I and Love and You


 

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Mrs. Landingham: I miss my boys.
Charlie: I never knew you had kids.
Mrs. Landingham: Twins. Andrew and Simon. I tried not to- you know, I dressed them differently, but they still did everything together. They went off to medical school together, and then they finished their second year, and of course their lottery number came up at the same time.
Charlie: For the draft?
Mrs. Landingham: Yeah.
Charlie: Well, I would have thought they could get a deferment to finish med school.
Mrs. Landingham: They didn’t want one. Their father and I begged them, but they wanted to go where people needed doctors. Their father and I begged them, but you can’t tell kids anything. So they joined up as medics, and four months later they were pinned down during a fight in Da Nang and were killed by enemy fire. That was Christmas Eve, 1970. You know, they were so young, Charlie. They were your age. It’s hard when that happens so far away, you know, because with the noises and the shooting, they had to be so scared. It’s hard not to think that right then, they needed their mother. Anyway, I miss my boys.

(Source: letters-and-sodas)