Letters From Vietnam

~~In the late sixties America was a country divided against itself. A conflict in a far off land with a strange sounding name was forcing Americans to choose sides. Were you for the war or against? That was the prevailing question. But that was not the question on Bobbie Beck’s mind. Rather, she primarily concerned herself with the safety of her brother, Mike, who was engaged in the conflict.
There was something else on Bobbie’s mind. As she neared the age of majority all of her friends were either married or announcing a wedding date, yet she had no suitable suitors. You see, although Bobbie was brilliant, beautiful, and had a bright shinning spirit, she was also scarred and crippled due to a childhood accident. Would she ever know the love her friends had found?
Bobbie’s world changed the day Mike came home from the hospital. He had been severely wounded in Vietnam and returned home to the support of a loving family. He was still in much pain and this concerned Bobbie. But the big surprise came when he handed her a series of letters written by a fallen comrade. The author had written them as a form of a journal depicting his troubled life and how he ended up in Southeast Asia. He had used the letters to Bobbie as an outlet for his frustrations. Yet, he had never intended to mail the letters.
When Bobbie opened the first letter, she found the beginnings of the story of a troubled and mistreated young boy. So intrigued by the writings, she was compelled to read on. Soon, she found in the author a kind of kinship. She had led a life of the physically and emotionally scarred. He had lived a life of the lonely and emotionally scarred. They were soul mates in her mind. She could understand his pain and it helped her learn much about herself, her own pain, and her place in the world.
When her brother married her best friend, Bobbie was driven harder into the letters and the life of the young man who had penned them. Mike had said that he was dead, but there was no proof. What if he was still alive? Did she want to find out if he was still alive? Did she need to? And what would she do if he were still alive?