P. O. W. Read Free Page A

kept chained up in one of the new longhouses. The small POW camp held only the two American prisoners, but
     it had room for two more. Colonel Garibaldi’s weapons systems officer had been held in the cage across from Barnett until
     he had died the month before from malaria, and James had spent his first and only night in the cage to the left of Barnett’s.
     The new cage had been built in the exact center of the small American area and was no farther than ten feet from any of the
     POWs.
    Lieutenant Van Pao led the detail carrying their cargo. There were three NVA soldiers at each end of the sagging bamboo pole.
     Barnett watched and could see that the load they were carrying was heavy. Van Pao stopped in front of the low cage they had
     just finished building and spoke in rapid Vietnamese to the detail. Two soldiers hopped up on top of the cage and untied the
     trap door, while the rest of the detail struggled to lift the large rice sack high enough to clear the top of the cage. Barnett
     smiled as he watched the soldiers struggle. The cargo shifted and moved inside of the sack, which made it even more difficult
     to handle. As Lieutenant Van Pao glanced over at Barnett and caught him smiling, she flashed a look of pure hate at the American
     and screamed at her soldiers to hurry up. The sack had finally been placed on top of the cage and the tied end positioned
     over the open trap door when Private Dong Bec climbed up on the structure, holding a bamboo rod with his good arm. Beaming
     with pride, he carried his bandaged arm like a baton of honor. He would be the hero for a couple of days in the camp with
     the rest of the NVA soldiers. Dong Bec loosened the strings that held the sack shut and directed the opening of the bag down
     into the cage.
    Sensing the fresh air, she moved her head out from the safety of her coils and started crawling out of the uncomfortable burrow.
    Garibaldi’s and Barnett’s lungs stopped functioning at exactly the same instant. It looked as if the snake would never stop
     coming out of the rice sack. She was circling the cage, looking for an opening to escape. Garibaldi had estimated when he
     was building the cage that it was about fifteen feet long and ten feet wide. Barnett had commented on its chest-high height,
     and now they knew why; it had been built especially for the python.
    “Do you like my new pet?” Lieutenant Van Pao suppressed a giggle. “Well, Spencer Barnett… Do you like my pet?”
    Spencer heard his own voice answer the woman. “Nice… real nice, if you’re into that kind of thing.”
    “I
am
, Spencer…. I
love
snakes.” She laid her hand against the side of the cage where the snake was circling and tapped the bamboo with her blunt
     fingernail. “You might have a chance to meet her… very soon.”
    Colonel Garibaldi shuddered. He knew what Sweet Bitch had in the back of her mind. She had interrogated him enough for him
     to understand her level of reasoning.
    The NVA soldiers followed the lieutenant to their mess hall for supper. Barnett could hear her laughing all the way down the
     trail. The guard positioned in the small shack that overlooked the Americans smiled and lit up a cigarette. Barnett could
     see that it was taken from a Marlboro pack.
    “That fucking thing has to be Kaa’s mother!” The colonel watched as she sensed the air between the narrow bamboo bars of her
     cage. “Jeez! She’s got to be thirty-five feet long!” The snake was still circling the cage, trying to find a way out; one
     long side of the structure as well as a short side had her body pressed up against it, with about a foot of her head and neck
     just making a turn.
    “Who’s Kaa?” Barnett found his voice.
    “Rudyard Kipling, a British writer, wrote a book about a boy lost in the jungle, and a huge snake called Kaa sort of adopted
     him…. This thing has got to be his mother!” Garibaldi was amazed. The snake was still clean and shiny from its swim in the
     river