A letter from Tim arrived. Patty was surprised to read that Tim was getting married. He explained in his letter, that he had taken up with an old girl friend he had dated in high school. She apparently had been waiting for him all these years.

He went on to describe his life in El Paso. He mentioned that it was a little boring, but besides the boredom, he said he was having a perfectly delightful time.

Somehow, Patty wasn't buying it. The tone of the letter was a little too upbeat for Tim. The Vitaman just wasn't the type to settle down and live happily ever after with his old high school sweetheart, Still, Patty thought, you just never know about people. The odd thing though, was that he never once mentioned Miss Im, although he did want to know how the business was going.

Patty was going great guns with the business. He was now dealing with people that had more resources than Mamasan, although he still supplied her with the basics such as whiskey and frying pans. The big ticket items went to a wheeler dealer that Jimmy had introduced to him. This guy wanted it all. He also had the money and the connections.

It was almost too easy. Patty would be provided a letter of authorization in his name, signed by some officer. He was provided the money and he would just walk into the P.X. and purchase the product. Sometimes it would be a washer or dryer. Once he bought a Fedders industrial type central air conditioner that could have cooled an airplane hanger.

He would have the merchandise he purchased delivered to an address in Bupyong. He would meet the P.X. delivery truck, have it unloaded, tip the drivers, and as soon as the truck would leave, another truck would pull up and cart it away. Patty would be paid through Jimmy that evening. For the air conditioner alone, he made over a thousand dollars.

He was assured that the LOA's he presented at the P.X. would be destroyed by people that were on the payroll. He knew for a fact that the people in the P.X. were in on it, because they always knew what he wanted before he had a chance to ask for it, and the delivery arrangements were already taken care of. He didn't know who he was dealing with enough to trust him on his own intuition, but Jimmy said he was 0.K. , and that was enough for Patty.

Whiskey Mary's was losing it's appeal for Fallica. The women he spent the night with were all starting to look the same. Sometimes on the hill, he would try to remember the girl he had spent the previous night with. Most of the time he would draw a blank. He often wished that Lydia would come back. He never could forget her.

Wagner had extended for six months at the last minute. That meant he would be with the crew when they went back to B Battery. Patty realized with a start that this now made Patty shorter that Wagner. He figured out how long he had left and found it hard to believe that he only had two months left in country. It didn't seem like he'd been there almost a year, but at the same time it felt like he'd been there a lifetime.

Fallica hardly ever thought about the "world" anymore. He didn't write home and he didn't receive letters. His world was at Foxtrot. Sometimes when the others would talk about the things they had left back home, he would get bored and walk away. He didn't miss anything. He wondered why sometimes.

He wanted to extend his tour, but inside he knew that it would damage him somehow. He had a little over a year left in the Army. If he stayed here in Korea, he could ETS and go back home a civilian. That scared the hell out of him. He didn't have any idea of what he wanted to do with the rest of his life. He was only nineteen years old. When he got out he would still only be twenty. In the Army he was treated as an adult. He was a leader here. Back home he would only be a kid. The thought of starting over in the civilian world made him nervous.

They were running out of pot on the hill. It was really hard to get any. It was an odd evening now that the guys would be sitting around passing a bowl. The newest sport was frog torture. It was Mannik and Wagner that started that too. He probably would have never found out if he didn't try to call the guard shack one evening. He couldn't get an answer so he walked out the to see what the problem was.

During the late summer, you had to be careful where you stepped. Thousands of frogs hopped around on the ground, a product of the monsoon season, and the rice paddies that were everywhere. Patty hated to step on them, but sometimes it just happened. The corridor and ready room floors were always a mess due to frog guts from their boots.

Fallica walked into the guard shack and saw Mannick and Wagner huddled around the field phone.

"Why doesn't anybody answer the phone?" He asked.

Mannik turned around.

"We're using it." he giggled.

"Check this out Fallica." Wagner said.

