“Did You Think Otherwise?”
A young boy walked around
the corner of the building. Half of the
soldiers pointed their weapons at him, while the other half covered them. The boy raised his hands and stated, “I mean
you no harm.”
Lieutenant Harkin lowered
his weapon, but the rest of his platoon didn’t.
“You speak English?” he asked.
The boy nodded. “I do.
The men you seek are not here.”
“Is that so? I suppose you expect me to just take your
word for it.”
The boy smiled. “I speak the truth. You must decide if you believe me.”
“Okay,” Harkin replied,
drawing the word out. “If you don’t
mind, I think we’ll still search the village.” He then gave orders and his men
spread out to sweep the village.
Once his men were off,
Harkin walked up to the boy. “You said
the men we seek aren’t here. Do you know
where they are?”
“In the mountains,” the
boy replied, pointing to the north.
Harkin looked where the
boy pointed and asked, “Could you be a little more specific.”
“So you could go kill my
uncles and cousins?”
Harkin turned to the boy,
but almost immediately looked to the ground.
“War is hell,” he muttered.
“Then why do you go to it
willingly?”
For several seconds,
Harkin debated how to reply to that. In
the end he gave a grim smile and stated, “I wonder that myself every day.”
The boy smiled.
Over the next few
minutes, his soldiers reported in that there was no sign of the enemy in the
village. At last, Harkin said, “Okay,
let’s move out. Leave these people in
peace.” He looked around to say goodbye to the boy – who, he realized, he had
never asked his name – but the boy had disappeared.
Once the soldiers were
gone, the boy’s mother found him by the well.
In the local dialect she scolded him, “You need to be more careful with
the Americans.”
The boy shrugged. “Why should I treat them any differently than
the Romans?”
***
