Forrest was at the hospital at Danna for most of two months. There was a guy next to my cot name of Dan, who had been bowed up inside a tank. He was all burnt and had tubes going in and out of him everyplace, but he never holler. He talks real low and quiet, and after a day or so, he and Forrest got to be friends.
Dan comes from the state of Connecticut, and he was a teacher of history. After about a week or so, they move Forrest to another part of the hospital, but every day I gone back to set for a while with Dan. There is a little market down by the waterfront where folks sell fish and shrimp and stuff. And one day Forrest went down there and bought some shrimp and one of the cooks at the hospital boil them for him and they sure were good. He wished Dan could eat some. But he cannot.
Couple of days later he gone on back to the fish market and there is a little guy selling a big bag of shrimp there. Forrest asked him where he got the shrimp. But he does not understand English. Forrest used sign language like a Indian or something, and after a while he catch on. After a mile or so, Forrest got there.
One day, when Forrest went back to hospital, he received Dan’s letter:
Dear Forrest,
I am sorry there was no time for us to see each other before I left. The doctors made their decision quickly, and before I knew it, I was being taken away, but I asked if I could stop long enough to write you this note, because you have been so kind to me while I was here.
I sense, Forrest, that you are on the verge of something very significant in your life, some change, or event that will move you in a different direction, and you must seize the moment, and not let it pass. When I think back on it now, there is something in your eyes, some tiny flash of fire that comes now and then, mostly when you smile, and, on those infrequent occasions, I believe what I saw was almost a Genesis of our ability as humans to think, to create, to be.
This war is not for you, old pal— nor me— and I am well out of it as I’m sure you will be in time. The crucial question is, what will you do? I don’t think you’re an idiot at all. Perhaps by the measure of tests or the judgment of fools, you might fall into some category or other, but deep down, Forrest, I have seen that glowing sparkle of curiosity burning deep in your mind. Take the tide, my friend, and as you are carried along, make it work for you, fight the shallows and the snags and never give in, never give up. You are a good fellow, Forrest, and you have a big heart.
DAN