Patty walked over to the bench to see what it was they were doing. He adjusted his eyes to the darkness and saw the field phone. Instead of the strands of commo wire attached to the spring loaded posts, Mannick had a frog , his feet locked into the terminals.

"Watch!" Mannick said.

The look on his face was similar to Dr. Frankenstein's when he pulled the lever that sent the electricity into his monster. Mannick turned the crank as fast as he could. The frog, with the electricity that normally rings another field phone coursing trough him, threw out its arms and went completely rigid. As soon as Mannik stopped ringing the phone, it would slump over the edge of the phone again.

Both men thought that this was hysterical. Patty had to admit that it looked funny, but it really was sickening. Patty felt sorry for the poor frog. He told them so. They just looked at him as if he were crazy.

"Maybe it's time for me to go home." He said as he left the guard shack.

Fallica's crew was primed for the event. They couldn't wait to show the rest of the Battalion what they could do. Harrigan went with them to offer his expertise and support They had pooled four hundred dollars for Patty to wager. Fallica didn't think it would be a problem to find people willing to take bets against them.

One problem that they did have though, was McCoy. He had gotten completely smashed in the barracks before they had left. He sat in the corner of the deuce passed out, all the way to B Battery.

Fallica managed to slap McCoy awake after their arrival. He wasn't completely drunk, but now he had the shakes and was threatening to throw up. Patty figured that they only had an hour before they were in the van and it seemed impossible to straighten him out before they had to do their thing. Harrigan mentioned something about the hair of the dog. McCoy thought that was a great idea. Patty dispatched Harrigan to go down to the Admin area to round something up.

While the problem of getting McCoy combat ready was being worked on, Patty went about making bets with the other section chiefs. They remembered the poor showing they had made on the last trip out, and they didn't hesitate to put their money down. The crew chief from Foxtrot had noticed McCoy on the way out and bet two hundred himself. Patty knew that normally they could probably win, but this time he felt as if he were throwing the crew's money away. He really felt depressed. The truth of the matter was that he really wanted to kill McCoy, but doing that now would completely finish any chance of getting out of this.

Everyone was talking about a typhoon that was supposedly coming their way. Patty found out that a typhoon was similar to a hurricane except that it ran counter clockwise. The people running the show wanted to get the TEE's out of the way before it hit. Patty was praying it would hit before his crew walked into the vans.

Harrigan had found someone willing to part with a bottle of bourbon. He was administering it to McCoy. Patty also had him take a hit of speed. McCoy protested against it because he didn't believe in using drugs. Patty wanted to slap his head off of his neck. He took it. After about ten minutes, McCoy was still screwed up but he wasn't sick and shaking anymore. In fact, he was now bragging that he'd show the battalion who was the best TTR operator in Korea.

Mannik ran over to where they were standing and told Fallica that they were looking for the crew. With a sickening feeling deep in the pit of his stomach, Patty rounded up the crew and they marched into the vans. Patty looked over to the other van at Wagner before he went in. Wagner smiled and threw him a sham. Patty caught it behind his hack and winked at him. He got a thumbs up.

The tracking crew sat down in front of Fallica. The evaluator told them that they would get one practice target to get used to the equipment. Patty looked down at the guys in front of him. Warner on the left and looking at McCoy, Murphy was on the right doing the same. McCoy was in the center staring at the scope, with sweat trickling down his neck.

It was so quiet in the van, that when the designate buzzer went off, Patty felt as if he would jump out of his skin. McCoy slewed his radar to the target. The jamming came onto the scopes as soon as the radar stopped slewing.

"Search!" McCoy ordered Warner.

Warner brought the elevation up and down. Patty frantically worked the fixes on the control box he held in his hand, trying to minimize the jamming by moving fixes and frequencies. He managed to clear most of it, and the target became visible near the gate.

"Target right!" Warner called out, and Mannick slewed the range and put the target into the gate.

"Auto!" McCoy ordered, and the crew locked up on the target.

It was a bad move. As soon as the crew went to automatic, the jamming became intense. The target broke lock, and the radar started slewing to nowhere.

