The Body in the Basement - Alex Broun

51EILEEN:MAX:SOLDIER:EILEEN:SOLDIER:Maybe he’s been playing too many Video Games. They say that Halo2 is pretty full on.(TO EILEEN) Sssh ! (TO SOLDIER) Go on son.Johnny Turk was up on the hill, waitin’ for us.Did he say Turks ? I thought they lived in Turkey.We were like sittin’ ducks. Comin’ off the boats, trippin’ each otherup, fallin’ over in the sand. They picked us off, one by one. I watched‘em die, all of ‘em. Took one below the knee. Can’t feel it. Do youthink they’ll cut it off ? I heard if you can’t feel it they cut it off.EILEEN: Are Turkey siding with Saddam ?MAX:SOLDIER:Be quiet will you ? Go on Jeremy.But I kept goin’. Crawled along the beach, draggin’ my dead legbehind me. Kept me head low. Bullets were poppin’ in the sand all‘round. Got past bodies. Blokes with their legs blown off. Headssmashed open. Blood and brains everywhere. After ‘while the bulletsseemed to come less and the artillery got a bit quieter. Then the bulletsstopped. I got up to me knees and looked back – the beach was full ofbodies. Me mates. Blown to hell. I wasn’t goin’ back there you hearme. I wasn’t goin’ back !THE SOLDIER IS OVERCOME WITH TEARS. HE HUDDLES INTO MAX.EILEEN:I think I saw that battle on CNNN.MAX: Will you shut up ?SOLDIER:So I just crept goin’ till I crawled right off the beach. Never lookedback. Just kept inchin’ me way till finally it was night and I was a longway away from there.MAX: Jeremy, are you saying you deserted ?EILEEN:SOLDIER:MAX:EILEEN:Told you he was no good.You can’t call it that. They were dead. Don’t you understand ? All of‘em. If I kept going I’d be dead too. Just ‘nother dead cove face first inthe sand. What’s the good n’that ?Listen son, I know it’s hard but when you joined up – whenever itactually was that you joined up - you promised to serve your country –no matter what. Through the ups and downs, good times and bad.Just like being married.