1When I woke up again, it was night time. Some of the patients had been moved, and there were different doctors and nurses around. I had met most of them during the course of the day that I was awake, but there was this one guy, he had nice brown hair, and was clean shaven. I thought that this doctor was much friendlier than the black haired one, because he looked like a father to me, so I listened to his conversation. It sounded like he was greeting a new nurse into the camp and was telling her about himself.
He was talking about living in California, with his daughter Erin, about how he came to Korea, about how he wanted a big moustache...
Then he wasn't there. I must have nodded off maybe, because it was light out now. There was another shift of doctors and nurses about, but I recognized the brown haired doctor again. So, I called him over.
"Hey, Captain Hunnicut, can I see you for a second?"
"Sure!" He called out to me, "But, I'd prefer if you'd call me BJ."
"No thanks, I like Captain Hunnicut better."
He nodded and said; "So, what can I do you for?"
'I was wondering where I was, and since I recognized you, I thought to ask you."
"Well, at the moment you're in Ouijongbu, Korea. If you want to know how close to Seoul that is, I'm not sure, and I don't think anyone here knows either."
Damn, that's what I wanted to know next...But anyway, I asked him another question I had for him;
"Well, I'd also like to know when I can get out and look for my father."
"Oh, that's the thing Col. Potter was saying that he heard from Hawkeye..." I heard him whisper, then he said to me in a normal tone; "Well, that shell exploded pretty close to you. You're lucky to be in the position you're in; speaking, hearing, smelling, seeing, feeling, eating, and being alive. That's pretty miraculous to me. But, you sustained pretty heavy damage nonetheless; you are severely burnt in your lower abdomen, for the moment, you won't be able to walk, you also have been bleeding off and on, causing you to blackout for a while, also, when they found you in the road, you were unconscious and the driver was dead. Your hair was on fire, along with your clothes. We had to shave your head because it was so badly burnt, sorry, and we couldn't salvage your clothes, sorry about that too.
"We also had noticed that you had a concussion and lost a couple teeth. We looked everywhere for them and didn't find them until we operated on you; they were in your bowel. Then you had several cuts and scratches from your landing and such, so we treated those. You also have some broken ribs, about five. Other than that, you're fine."
"I feel so better now." I said, jokingly.
"Right." He said, flatly.
"Well, how long until I can leave?"
"Well, you will stay here, up to two months, here with us, and then you'll be sent to Tokyo..."
"NO!" I screamed. Everyone looked at me for a moment and then went about their regular business.
"Well, maybe I can ask the Colonel about having you stay here. You do have to find your father after all. Although, I'm not sure that's a good enough reason. I mean, that's a little far-fetched."
"But still, it's important to me!" I said. On the verge of tears.
How dare he? I risked my life doing this and now I might not be able to complete what I started? I'm not going to go home, not back to that hell-hole. I need to find him, if I don't I don't know what will happen if I do. I'm doing it no matter what.
"Well, I'll see what I can do." He replied, not waiting for a response as he left quickly. I thought that maybe I saw a tear from his eye, from what I don't know. Maybe he was thinking about his daughter and himself and their relationship or just about something different. I'll never know.
Now all I have to do is wait for my release and the chance to search again.