"Unlock and get back on target!" Fallica shouted at them.

McCoy adjusted his azimuth back to where he had lost the target.

"Search!" He ordered Warner.

"Don't search!" Patty countered. "Get back to your last known elevation!"

Patty couldn't believe it. Looking at the scopes, he saw no target, no jamming. Nothing was there. They lost it. The evaluator behind Patty just clicked his tongue and shook his head.

"From now on, track in manual." He told his crew. Bending down and almost putting his lips on McCoy's ear he whispered through gritted teeth. "Fuck up again, and I'm going to kill you. Right here, right now.

McCoy looked up at Fallica with fear in his eyes and nodded his head. The status lights went from blue to red with a loud ring. The evaluator told them that the targets coming in now were for score. They waited for the designate buzzer. It came moments later. McCoy hit the acquire switch and the confirm light came on. The radar slewed to the area designated by the acquisition radar. The target appeared as soon as the radar stopped slewing.

"Target left!" Warner shouted.

Mannick put the target into the gate.

"Auto!" McCoy ordered.

Patty flipped out and smacked McCoy in the head, hard.

"Manual!" He shouted and the crew unlocked just before the jamming hit. They managed to hold on and McCoy hit the track light.

"Short countdown to fire!" Lt. Moore said over the headset.

"Five, four, three, two.

"Off track!" McCoy shouted, and hit the off target button.

Patty looked and saw that the elevation had dropped quickly, and the speed had slowed just before they lost the target.

"You were on chaff!" He shouted at them. "Increase elevation, Decrease range!"

The target popped into the gate.

"Target in the gate!" Warner said.

"Manual!" McCoy ordered, and hit the track light.

"Target tracked, ECM condition two, BCO." Patty reported.

"Roger track Sup. Short countdown to fire, three, two, one, fire!" He called out over the headset.

"Missile away!" Called Big O from the MTR.

The crew watched as the missile tracking radar and the target tracking radar brought their coordinates together.

"Ten seconds to burst!" The computer operator reported over the headset. " Five, four, three, two, one, burst!"

Patty watched as the target in the gate disappeared, along with the jamming.

"BCO, burst in the gate, target destroyed" Fallica reported.

There was no time to rejoice. As soon as the report was made, the designate buzzer went off and they were searching for another target. They found it, the procedure was repeated. Another target was destroyed. The next seven targets went down in order. The crew went about its business with methodical determination. It was the last target that got to McCoy.

"Last target!" The evaluator called.

Fallica could see McCoy jump at the information. He turned and looked at Patty with terror in his eyes.

"That's it!" He cried. "I can't take it anymore. Too much pressure!"

"McCoy," Warner said, "If Fallica doesn't kill you, I will."

"I will too!" Mannick said

"One more lousy target. Just one more!" Fallica told them

The designate light went off. McCoy hit the switch and they slewed towards it. The jamming had been getting worse with each target. This time it was unbelievable. They couldn't see anything. Suddenly six targets popped onto the scope.

"Which one?" McCoy asked with panic in his voice.

Patty tried to figure. He knew they were spoofers. One of the targets was real, the other five were generated by the real one. They hadn't encountered this at Foxtrot because the spoof generator didn't work. He remembered from training in the states that the phony targets could only he generated one way from the real target. The trouble was, he couldn't remember whether they phonies were generated from behind, or in front of the actual target.

"Which one?" McCoy cried out again.

Patty could see McCoy was ready to crack. He shook his head and tried to remember. He couldn't.

"Come on Fallica!" McCoy pleaded

"Lock onto the first target!" He said firmly.

"Are you sure!" McCoy asked.

"I'm sure."

The crew locked onto the target. McCoy hit the track light.

"BCO, locked on one AC inbound, condition three ECM." He reported.

They fired. They waited.

"Ten seconds to burst."

It seemed like an hour to Fallica. He had no idea whether or not he had picked the right target or not. If the burst came and the target continued to fly, he had made the wrong guess, and the target was now too close to fire again.

