Lice
          by Jeremiah Allsman          

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        Eric Drake was swimming in mud. His body was pressed deep into a wall of dirt and everything that inhabited it. He raised his pistol above the trench to fire at the V.C. and then ducked with his back against the wall he was once facing. He reloaded, while waiting for the enemy’s blast of retaliation. Johnson was tucked inside the dirt. He hadsuddenly fallen into paralysis. "Johnny, you still there?"
        "Yeah, it hurts to swallow."
        "Hang in there, they’ll pay for this, I promise." The trench was narrow , long , and about seven foot tall. Two soldiers took a quick break to excrete on the shit that had been shat on before by thousands of others. The weapons fired back and forth like a pinball game from hell.
        "Drake, I gotta piss, man." Johnny said. Eric kicked Johnsons beaten body to his left and then fired two pistols, one in each hand, at the enemy. He ducked to reload. "You done?" He asked as he fiddled with his gun. "You done?!" There was no answer. Eric looked down to see Johnson’s hollow body. There was a large opening in the top of his head and he appeared to have pissed blood. "Fuck," he said to himself.
        One month later, the President Nixon ended Vietnam. On a warm Thursday night, Eric flew to his home to see his wife. As he approached the house, he was overwhelmed with kisses as she held him tightly.
        "I was so afraid that I’d lose you."
        "Yeah, well, it takes more than a few holes in my chest to stop me from seeing the woman I love."
        "Come in and sit down, are you tired?"
        "Not really, I slept on the plane."
        " ….want something to eat?"
        "No, I ate on the plane too." He walked closer and closer to her with a sinister smile.
        "Want to meet me in the bedroom?"
        "Now that, I didn’t get on the plane."
        "I should hope not."
        "Pull off that pretty, little, dress and I’ll meet you in there in a minute."
        She slipped out of her flowered dress and helped him undress. He crawled onto the bed and turned onto his back. She slowly crept over his bare body and in a ball of intimacy, they became one. She squealed in sexual arousal as they moved in sync to the light of the flickering candle in the center of their window sil. "I’m tired," Eric said.
        "I thought you slept on the plane."
        "What plane?"
        "You came here on an airplane, Eric."
        "I did?"
        "What’s wrong with you?"
        "How much do I owe you?"
        "Owe me?" Her eyes were filled with tears that burned. "I’m your wife."
        "I’m not married."
        "Yes, you are."
        "I can’t remember ever being married."
        "I don’t know what the fuck’s wrong with you, but you can get the hell out."
        Eric backed out of the bedroom as his wife swung her arms at him aimlessly. She pushed him out the door and locked it. He started off down a country, dirt road, stumbling.

        At the pentagon, a doctor whom performed many of the autopsies of Vietnam soldiers, had discovered why many trenched soldiers had died.
        "Major Brunken, representatives. Observe these photos. See how the cranium has been ruptured. There is a breed of louse that settle in the dirt. Apparently, they got inside the soldiers’ heads and burrowed away their memory, coodination, and eventually killed them by exiting through the penis. It was probably most painful." Doctor Joobs’ hand was raised. "Lice?"
        "Yes sir, deadly lice." In fact, I probably have them in me from handling the bodies." Major Brunken raised his hand.
        "How does it spread?"
        "That’s a very good question. Any kind of physical contact with someone who has it. Also remember that it travels out the penis. It also takes a little while to detect any effects, while it nests."
        Eric fell only a mile from his home, he was suffering from a hole in his head. His wife was suffering from pregnancy.

Copyright 1999 Jeremiah Allsman