Off the Edge

August 1999, Rwanda-Congo border

August 1999, Rwanda-Congo borderDark, low clouds pushed across the sky. The green expanse of jungle rolled over small mountains and hills to their west, while short tea plants clung to jungle-free hills to their east. Jim and Brush lounged against a wall on the porch of an old wooden shack, comfortable under the shelter of the corrugated metal roof. Heavy raindrops hit the metal, slowly at first but quickly turning to a deluge.

‘A guy couldn’t ask for more comfort,’ said Brush.

‘Always feels like that, doesn’t it?’ said Jim. ‘Like the old cliché about not being able to appreciate the warmth of a fire until you come in from the cold.’

‘You mean like when we were freezing our asses off on the Kamchatka Peninsula, and we found that nice, cozy cave? I’d rather be here,’ said Brush. ‘Not too warm and not too cold. Just right, sitting here without anyone shooting at us. Life is good.’

In fact, the old wooden stoop where they sat contentedly was a luxury hotel compared to the jungle where they had spent the previous sixteen days. The rain pounded on the roof and covered the soil with rushing torrents of water. As quickly as it had started, the sky cleared, and the rain stopped. Pink bands hung above the horizon while remnant mists swirled across the green hills.

‘These bumpy hills make me want to get back to the world and Debbie. She’s one hunk of a cowgirl,’ said Brush with a look of anticipation.

‘She is that,’ acknowledged Jim.

‘Partner, I’ve never said anything before. You know I like Heather, but it’s never really made sense to me. She’s an opposite of us. She’s sweet, very bright, steady, loyal and, err… well innocent, with no experience in our world. Don’t you get bored with that sometimes? I mean, I like a gusty, busty woman that’s had some trouble in her life, maybe a little less than perfect and more than a little crazy.’

‘Just why I love her, Brush. I want to go home, be with her, and feel innocent. It’s her wholesomeness that makes me cherish her. I admire it. Maybe it doesn’t make sense, but she’s good for me. I know she lives in a sheltered world, and I want to keep it that way. She lives the life she wants and wants nothing more. You and I lead a different life, but when I’m with her, she and I are the same. The way I used to think the world was. I’m happy to be two different people. She’s warm and trusting because she’s never encountered the kind of world we deal with, and I never want her contaminated by it. I never want to let go of what she and I have.’

‘Yeah. Okay but guess I want a woman that understands the world can be a hard place, so she’ll understand me. Makes me feel simpatico with her.’

They sat quietly looking out at the rain and the steaming vegetation.

‘Sort of reminds me of Nam,’ said Brush. ‘Wet, green jungle, the mists like smoke, and waiting for Will’s dust off.’

At that moment, they heard the slow thumping of a Huey moving up the valley and knew that General Will Crystal would extract them just as he had as a young captain in Vietnam. The general had commandeered a UN helicopter and was just as anxious to hear the details of their mission as he was to see his two friends.

The trio were anything but what you might expect. The general, a hard-core combat soldier and pilot but with a medical degree; Jim, originally a drafted soldier, now a Ph.D. in microbiology; and Brush, a laid-back Canadian whose all-consuming passion for women left little time for academic pursuits.

They boarded the chopper and put on light green headsets.

‘Heard you two caused a bit of a turmoil, but nothing unusual in that,’ said the general.

‘Nothing really special. Just a couple of jungle rats with guns trying to cause some pain for villagers who didn’t seem to have any guns,’ said Brush.

‘Like Men with Guns, the movie about Central America,’ said Jim. ‘Remember when the villagers were asked why they didn’t do anything about being terrorized by the military, they said, “because they have guns.” The villagers understood the simplicity of power. Guns are the same on every continent. They represent power.’

‘Still, the really bad guys weren’t the hired mercenaries but Exeter Drugs,’ said the general. ‘Suspect the Brits will be putting the company executives in a little pain for experimenting on the villagers.’

‘Was a tad nasty of them, infecting all those people,’ replied Brush.

‘Guess what I want to know is how so many of the mercenaries died from the virus?’ asked General Crystal. He asked it with his eyebrows locked down tight, but neither Jim nor Brush could see his face hidden behind his helmet and its visor.

Brush said, ‘Well seems that we…er, the village head honcho sort of got the word around that the bad guys were going to get the same virus as the villagers unless they inoculated themselves with the vaccine.’

‘Well, that makes sense, considering,’ said the general.

‘Yeah, but it seems that somehow the labels got switched on the boxes containing the virus and the treatment,’ said Brush, holding back a smile.

‘You’re telling me you did that Brush, switched the vaccine for the virus?’ asked General Crystal more as a statement than as a question.

‘I didn’t say that, General. It wasn’t me. Besides I really don’t know a thing about vaccines and viruses,’ responded Brush. ‘But it did seem to work out well. At the time, we were all sort of outgunned and needed help however we could get it. I think the chief had a good idea. Besides, it seems fair after what they did, and what they were going to do to the villagers.’

Jim was not contributing to the conversation. His mind was back in Nam thinking about the past. As the helicopter moved toward the city, those dark thoughts were replaced by ones of Heather. They might have just saved hundreds of villagers from a terrible death, but he never felt like a mission was over until he got back to her. He sometimes felt selfish doing what he wanted, knowing she would be devastated if something happened to him. She never pressured him, she just simply asked him to return to her.

He settled back comfortably in the helicopter as it flew over the tea plantations and the jungle of Rwanda, back to the UN base.