"Five, four, three, two, one, burst!"

Patty watched the scope, the target was still there. He died inside.

Suddenly, it vanished. The track crew cheered.

"Burst in the gate, target destroyed" Patty screamed into the headset.

"Stand down to white status'" The BCO ordered.

The lights above the console clanged from red, to blue, to yellow, to white. The crew took off the headsets and followed the evaluator out of the van. The people in the corridor were clapping. Patty felt the tears well up in his eyes. He looked at his crew. They were hugging each other and slapping hands. He saw Harrigan over in the corner watching. He saw the tears in his eyes. He walked over to him.

"Thanks Top." He said.

"No, thank you Fallica. You gave me back my life."

Patty reached out and hugged the old Master Sergeant. They had won.

"Typoon!"

"What the fuck did she say?" Patty asked Wagner.

"She said Typhoon." Wagner replied.

Just at that moment, the shutters outside slammed against the windows with such a fury that chattered glass flew throughout the room. The jukebox was drowned out by the battering of the shutters and the roar of wind attacking the building. The lights went out and the jukebox stopped. Everyone stood in the darkness just quietly listening to the fury of nature outside.

"Toto, we're not in Kansas anymore." Wagner said.

"Thank God. " Patty said. "They don't serve booze to nineteen year olds in Kansas. Bartender, give me a double!"

"Wait for light. I make candle!" 'The Korean bartender said.

The candles were lit and all of the men went back to their drinking.

They had to spend four hours in the club before the storm abated. When they came out, drunk to the gills, the place was a mess.

Trees were scattered all around the place. A jeep had overturned and was lying against the messhall wall. Wagner nudged Fallica and pointed towards the hill. Where there should have three tracking radars silhouetted against the sky, there were only two. The antennas for the communications systems had blown down too.

They decided to stay at B Battery overnight. They didn't do much of anything except sleep off the booze they had downed. The next morning after chow, they climbed into the deuce, along with their hangovers, and started the long journey back to Foxtrot.

Murphy was calling for a piss call a few hours into the trip. Lt. Moore was nice enough to oblige after only a half hour of begging. Of course, by this time, the whole crew needed to go, and the truck pulled to a stop across from a planted field. Patty was contentedly emptying his bladder when he heard Wagner call to him. He buttoned up his fatigues and walked over to where he was standing, fingering one of the plants.

"Do you know what this is?" He asked Fallica with a grin on his face.

"Yeah, it's a plant." He said.

"Look at it.

Patty looked at it. It took him a few seconds to comprehend what it was that Wagner was trying to get across, but eventually he caught an. Yeah, he thought, it's a plant all right. It's a big tall plant with clusters of long serrated leaves. He really couldn't believe what he was seeing.

"This is a marijuana field!"

"You got it." Wagner said.

Murphy and Mannik ran up to where they were standing,.

"Hey you guys, do you know what we're standing in?" Asked Mannik.

"Yeah, a field full of pot." Fallica replied, acting like he expected it to be there.

Lt. Moore called out to them from the cab of the truck, telling them to hurry up.

Patty grabbed a plant and pulled it up by its roots, Wagner started to do the same. Before long, the whole crew was pulling up the plants and bringing as much as they could carry in their arms back to the truck,

"What are you guys doing?" Adams asked them as they started throwing the marijuana in the back of the truck.

"We're making a giant mattress." Patty answered.

"What is that stuff?" The Lieutenant called out from the cab.

"Some kind of Korean plant sir." Wagner replied. "We're covering the bed of the truck so that we can lie down"

"Good thinking. That's what I like to see, a little initiative." He said.

Wagner winked at Patty, The crew kept a straight face. Most of the guys on the other crew were oblivious to what they were doing, The ones that knew didn't say a word,

"That stuff stinks." Adams said. "What the hell is it?"

"I think they call it hemp." Wagner told him. "They use it to make rope."

