Gabe stared Jack in the eyes. “There, you see why I saw a shrink and tried counseling until I couldn’t stand it?” He shook his head again, giving Jack an opportunity to speak.
“You know, I get a little of what you’re saying because, and this sounds stupid, I know, because I’m going to equate fighting in the war to protesting the war back in the states.”
“The first time I got involved in a protest there had been a bombing the night before at the Mankato Post Office. Nobody was killed or hurt. Whoever did it had set it off at night when nobody was working at the Post Office. The next day I was in class as usual down at Old Main, the old business school. A bunch of students had gathered and barricaded themselves and everyone else in a section of the building. The professors just kind of said, ‘sayounara’, and went to their offices and locked themselves in. I had to pee so I went to the men’s room on first floor where I ended up at the urinal standing next to one of the typical long haired hippie types. The guy looked at me, and now I could hear the cops pounding on the main doors which this group of students had blockaded with all kinds of crap, garbage bins, benches, etc. I think they must have even chained the doors. I was amazed. The sounds of the police pounding on the doors and ramming them with some kind of battering ram was deafening. I was kind of shell shocked, to tell you the truth. Anyway, the hippie guy standing next to me says, ‘When the pigs break through we’re going to hold our ground and fight.’
“Well, I nodded my head as if I was totally into what he was saying, but I really wasn’t gonna have anything to do with that, so he finished pissing and took off toward where the cops were trying to bust through. I went the opposite way and somehow, I don’t know where, I found a door I could get out of and left the building and went back to Searing Dorm.”
“My brother, the brave protester.” Gabe clapped his hands slowly and laughed.
Jack, feeling a little sheepish and embarrassed, continued.
“Well, yeah, I’m not too proud of that, but, honestly, those hippies were going to get their heads bashed in and I just couldn’t see joining them.
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