Saving Private Palma

Our secretary’s neighbor died last week, his death was the talk of their neighborhood and perhaps the rest of the country because he is a marine private who died in the line of duty in a small island down south in a campaign against enemy rebels last week.

This private just took one bullet during their gun battle, but it got him right on his forehead right above his eyebrow and it was enough to get somebody killed. But it was pretty much a decent death when you try to think about it because the other dead soldiers from his platoon came back home in pieces, and mostly without their heads on. From what the other marines told the private’s family, some of the dead soldiers had their arms, legs, eyeballs and reproductive extremities missing and the enemy rebels couldn’t have just shot them off, they were like animals that they had to dismember them off and leave these dead bodies in pieces outisde their territory as co-specie warnings not to come close, since probably their urine and feces didn’t smell strong enough to mark their frontier.

Animals tend to be territorial over nesting grounds or a food source, about a week ago these rebels caught an italian priest whom they are keeping in their hideout and whom these marines are looking for in the first place, and this italian is a very good food source for them and they're not giving him away so easily, not that they had him cooking italian spaghetti or pasta but this italian can rake in a good amount of money once his country starts looking for him.

Some say this private was the first one who got shot at the heat of their gun battle because he carried their radio equipments and the enemy had to take him out first before he could call for help. Our secretary also thought that way too because she remembered their neighbor to be a very placid boy and he would probably run like forrest gump if caught in a heavy gunfight. Our secretary took the day off yesterday because her daughter caught fever after staying up late watching soldiers at their neighbor's. It was the private’s birthday too yesterday and their town priest held mass for him because the private used to be an acolyte for that priest when he was a boy, anyway the priest couldn’t think of anything to say during the mass, the private’s mother had been crying like mad the past few days so he just sang a happy birthday song over the dead body and the mother fainted down to the ground.