"Well I hope you clean it the hell out of this truck when we get back. You guys are making a mess out of this truck." He reprimanded them.

"We'll clear it out Sergeant Adams. You can bet on it." Warner said.

The plants they had brought back were put on the roof of the generator building to dry, and after a few days, they hid them in sandbags and built a small bunker by the guard shack. The new Platoon Sergeant thought that they were very industrious, and he applauded them for being so concerned about the security of the hill.

The weather was starting to get a little nippy. The evenings were getting so cold that frost greeted them every morning. Patty was feeling a little lost. He had less than a month left in country.

Little things were starting to irritate him. Normally he was calm and poised, but his patience was wearing thin lately. People started to notice it too. They stayed away from him when things got a little hectic on the hill.

It was the mornings that were the worst. Dailies had to be pulled on the equipment, guard rosters had to he done, and any problems from the night before had to be dealt with. Sometimes Fallica would be engaged in two conversations, have the radio screaming out his callsign on the Battalion net, and have a field phone up to his ear. Mornings were a bitch.

Fallica was dealing with it one particular morning when the new Lieutenant strutted into the corridor. He seemed to be watching Patty for most of the morning. It really annoyed Fallica and he wished that this punk would just go away. He was making him nervous. Fallica had just finished screaming at Wagner for not relieving Mannik on the gate so that Mannik could finish his checks, when Lt. Standard walked up to him.

"Sergeant Fallica, can we have a man to man talk outside?" He asked.

"Sure Sir, as soon as I finish up these reports." Fallica replied.

Fallica went back to what he was doing, extremely irritated at being interrupted during dailies. He finished what he was doing and motioned to the Lt to step outside. They walked over by the side of the tracking van. Fallica leaned against the van and waited for the new Lieutenant to begin.

"You know Fallica, I've been watching you all morning, and I've come to a decision." He began.

"What decision have you come to Sir?" Patty replied with a mocking tone in his voice.

"The fact is Fallica, I don't like your attitude, I don't really think that you are cut out for a leadership position."

"I don't really care what you think." Patty replied. "In fact, judging from your observations, I really think you're an asshole."

Lt. Standard just looked at Patty in disbelief while his face turned beet red.

"You can't talk to me like that!" He sputtered.

"Why not?" Patty asked simply.

"Because I'm a Lieutenant in The United States Army!"

"I though we were talking man to man." Patty replied. "I didn't know we were talking Lieutenant to man. I still think you're an asshole. I've had a nice time Lt., but I've got work to do. Let's chat again sometime."

Patty turned and walked into the corridor, leaving the new Lieutenant speechless.

Wagner grabbed Patty when he walked back into the corridor.

"What did he say to you?" he asked.

"He said he didn't like my attitude.

"Well, get this. He came in here like a madman and grabbed the Platoon Sergeant. They're in the ready room talking now.

"I really don't give a flying fuck. In fact, they can both kiss my short timers ass." Fallica responded.

Nothing was said about the incident that day. The new Lt. didn't have anything in particular to say to Fallica at all, preferring to give his orders through Wagner. Patty didn't mind, the real job of running the hill was still his.

A late summer thunderstorm came out of the western sky that evening. The crew was finishing six hour checks while Patty was decoding a message from battalion. The radios were filled with static from distant lightning. Fallica decided to get some fresh air after he finished.

The clouds that were coming in looked bad. He noticed a few thunderheads and remembered that the guys were still on the antennas. He called Murphy over, and told him to tell the guys to button up the radars and come down. A few minutes later Lt. Standard approached him.

"What are you doing, Fallica?"

"What do you mean, Sir?" He asked.

"I mean what are you doing? Why did you order the men down from the antennas before checks are complete?"

"Because I'm afraid that one of them might get hit by lightning Sir. In case you haven't noticed, there seems to be a storm coming."

"Tell them to finish their checks." He ordered.

"Maybe you misunderstood me Sir, there's a storm coming. " Patty protested.

"I'll decide when it's to dangerous to be on the antennas Sergeant! He snapped. "tell them to stay on the antennas."

