14/04/2016 – tnkerr-Writing Prompts and Practice

“Why you wanna talk to me for, girl. My life wasn’t very interesting. Everbody’s story is more interesting than mine.”

“Weren’t you in the Army, sir?”

“Oh Lord; long time ago, that was. But, yes, I was part of the 369th Infantry; that came out of the 15th. Got to spend some time in France, I did. We was called the Harlem Hellfighters at least that’s what the Germans called us. We fought shoulder to shoulder with the Frenchmen. We earned their respect and they earned ours. As an outfit, my 369^th earned a few medals; and we were the first Allied unit to reach the Rhine. That was a wonderful and horrible time.”

“Do you have the medals, sir? May I see them?”

“I suppose so. There’s a red shoebox at the top of that closet there. Could you fetch it for me, please?”

“This one?”

“That’s it. Bring in over here. You open it. Take a look.”

“That’s a Medal of Honor, sir. You won a Medal of Honor?”

“I must have if it’s in that shoebox.”

“Here’s a Distinguished Service Cross. You have both?”

“I ‘spect I must if they’re in there.”

“What’s this one sir? With the red and green stripes and the cross?”

“The French gave me that. They called it a Croix de guerre.”

“You’re a hero, sir.”

“Nope, I’m no hero and you better not be writing that I am. I’m an old fool who thought he could change America’s perceptions. I was a naive idealist then; and now I’m just an old man who used to have a lot of friends in France. Most of them are dead now on account of war or old age. Those are the guys you should be writing about, if you want to write about heroes.

“Write about those guys.”

Time’s up!
I had to do this one in shifts, I wrote and edited for about 15 minutes before I got pulled away. When I came back I wrote for another 15. 10 minutes were spent on editing.