The Things They Cannot Say by Kevin Sites Page A

Vancouver.
    KS: It’s a nice place.
    WW: It’s, ah, it’s so beautiful. I can’t wait to go home. I wanna get . . . um, my motorcycle only got three hundred and fifty miles on it. I can’t wait to get back and . . .
    KS: What kind of bike you got?
    WW: Just bought that new, uh, 636 Ninja. It’s Kawasaki.
    KS: What’s wrong with you, man? You guys always buy those when you go home.
    WW: Nah, I bought this, uh . . . I bought it before I came out here. I always wanted a bike.
    KS: Is “Willy” short for “William,” or is that what you go by?
    WW: Uh, William. I go by Willy, though.
    KS: You got brothers and sisters?
    WW: Uh, three brothers, two sisters.
    KS: Older or younger?
    WW: I’m the second youngest.
    KS: So what do they think about you being out here?
    WW: They can’t stand it. My little sister . . . if you ever see this, I love you, ’cause she writes me all the time. Her and my mom are writing me all the time, the only ones. And my fiancée, and that’s the only . . . that’s the sole purpose of why I can make it out here. Is family.
    KS: Well if I put you on TV, you ought to call them, so they can at least watch it.
    WW: What’s that?
    KS: I said if I put you on TV, you ought to at least call them so they can watch it.
    WW: I tried. It’s . . . I know I’m gonna be here for the rest of my tour, so . . . it’ll be at least a couple more weeks before I get to talk to ’em. Maybe I can get somebody to send ’em an e-mail or something.
    KS: Yeah, give me your e-mail address. I mean, ’cause I might use some of this tonight. Feed it out. We feed our stories every night.
    WW: I was on TV a few times. I was on CNN twice when the president had, um, chiefs of staff and he had, um, peacekeeping missions up at Camp David.
    KS: You did, uh, protection?
    WW: When he gets off the helo . . . when the head of state gets off the helo. Then we provide security for him.
    KS: So how’d you get to be a sergeant so fast?
    WW: I’m only corporal right now, but I’ll be a sergeant soon. I’m a good . . . I’ve always been a good PTer. I got . . . before I came out here, I’d go the gym every day. You know? I’m a good shot, as you can see today.
    KS: How many did you get? Six today?
    WW: I shot six out of nine. I could have shot more, but I’m so worried about putting one of my Marines’ lives in danger.
    KS: How long did that whole sequence take place?
    WW: The killing of those nine people?
    KS: Yeah.
    WW: Maybe thirty seconds. Just because I’ve got a slow Marine. He froze up on me. He almost got us killed. I can’t be mad at him. I get mad at the kid every day because he’s a really slow Marine, but I can’t get mad at him for that because morally . . . He told me morally he didn’t think he should kill him because he didn’t realize what was going on at first. Once I told him what to do, he did it. And he’s glad that . . . He’ll never question my authority ever again. I guarantee it.
    KS: They had the weapons pointed at you?
    WW: Yeah, I saved his life today. I’m really glad I did, too. I love the kid to death as a man, but as a Marine, he’s just not a very good Marine. [ Yelling ] Yeah? No, I don’t! What do you need?
    [ . . . ]
    WW: [ Sound of tank round hitting a house ] That’s how we clear it. That’s probably our main objective. That’s how we clear a house. That’s how the Marines do it. Okay. We don’t mess around.
    [ . . . ]
    WW: You gotta be careful, man. You ain’t got a gun?
    KS: Nah. Yeah, we’re noncombatants, so we’re not supposed to carry ’em.
    WW: I couldn’t do that. If I’m gonna be somewhere like this, I gotta have me a gun. That’s the bad thing about this country. Everybody got a gun.
    KS: That’s right.