"No, Sir! I want them down!"

"Are you disobeying me?" The Lt. asked through pierced eyes.

"Yes. I guess I am." Patty replied.

Lt. Standard turned the same color of crimson that he displayed earlier in the day. He stormed off toward the antennas.

"Everybody back up and finish your checks!" he shouted.

The men stopped what they were doing and looked at the Lieutenant, then towards Fallica. Patty walked up next to the lieutenant.

"Everybody come down!" He shouted.

The men froze, looking at Patty, and then to the Lt. Patty signaled with his hand for them to come down. They started down the ladders.

"Get back up there!" The Lt. screamed at them.

The men continued to come down, everybody but McCoy.. He stood on top of the TTR platform and looked confused.

"Goddamn it McCoy, get your ass down here!" Fallica screamed.

"Stay up there McCoy. That's an order!" Lt. Standard shouted.

Fallica turned towards the Lt.

"Look you fucking little asshole, if McCoy doesn't get off the fucking radar he's going to get cooked. You order him off or I'm going to break your fucking stupid head!" Fallica screamed.

The Lt. just stood with his hands folded across his chest, staring at Fallica in defiance. Fallica ran towards the TTR, grabbed onto the ladder and started up the antenna, screaming as he climbed.

"McCoy, goddamn it, if you don't get off this fucking antenna, I'm going to throw you off!"

"0.K., I'm coming !" McCoy shouted to Patty just before he reached the top.

Fallica saw that McCoy was coming, and started back down the ladder. Before he made it halfway the rain started. A flash of lightning illuminated the dark sky, and the immediate thunder made Patty move a little faster. He jumped off the ladder while he was still more than six feet off the ground.

McCoy was still coming down when Patty picked himself off the ground. He had hooked up his safety belt to the ladder and was coming down step by step. He was still more than halfway up. More lightning cracked around the hill.

"Unhook that belt! Hurry up!" Patty yelled up to him.

McCoy unhooked the belt from the ladder and started to scramble. He was about ten feet off the ground when a blinding flash of lightning hit the top of the platform. Patty turned away from the blinding flash. When he looked back up, McCoy wasn't there anymore. We was on the ground. Fallica ran to him and kneeled at his side.

"Are you all right?" He asked.

McCoy raised his head and looked at Fallica with fear and confusion.

"I don't know." We said. "What happened""

The others came running over.

"Is he O.K.?" Wagner asked.

"What happened?" McCoy asked again.

"Lightning hit the railing on top, and went right down the ladder. It hit you, and you took off like a rocket!" Murphy said excitedly.

"Thank God you unhooked your belt, or you would have been cooked! Wagner told him.

McCoy looked up at Fallica who was still kneeling next to him.

"Fucking Fallica." He said.

The Lt. walked up to the group.

"Is he going to be O.K.?" He asked.

The crew just looked at him. He turned and walked towards the corridor.

Patty went to the Frog with Wagner and Murphy. They kept talking about what had happened the day before, but Fallica didn't really want to think about it. What he wanted to do was to see Lydia one more time before he left country.

Wagner and Murphy wanted to go to the Yellow House, Patty refused to go because he didn't want to catch the clap. He was afraid that he would be flagged if he flunked the blood test, He knew a couple of guys that had to delay going home until they tested negative. He didn't want to go through that.

He went to The Seaman's Service to eat dinner,. Miss Im was there, and she asked if had heard from Tim. He didn't have the heart to tell her that he was getting married, so he told her no. She seemed crushed, Her smile faded and she didn't make much effort at conversation after that.

Whisky Mary's was full of sailors. He talked with Jimmy for awhile. He asked him if anyone had been in touch with Lydia. He was surprised to hear that he had. Jimmy told him that she was living near DanKook University outside of Seoul. She had written to a girl that Jimmy knew, and she told her that she had decided to go back to school and get another degree so that she could teach.

