Hills Like Green Iquanas (Cam Ranh Bay, Vietnam, 1971)

The hills near Cam Ranh Bay, Vietnam, a peninsula in the south of the country, were tired and filled with moist towering foliage, and it had its share of lizards, among them, the giant (six to seven feet) iguanas: the green, and the three eye type reptiles. On the plateau more space under the high mountains, through the South China Sea, there were a lot of white sand, and almost no trees for shade, for the American military support groups, while the 10000-Vietnam war days, back in 1971. On a hill above the 611th Ordnance Company, was a cool shade of a building, the Enlisted Men's Club, he belonged to the Air Force. The Vietnamese girls, with him (Lee Evens) Saturday at the bar, Lee drinking after fifteen cents beer can and the girl, sip a glass of Japanese rice wine. It was a very hot evening, and played a song with the words "... silver wings ..."

"If we have another drink?" asked the girl.

you back in her chair, smiled Corporal Lee Evens, hands on the table, the bartender, pours the drink into a short fat thin glass of wine.

"It is mighty hot," Lee said in a complaining tone.

"Put ice in my wine," the girl asked the bartender.

"Two cubes will do?" asked the bartender as if he just ice this evening.

"Yes, two are."

The girl drank a small portion of wine, sucked on ice cubes from the top of the glass, as if her tongue to cool. It was looking out the window on this page, in the distant mountains, they were only outlines in the twilight, coal, such as shadows, but she knew how green and wet, they were often.

"They look like the back of the green iguanas," the man who heard them say his mysterious day for the night.

"I have seen only small, not big, do you have?" asked the girl.

"I think I have, I mean, yes, I have a seven-foot one, with a back as a double spine, with spikes on the side her face, and it was mighty aggressive, I saw another once had three eyes. "

The man then drank his beer, ordered a third round.

"I've heard there are two types, it seems, you have both!" replied the girl.

"I guess I did," said Lee quietly, moving his glass back and forth on the bar.

The man noticed a sign for more than a small room, and a curtain of beads string to the entrance, "What does the sign say it's in Vietnam," he asked her.

"for private use only," she said.

"What exactly does that mean," he asked her.

"It is for personal use, you know, if a man and a woman want to drink in private instead of looking for them all, but they have to spend at least $ 10.00 to use it."

"Should we try?" He asked.

The girl looked at the curtain, so Lee, nobody was there she noticed, "No, I do not think we need, we are just beginning to know, right?"

"I think so," he replied in a tired voice.

"Do you want more ice?" asked the bartender to the girl.

"I do not know, I do not think so," she replied, adding, "although it is refreshing with ice."

"Fine," said the bartender: "I will ask later, when the ice is completely melted."

"It chills my tongue," said the girl, and the glass back on the bar.

"Oh, no longer so stupid," said Lee.

"Well, then what are we talking about?" asked the girl.

"If you try me laugh, if so, quit it, and let's try to make a fun place, ok?" said Lee.

"Okay, I'll try, I was simply commenting on the green hills and the reptiles, which live in them, in lack of nothing else to say, I guess it's not so funny, but then what else can a girl say, other than ice cubes and green hills? "She spoke slowly and quietly, as if on the edge of boredom.

"I want to try a new type of beer," says Lee, "a couple of tomato juice in him, I heard if you have, you can drink all night and never drank."

"Is that all we do is, drink and be drunk?" asked the girl.

"Maybe," says Lee, "Why not?"

The girl looked at him strangely, the bartender at the bar looked at Lee, with a strange sight.

"They are really green hills this year," she said. "They really do not like iguanas. I just mean the intense green seems to be the same color of the lizards on their skin, like the leaves on the trees, and the high grass and tall trees, you know, we have one of the largest ecosystems (flora and fauna) in Vietnam in the world? "

" Do you want another drink? " asked Lee.

"I guess so, why not." Said the girl, for a moment, proud of what they say, or trying to say, on behalf of their country (in a similar way, they put their heads for a moment as if to some feelings that she knew , the war was damaging what once a rich ecosystem that not only chemicals for drugs, for a better humanity, but every day the war was going on, the greatest harm to their future path of life, today it was the elimination of the many species of animals, insects and plants alike, and Vietnam and its people feel it later on, especially if the United South and North, and the population grew steadily, obviously thinking she was thirty years ahead of its time).

The cool breeze from the fan blowing on their heads, and Lee mopped his brow with his sleeve.

"The beer is nice and cold here, not like in our society Enlisted Men's Club, it is warm as a person, body temperature," said Lee.

"How beautiful," said the girl.

