Gilbert Morris Read Online Free PDF Page B

it?”
    â€œYes, it was.”
    â€œI read the citation. That was quite a stunt you pulled off, charging into that rifle fire and then tossing those grenades and wiping out that mortar squad. I remember when I was a kid I was prowling around in your chest of drawers, which I shouldn’t have been doing,” he grinned.
    â€œYou always were a nosy little guy.”
    â€œI remember once I found something I thought was chocolate candy in a little tin box. I ate ’em all.”
    Willie Raines suddenly laughed. “I remember that. Turned out to be Ex-lax, a pretty effective laxative.”
    â€œWell, I don’t want to talk about that,” Ben said quickly. “It wasn’t so funny at the time. Anyway, I found your medals in there, your silver star and the purple heart. I remember asking you to tell me about it, but you never would.”
    â€œI guess I just didn’t want to talk much about that time.”
    â€œHey, you should , Dad. It’s something to be proud of. Isn’t there some way we could get a story out of that Christmas?”
    A silence fell over the room, and Ben waited patiently. His father, he well understood, was not a man who spoke easily about matters that were close to him. Finally Willie shifted in his chair and said, “It was a bad time. Cold as I can ever remember. I used to tell your mother during cold times here in Chicago, ‘Well, it’s not as cold as it was at Bastogne.’ She always laughed at that.”
    â€œI’d like to hear the story from you, Dad.”
    â€œYou really would?”
    â€œSure. Like I say, it’s something you should be proud of.”
    Willie chewed his lower lip thoughtfully, ran his hand over his hair and then said, “All right. If that’s what you want.”
    Willie began speaking slowly and Ben did not interrupt. He listened carefully to the entire story, and finally when Willie ended, he took a deep breath. “That’s some story, Dad.”
    â€œI haven’t told it to anybody in a long time.”
    â€œLucky thing for you, and the rest of the guys in the squad, that lieutenant was there. I wonder how he knew how to get at that mortar emplacement.”
    Willie Raines gave his son a searching look. “There’s one thing about that story that’s not in the citation.”
    â€œWhat’s that, Dad?”
    â€œI didn’t know that lieutenant.”
    â€œHe wasn’t the lieutenant in your company?”
    â€œI’d never seen him before in my life, Ben, and I knew most of the officers, by sight at least.”
    â€œMaybe he was from another company.”
    â€œWhen I woke up in the hospital, the first thing I wanted to know was how were the guys in my squad. They were all OK. Then I started asking about the lieutenant, but nobody knew anything about him. I did everything I could to find out, but they thought I was just hallucinating. But I wasn’t, Son. I can remember that officer just as clear as I can remember anything in my life.”
    â€œHe was probably a replacement.”
    â€œNo, he wasn’t. I checked everything that could be checked.” Suddenly Willie looked over to the picture of the angel, and when he turned back there was an odd look in his eyes. “I think he was an angel.”
    â€œAn angel! Come on, Dad, you don’t believe that.”
    â€œI thought about it a long time, and that’s what I’ve decided. God decided that He was going to save our squad, and so He sent an angel down to tell me how to get at that mortar emplacement. I know you don’t believe in things like that, Ben, but I do.”
    For an instant Ben could not answer. He could not pretend to agree with his father, for Willie knew perfectly well he didn’t believe in angels or anything else very much. On the other hand he hated to destroy his father’s dream, so he took the best middle ground that he could.
    â€œWell,