Patty wasted no time finding the girl Jimmy had mentioned. She didn't want to give up the address, but Patty promised her a carton of cigarettes and a bottle of Johnny Walker Black. She gave it to him.

Two days later, Patty was on his way to Seoul. He took a taxi, figuring he might as well go first class, because he was so short. He also wanted the time alone to think. He knew that she didn't want him to show up there, or else she would have given him her address. He didn't have any idea how it would go.

The cab driver left him off in a really nice neighborhood. If he didn't know he was in Korea, he could have pictured himself in a nice area of Queens. He looked at the paper in his hand and walked up to the door that had the came number as the one on the paper. He hoped that the taxi driver knew what he was doing, because everything but the number was written in Korean. He knocked on the door.

He waited for what seemed to be a millennium. The door was thick wood, and the house was made of concrete, so he heard no noise that would indicate that anybody was home. He knocked again, but still nobody came. With a sinking feeling, he decided that she wasn't home. He turned and walked away toward the sidewalk.

"Where are you going?"

He turned around and saw her standing in the doorway. She was in a bathrobe. From where he stood, she looked great.

"I didn't think you were home." He said as he walked toward her.

"Well, here I am. How did you find me?" She asked.

"I bribed your girlfriend." He said in an apologetic tone.

She asked him to come in. He was still amazed at her western decor and her total disregard for Korean custom. He could have been in a house in New Jersey.

Patty noticed that she had put on some weight. She also looked a little older than he had remembered her, He figured that it was because she didn't have any make up on. Her hair was wrapped in a towel which didn't make her look any better either. All in all though, she still turned Patty on,

"Why did you come here?" She asked while lighting up a Marlboro.

"Because I wanted to see you before I go home." He said.

"Come to my room."

Lydia took Patty by the hand and led him into her bedroom. She didn't waste any time on preliminaries. She put out her cigarette in the ashtray next to the bed, pulled him onto her and embraced him with the same passion that he felt for her.

They didn't say anything to each other. They just made love for a long time. Patty didn't want it to end, and Lydia wasn't complaining. He was surprised that they were making love, and he knew he would have been surprised if they didn't. Everything they ever did together, they did again in that room. It was better for both of them. They didn't need the booze to let go, they didn't need the night, they just needed each other.

When it was time for them to talk, Patty asked her why she had left. She told him that she didn't want him to talk her out of it. She was happy now she explained, she was out of the old life and into her new one. She told him that she didn't drink anymore, and that she hadn't slept with anyone since she left Inchon. Patty watched her as she talked and he knew she was telling him the truth.

He also noticed something else when she got out of bed. He noticed that she had quite a pot belly. He took a better look when she turned to her side to take the bathrobe off of the bedpost.

"You're pregnant." He said

"I'm just getting fat." She said

"You're pregnant." He said again.

She just looked at him.

"Is it mine?" He asked.

"Moohlah." She lapsed into Korean.

"Moohlah my ass. Is it mine?"

"How do I know?" She said crossly. "Do you think I can tell when I sleep with somebody that they made me pregnant?"

Patty was confused. He looked at her. Something inside of him made him believe that the baby was his. The odds said that it was. She didn't sleep with many others in the time before she left.

"Lets get married." He proposed.

It was her turn to look at him. Her eyes watered and she felt the emotions rise. She shook them off and sat on the bed besides Patty.

"We can never marry." She told him. "You are too young to marry. I am too old to marry you and go to New York. I want to stay here. You must go home. 0.K.?"

"You're not too old!" He protested, but inside he knew it was true.

"Everything is O.K. Fallica. I want a baby. I have a baby. You have to go home because your Mamasan wants her baby back." She started to laugh.

Patty starred to laugh with her. He knew that she would be all right. It was easy to believe that this is exactly what she really did want. He decided not to press the issue.

They talked for awhile, made love again , and it was time for Patty to go back. She walked him to the door and kissed him goodbye. He started to walk down the sidewalk but decided to go back and tell her that he would write, but, when he turned around, she was gone. He let her go.