Kings Go Forth Page #7

Give 'em everything you've got!

On the double, quick!

I'm on my way out.

I'm all right.

When my outfit got into the rubble

the next day...

...they found 13 people still breathing:

12 Germans and me...

...or what was left of me.

I was in the hospital in Paris

for seven months.

When I got out,

I had $4,967 in back pay...

...and I was one of the displaced.

I'd had two letters from Monique

while I was in the hospital.

"Dear friend," the first one began.

"I think of you often."

At the end, she added...

...almost as an afterthought,

"I met a soldier named Harmer in Nice.

"He said that Britt Harris was dead."

That was all.

I was glad she could write it like that.

The second letter was also short.

It merely said that her mother

had died the week of V-E Day.

I didn't answer the letters.

I didn't really know what to say.

Then one afternoon as I took my first sip...

...of what must have been

my 2,000th beer...

I saw myself in the ring

the glass left on the table.

I realized then that I'd known

guys like me left over from the first war.

They got shot up

at the battle of the Meuse...

...and spent the next 20 years

brooding about it. I'd had it.

I went to the American Express

and sent a cable to my partner:

"Reporting back three weeks from today.

"Meantime,

taking small sentimental journey."

The next morning I was in Villefranche.

Merci, monsieur.

Are you the Lieutenant of the top?

I am...

...and you are Jean-Franois Duvan!

You've grown.

I have become taller.

Yes, you have.

And you have lost one arm.

So I have. I've never even missed it.

But one is enough for anybody,

and beside...

...the Army's going to make me

a brand new one.

Does the mademoiselle know you are here?

No.

I will find her.

Hello, Sam.

How are you, friend?

I was sorry to hear about your mother.

She had a very good life.

What is all of this?

It is recess.

All of this is a school for children

whose parents have been killed by the war.

On the first day they are here, I remind

them of something my mother told me.

She said, "Everyone in the world

has some kind of a burden...

"...but it is not the burden

that's important.

"It's how you carry it."

Are you happy?

Sometimes, like most people.

Let me show you our classroom.

Today we have a visitor, an American.

His name is Lieutenant, no...

...Captain Sam Loggins.

In his honor, we shall sing a song.

Sous le ciel de Paris.

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