I will fool around with other women."
"My wife is like that too," Will, the black man, sighed in sympathy. "She always thinks I'm going to sleep with the girls in the choir."
"So I say it's better not to get married." Marshall joked while lying on the bed. "If you don't get married, you can find any woman you want."
"Randy, don't listen to this bastard's farts."
Tom put the head in the box beside the bed, "If this bastard Marshall got married, he wouldn't do so many ridiculous things."
"I've never done anything ridiculous," Marshall said, but dropped the topic to Wei Ran, "Victor, tell me what you think."
"Some people are suitable for having a family, like Tom and Will, and some people are destined to die in a striptease bar." Wei Ran paused, "For example, Marshall."
"I just thought you were complimenting me," Marshall responded nonchalantly, and asked curiously, "Victor, do you have a girlfriend or wife?"
"That's a good question," Tom was the first to agree. "We don't think we've ever heard you say it."
"Of course, but I'm not married yet."
Wei Ran picked up a bottle of Coke from the tin bucket of water at the bedside, bit it open, took a big gulp and said, "Her name is Aurora, she is a beautiful mixed-race girl who is very good at making money."
"It would be great if my girlfriend also has these three advantages in the future," Randy said with envy.
"Three advantages?" Tom couldn't react for a while.
"You can make money, you're mixed-race, and you're pretty." Randy said with his fingers, "Aren't there three?"
"First of all, you need to have a girlfriend," Marshall joked, "but you are right, these are indeed three advantages. Even I don't mind marrying such a woman."
"Such a woman will not fall in love with a scum like you." Pastor Tom mocked.
"What's wrong with you?" Seeing that Wei Ran seemed to have no energy, Will took the initiative to reach over and touch the Coke bottle.
"Nothing." Wei Ran smiled, but he didn't say anything after all. Now he just wanted to get through the last half month and return to his own world.
But it was obvious that Marshall and others did not intend to let her go. After chatting about the advantages and disadvantages of their girlfriends or wives, their topic also shifted to the war on the front line, and they asked Wei Ran from time to time.
View.
And in the end, after much discussion, these idle bastards of the Five Ridges and Six Beasts actually made an offer on when the war would end.
"Victor, what about you? Which day are you betting on?"
As Tom spoke, he put his own gun on the table, "I've put my own gun on it, aren't you excited?"
"What's the use of my heartbeat?"
Wei Ran muttered to himself, and then said the correct answer nonchalantly, "On the 12th, I guess the battle in Guam will end on the 12th, but the overall war will probably take a long time."
"OK, Victor bets on number 12!"
Before Marshall finished speaking, Randy had already dipped his finger in shoe polish and wrote down Wei Ran's guessed time on a wooden board.
"Victor, what's your bet? What's your bet?" Marshall asked.
"I don't have anything valuable on me." Wei Ran looked around, pointed at the camera on the bedside and said, "That's it."
"OK, then camera." After Tom said, Randy wrote camera on the wooden board next to Wei Ran's name.
Looking at the times on the board, Wei Ran couldn't help but sigh. Most of the four people had placed their bets on late August, but Marshall had placed their bets directly on next summer. As for the thoughts behind this date, I'm afraid it's just
Only Marshall knew it in his heart.
In this boring chat, the topic finally returned to women, and then they all took out stationery and wrote down their thoughts about their families.
"Marshall, I'm afraid you have to write letters to a lot of girls, right?" Wei Ran, who had no one to contact, joked with a smile.
"I'm writing a letter to my friend's girlfriend." Marshall's nonchalant explanation immediately made everyone stop writing and look up.
"Don't get me wrong." Seeing everyone's looks getting weirder, Marshall simply stopped writing and explained, "My friend died in the battle on Saipan."
"Marshall, we have to misunderstand this kind of thing." Tom frowned and said, "Even if you are a bastard, there are some things..."
"She is my biological sister"
Marshall lit a cigarette, "My friend's name is Greg. He, me, and Sean all come from the same place. But that guy was very lucky. He made my sister Carolyn his wife, and
Caroline was pregnant before we set off."
Having said this, Marshall rummaged through the box on the bedside and found a photo frame wrapped in newspaper. After opening it, he showed it to everyone, "That's Greg and my sister Caroline. On Saipan.
When, Greg...Greg was eaten by those rats as food."
"Sorry..." Tom, who was the first to question Marshall, said apologetically.
"It's not you who should be sorry."
Marshall took a long puff of cigarette, "Caroline doesn't know about this yet, at least until she gives birth to Greg's child, we have to hide it from her."
"So you're communicating with her as Greg?"
Wei Ran looked blankly at the man and woman in the photo and asked, this photo is exactly the one in which he has never found the corresponding person!"
"Greg injured his hand a month ago, so his good friend Marshall had to write a letter for him. His death notice was intercepted by Sean with help."
When Marshall said this, he started to cry without any warning, "Now... now that Sean is dead, I don't know... how long... I can... keep it secret for Greg."
"We have lost too many things in this war." Will, the black man, sighed silently, but he threw the half-written letter into a ball into the box that served as a trash can.
Pastor Tom crossed himself on his chest and murmured a prayer, "May God bless the girl named Caroline, and may God bless her and Greg's child to come safely to this world full of wars."
