Remembories

Each person remembers differently. Some remember sights, others remember sounds, me I remember the smells. The sights tended to blend together for me. One jungle’s green looked like any other. The sounds were deafening and became one continuous roll of thunder. The smells though, they will be with me forever. I remember the smell of the rotting vegetation, the smell of our uniforms permeated with the odor of stale sweat and cordite, the sweet coppery smell of blood pouring itself into the dry earth. These things I remember.



Oh, don’t get me wrong there are sounds I remember. I remember the sound of Gallo begging for his mother as the blood from his shattered legs bled into the soil. The roar of the flames as the buildings burned, hiding the carnage that lay within. The sound a bullet makes as it strikes flesh and the sound of a dying man’s last breath. These things I remember.



I also remember some of the sights that will be forever burned into my brain. The sight of my best friend trying to push his guts back in after an explosive round tore him apart, the sight of a woman running towards me carrying her baby screaming because they were engulfed in flame. These things I remember.



I remember so many things along the way. I remember the look in a young child’s eyes after I had shot the man that was raping him. The look was of such pain, sorrow, loss, and betrayal. That was the last look he had before he picked up the pistol from the table and shot himself. He couldn’t have been more than five. This I remember.