Laughing Until You Cry - John Fetto

Jaybird was the funniest. Nothing could wipe that stupid grin off his face. Still he’d shut up when Willie talked, outlining the mission, exchanging ideas with Sandman, and telling him to gear up. He wanted to bring the rubber duck. He bought it in Saigon, and he figured if he nailed it up to a tree, vc would climb over each other trying to get to it, and then die trying to eat it. They could tie trip wire to it, so that when they grabbed it, two slabs of c4, claymore mines, would shred whomever pulling it out of a tree. They would hang it from a tree limb, the way the vc had hung the lurp they found, with his arms tied behind his back and his throat cut.

Sandman wanted to grab one of them and string them up on the same spot, but Jaybird liked the idea of a chicken. More insulting, and the more he talked about it, the funnier it got. Sandman would write down the list, and Jaybird would add “and one rubber chicken. Check,” they’d crack up, but it still was really a joke. Not serious; no one believed it. Still after they dropped, lay around about two days, watching and counting the black pajamas walking down the trail, undetected, creeping to their landing zone without any contact, any detection. The pickup zone was on the other side of the mountains, and as they worked their way towards it, Jaybird hung back and for a mad moment they thought he was lost, till he came running, running fast, knees popping up as high as his chest like high school kid running the high hurtles, yelling, “Go, let’s go.” He dove into the chopper, and the chopper lifted just as the pajamas appeared over the crest and popped their ak’s in the general direction of the chopper. The chopper lifted away, but jaybird signaled for the pilot to circle back. The pilot looked at Willie and Willie rolled his eyes, then nodded, and the bird swung back over the hill and swooped down into the valley. Before they pulled out they could see the tree where they had found the dead soldier. Now a bright red rubber chicken hung by it’s neck there, surround by at least a dozen dead black pajama’s who were stupid enough to try to take it down before they were shredded by what Jaybird had rigged to the noose.