1:44:01
When I got out,
I had $4,967 in back pay...
1:44:07
...and I was one of the displaced.
1:44:12
I'd had two letters from Monique
while I was in the hospital.
1:44:15
''Dear friend,'' the first one began.
1:44:17
''I think of you often.''
At the end, she added...
1:44:21
...almost as an afterthought,
''I met a soldier named Harmer in Nice.
1:44:26
''He said that Britt Harris was dead.''
That was all.
1:44:30
I was glad she could write it like that.
1:44:33
The second letter was also short.
1:44:36
It merely said that her mother
had died the week of V-E Day.
1:44:40
I didn't answer the letters.
I didn't really know what to say.
1:44:53
Then one afternoon as I took my first sip...
1:44:56
...of what must have been
my 2,000th beer...
1:44:59
I saw myself in the ring
the glass left on the table.
1:45:02
I realized then that I'd known
guys like me left over from the first war.
1:45:07
They got shot up
at the battle of the Meuse...
1:45:09
...and spent the next 20 years
brooding about it. I'd had it.
1:45:17
I went to the American Express
and sent a cable to my partner:
1:45:20
''Reporting back three weeks from today.
1:45:22
''Meantime,
taking small sentimental journey.''
1:45:27
The next morning I was in Villefranche.
1:45:51
Merci, monsieur.