Free Sand in the Wind by Robert Roth Page B

don’t supply us and we have to go without C-rations for a day or two. Jesus didn’t have any C-rations. Satan came to him and said, ‘If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.’ Jesus answered him by saying, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.’   ”
    Chalice noticed Hamilton looking across him towards Forsythe, eyes focused on the cue ball as Forsythe rubbed it in his hands. Childs sat with his head down, kneading the lump on his forearm. Tony 5’s huge body was leaning forward, arms dangling between his knees. His eyes slowly closed and his chin fell against his chest, causing his head to bob up and down as his lungs expanded and contracted. As he fell into a deeper sleep, his breathing became louder. Chalice heard a change in the chaplain’s tone indicating he was about to make a point.
    “You men are probably asking yourselves what this sermon has to do with you. Satan never came up to you and asked you to change stones to bread or offered you all the kingdoms of the world. No, he hasn’t, but he tempts you in other ways with other things — like marijuana. ”
    Forsythe stared disgustedly at Hindman. Childs stopped playing with his lump long enough to raise his head and mumble audibly, “Are you shiftin’ me, Fred?” Hamilton was still looking at the cue ball, and Tony 5 continued to sleep.
    The chaplain went on, “You start out smoking marijuana, then you get hooked on other narcotics. Pretty soon you’re stealing and doing other works of the Devil just so you can buy more narcotics. Think about it: You start out smoking a little marijuana to get high and before you know it you’re a full-time employee of the Devil. All you wanted to do was get high. I’ll tell you a better way to get high, the way I do it. I get high on Jesus.”
    There was a sharp crack. Chalice shot a glance towards Forsythe in time to see the cue ball bouncing between his feet. Tony 5 woke up with a jolt, his eyes nervously shifting from side to side. Hamilton watched the ball as it rolled into the aisle before Forsythe could pick it up. Practically everybody in front of them had turned around to see what had happened. The dark Marine gave Forsythe a hard stare. Forsythe, sitting with a big, guilty grin on his face, said to him in a childlike voice, “I dropped it.” The dark Marine turned back towards the front with a less than satisfied look on his face. Childs strolled nonchalantly into the aisle to pick up the cue ball. Distracted, Chaplain Hindman lost his train of thought. He stood silent for a few moments before continuing the sermon. “As I was saying, I get high when I think about the wonderful things He does, when I think about how much He loves us all, when I think how He loves our country   .   .   .   ”
    When the services were over, most of those present stayed around to talk to the chaplain. Childs quickly got up and left, followed by Hamilton, Forsythe, Tony 5, and Chalice. Tony 5 said he wanted to see somebody and headed off in a different direction. Childs and Hamilton walked in front. Forsythe, flipping the cue ball from hand to hand, and Chalice followed. Childs whispered to Hamilton so the others couldn’t hear, “Is he all right?”
    “Yeah, I think so.”
    “Maybe we better ditch him.”
    “Naw, he’s okay.”
    “He parties?”
    “If he doesn’t, we’ll turn him on.”
    “Okay.”
    Childs turned off the road and led them on a twisting path between a series of ammo bunkers. Chalice had been walking with his head down and hadn’t been paying much attention to where they were going. Suddenly he found himself standing in front of a small Buddhist shrine. The others were already inside. The shrine was surrounded on three sides by the sandbagged walls of the three bunkers built around it. The side free of obstructions looked out over the valley. ‘God! What’s this doing here?’ Ignoring those inside,