Uncle Sam sent Lisa's uncle to the Far East, when he returned he was not alone. All characters in this work of fiction, including Kamea who is based on Lisa's aunt, are aged 18 or older.
The Bring Back
JUNE 1971
Dad served in the Philippines in 1944-45, he brought a funky looking "Papa Nambu" pistol back from the campaign. Uncle Dave was sent to Italy in '43 and he brought a really cool little Beretta M1935 back with him. Mr. McCutcheon, our history teacher, has a Mauser Kar98 he took from an EPW in Bavaria. But my brother Karl had them all beat.
We drove five hours east to the new Intercontinental Airport north of Houston to meet the Seaboard DC-8 that was flying my brother Karl home from his tour in southeast Asia. He had served twelve months with Company B, 1st Battalion, 223rd Infantry Regiment, 11th Infantry Brigade, 101st Infantry Division in Vietnam and Laos.
The big airliner disgorged its passengers, and Karl walked across the airbridge to see us in his short sleeved Khaki army uniform. But it was difficult to hug him. He seemed to have a very cute, rather young, kinda short, oriental woman attached to his wrist with a handcuff.
He shook hands, and hugged as best he could and introduced us all to Kamea, his "war trophy."
"War trophy," said Uncle Dave, "like my Beretta?"
"Sorta," said Karl, "Ostensibly Regiment was quartered at Khe Sanh. Supporting an ARVN attack into Laos to cut the Ho Chi Minh Trail. We had the helicopters so we flew in there all of the time. But in March Battalion was finally ordered in country to stay.
We had to set up a firebase across the border in Laos, to rescue the ARVNs who were by that time in full retreat out of the place. We went in and set up a defensive perimeter so all of the Little People might be able to stop, and perhaps find their asses using both hands. The operation required that we depopulate a couple of villages. Kamea here lived in one of them."
"If you go to battle against your enemies," said Grandpa Mark, quoting Deuteronomy 21:10 from memory, "and the Lord your God delivers them into your control, you may take some prisoners captive."
"Yup," said Karl, "little Kamea here has nobody. So I brought her back."
"What," I said, "a human being?"
"The DD form 37A doesn't specify, "spoils of war," and all that. My S-2 and G-2 signed it so it's all legit."
"You own Kamea?" I said.
"Not exactly." Said Karl, "I have to marry her if she wants to marry me. And there are beaucoup forms to fill, but she's kinda outta options here. She can live in the land of the big PX, or go back, and try to live between her fratricidal neighbors trying to kill one another in her hootch."
"Really?" I said.
"21:11," said grandpa. "'If you see among the prisoners a beautiful woman and you desire her, then you may take her as your wife.'"
"Damn," I said.
"OK," Uncle Dave said, "what do we do now."
"We have to get Kamea some stuff," Karl said.
So we went shopping down at Town and Country Village in Houston and bought Kammy a nice wig, some new underwear and a few simple tasteful dresses before driving back to Edwards. She knew quite a bit of english, I could see that she understood people, but she barely spoke. It all must have been terribly traumatic.
"Sharon," Karl said as we were looking at dresses, "can you ask Lisa if we can borrow the cabin. I thought maybe that you girls could talk to her and explain things. So she can make an informed choice."
"Yeah," I said, "but why me and not you."
"Because the cabin is like a private girls club." he said, "No boys allowed. I figured that she could maybe stay there, or at least hang out there with other girls. Maybe she will understand that she has a choice if it comes from other girls who understand the situation. That way she could decide if she wants to stay with me or go."
"Like what," I said, "you don't want her?"
"Look, she was like a complete innocent," he said, "she had nobody. So I took her in, at first just to protect her. Most of the guys wouldn't have hurt her, but a few would have. She is really cute, totally submissive, and she has really grown on me. I like her, I'd be happy to keep her, but I really don't think that she knows that she has a choice."
"So," I said, "you will take her if she willingly accepts you, and everything that means. But not if she feels coerced into being yours? You do know that's all about you and not at all about her."
"I didn't say that I was doing things exclusively for her," he said, "I really like her. i'd like to keep her. She might hate me, she has enough reason to. Our unit told everybody to 'walk' and then we burned her village. Well we burned what was left of it after the Japaneese, French, Pathet Lao, Viet Cong, NVA and ARVNs all got through with it. Look, I didn't create this God-awful mess. I went because they said go. Joe went because they said go. Punch and George are over there now because they--"
'Punch and George signed up," I said.
"Punch's lottery number was like 43," Karl said, "it's the same difference. Joe's dead, a couple of really decent guys you never got to meet from my outfit are too. Pretty much everyone Kamea ever knew is dead. I just decided that it would just be nice if she got out. Edwards Texas isn't so bad, or she could go somewhere else if she wants, although I have no earthly idea where."
***
Lisa and her friends were using the cabin to hang out and swim in the pond, but she said there wasn't any reason Kamea couldn't stay in it. So after we got back home we drove her over there. Mom helped Kammy take a nice shower, and we got rid of her old clothes. Then we gave her a mani-pedi. We put a robe on her and cut all of that beautiful hair that she had. Then mom, my cousins Lillian and Eva and I got naked and walked into the pond, where Eva baptised Kamea.
An army chaplain from San Antonio drove over with an interpreter to have Karl and Kamea sign several documents. The interpreter was a joke, I had spent the last three and a half weeks at the cabin with Kammy and I knew more Laotian than he did.
The meeting had taken place at our parent's house, and I drove Kammy back to the cabin. We had become very close in the past weeks. It was nice, I had two brothers but no sisters, I had four girl cousins and friends, but that is not exactly the same thing. I let her drive the car a little, and said that so long as I had the car we could practice driving.
The summers in Edwards Texas get hot, and the pond was a popular place. Kamea did not swim so I was teaching her. I had started the day's lesson with floating, so I gently rolled Kammy onto her back. She was floating on the pond's surface, with her head at my chest. I had one arm under her gently keeping her afloat, and occasionally that hand touched her bare butt. Encouraging her to stretch out.
