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They came to the other bend and stoppedThe stream spread out into a swamp beyond the turnThere was a thin ribbon of water in the middle and bog land on either sideWilson had washed into it, was lost somewhere in the foliage and swampIt would take days to find him if he did not sink
"Oh," Goldstein said, "he's lost
"Yeah," Ridges mumbledHe took a step forward and stumbled in the water once moreIt felt pleasant lapping against his face, and he had no desire to stand up"Come on," Goldstein said
Ridges began to weepHe struggled to a sitting position, and cried with his head on his folded arms, the water swirling around his hips and feetGoldstein stood over him tottering
"Mother-fuggin sonofabitch," Ridges mumbledIt was the first time he had cursed louis vuitton diaper bag tote since childhood, and the words pulled out of his chest one by one, leaving behind a vacuum of anger and bitternessWilson would not have his burial, but somehow that was not important nowWhat counted was that he had carried this burden through such distances of space and time, and it had washed away in the endAll his life he had labored without repayment; his grandfather and his father and he had struggled with bleak crops and unending povertyWhat had their work come to? "What profit hath man of all his labour wherein he laboureth under the sun?" The line came back to himIt was a part of the Bible he had always hatedRidges felt the beginning of a deep and unending bitternessThe one time they had got a decent crop it had been ruined by a wild rainstormWhat rolex replica watches kind of God could there be who always tricked you in the end?
The practical joker
He wept out of bitterness and longing and despair; he wept from exhaustion and failure and the shattering naked conviction that nothing mattered
And Goldstein stood beside him, holding onto Ridges's shoulder to steady himself in the currentFrom time to time he would move his lips, scratch feebly at his face"Israel is the heart of all nations
But the heart could be killed and the body still liveAll the suffering of the Jews came to nothingNo sacrifices were paid, no lessons were learnedIt was all thrown away, all statistics in the cruel wastes of historyAll the ghettos, all the soul cripplings, all the massacres and pogroms, the gas chambers, lime kilns -- all of it omega de ville watches touched no one, all of it was lostIt was carried and carried and carried, and when it finally grew too heavy it was droppedThat was all there was to itHe was beyond tears, he stood beside Ridges with the stricken sensation of a man who discovers that someone he loves has diedThere was nothing in him at the moment, nothing but a vague anger, a deep resentment, and the origins of a vast hopelessness
"Let's go," he mumbled
Ridges got up at last, and they wavered slowly through the water, feeling it recede to their ankles, become shallow once moreThe stream broadened, rippled over pebbles, became muddy and then sandyThey staggered around a bend and saw the sunlight and the ocean beyond
A few minutes later they staggered up on the beachDespite their exhaustion omega replica watches they walked on for a hundred yardsSomehow it was distasteful to stay too near to the river
As if in mutual accord, they sprawled out on the sand and lay there motionless, their faces on their arms, the sun warming their backsIt was the middle of the afternoonThere was nothing to do but wait here for the platoon to return and the landing craft to fetch themTheir rifles had been lost, their packs, their rations, but they did not think about thisThey were too depleted, and later they could find food in the jungle
They lay like this until evening, too weak to move, absorbing a faint pleasure from resting, feeling the sun upon themTheir resentment had turned toward each other and they felt the dull sour hatred of men who have shared a humiliating failure dior monogram bag togeth |