"No, really," said Lee, "the beer is awful when it is warm like that, I mean it."

The girl looked up as if they tried to picture the rest of the evening with this soldier had just today, at their village, which they agreed to spend the afternoon and evening, provided he pay the bill, but that was all what he did, the payment of the invoice to drink.

"Do you, Mr. Bartender, when I look at the door a little, let in some fresh air, the fan is not the trick?" Corporal Lee said, with an oblique tone of his voice.

The BarTender not say a word, and Lee is that none.

"I will buy you a cold beer, Sergeant Henry," the girl said to the bartender, as if they knew him, "Let the air in a few minutes, then we will have the door again, so that mosquitoes and Fly to stay out? "

" Go ahead, "said the bartender, as he wiped the counter.

"What we should do, Lee, after we made the bar?"

"We will find out then what you want, I suppose."

"What bothers you, I mean, I want you happy if I can," said the girl.

The girl looked to the private room with a sparkling curtain, their hands to touch his.

"They think if we are the hands, and then go into the private room we both be happy?" asked the Corporal.

"Oh yes," she said with certainty confident, "You do not need to be afraid of me, many people go there, and they all come," she began to laugh easily.

"And I suppose you have in the past?" asked Lee, as snottily.

"Well," said the girl, "if you do not need to, that's fine with me, we do not have to do."

"If you really want, we can," said Lee, with a lighter tone than in his previous dialogue.

"No, that's okay, it seems you really do not want," said the girl.

"I'm here for you," said Lee.

"I know," said the girl, but it annoys so easily, I mean, if I have hills and green iguanas, we think it is funny, but you have nothing else to say, I'm easy to make conversation. "

" that I, if I am bored, I think, "said Lee.

" Do you want to love? "asked the girl.

" If I you want some kind of agreement, I mean the payment, financially something with me, is that correct? "Asked Lee.

" It is quite simply, yes! "Said the girl now directly and almost cold." Then we can do it. "

" What do you do it? "Asked Lee.

" I do not care where we do it, or all, a lot about me, I need the money, and I would like a friend, my old went to the states, and he paid me third his arrival to his steady, but I care about you and I care about him. "She said without any emotion, her face as a blank evening sky.

" I'm not sure I want to do it with you when you feel that way, I think it is much They talk of money, and what if your friend comes back? "

" He will be back in three months, and then our issue is, but I do not want you to do this, if you feel that way. "

The girl was on pace and length of the bar, looked out the window at the mountains, the dark shadows green hills filled with water dragons and iguanas, tall trees, foliage and achieved that to the edge of the hill on the white sands of the Cam Ranh Bay.

"We had a lot of fun for three months," said the girl now her monologue: "I think it could be this very evening, if you want."

"No, I do not think so that we can, I do not want the money for all, and someone who I have to pay maintenance for me. Only to dump me and care for another person in the same way when the time comes, I'm not so desperate for sex and a woman. Indeed, the desire that it is gone, and I think I must not pretend, and I do not like lizards, or care of the hills, we killed a seven-foot lizard a few weeks ago, they have big eyes fat, and I do not feel something for the death of a lizard or ugly for our separation, the way. I do not want you to do everything for me, you are not really good for me to be honest. "

" All right, "said the girl," but you have to realize you soldiers come and go, leave us with the girl child and never returned, I'm no worse than the rest, certainly not worse than soldiers. "

sat back from the Corporal, and both return to their drinks, drank it, and he ordered another round, looked at her and she him.

" I'm perfectly willing to buy you drinks for your conversation partner Time and I am sure that it is our last day, but I think I like you better than a friend, as would I, as a friend. "

" It means a lot to me that we are at, "said the girl," and it is right for you to say what you said, would you please do not talk bad about me to your friends, I am sure that I order? "asked the girl.

" I do not care about everything you have done, "said Lee, then came the song again ... silver wings," Hush! "he said, listen to the words closely.

He took his hat, and her hand, went outside the bar, still listen to the song, look at the dark sky, fear he could be the wrong impression, "How do you feel?" he asked the girl.

"I feel great," she said, "there is not one thing, the matter with me, it's a beautiful night, with a nice friend, what more could you ask for! "

And they went on the sandy beach, on the village, he had it again, gave her $ 3.00-dollars, to the Cowboys, a gang of children in the village, they would be before she got to her hut, where she and her mother live, they pay the gang will not be beaten or raped her, she knew she was with an American they always knew the girls went with American soldiers, and the Americans had the U.S. dollar, and $ 3.00-dollar was the price for security.

Written 3.00, 12-31-2008 (Lima, Peru)

 

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