The Purple Heart by Vincent Yee Page B

bit of disgust at
feeling unclean and what she really wanted was to rinse her face and bathe in a
hot bath. But there was no running water in the barrack. She then walked over
to her mother.
    “Is there anything that I
can help you with?” whispered Minami.
    “We’ll have to do more
cleaning. There’s still more sand. I’ll let everyone else sleep in a little
longer before we wash up for breakfast.”
    When her mother mentioned
about washing up, Minami thought it would be nice to get some water and bring
it back. “I’ll go get some water for us, Mom. We can use it to wash up or whenever
we need it for anything.”
    Her mother looked up and
said, “Good idea. I think I saw a water pump behind one of the barracks. Take
that pail with you and make sure you rinse it out first.”
    Minami nodded and scanned
the corner of the room where they had stored miscellaneous items until her eyes
came upon the water pail. She picked up the pail by its handle, put on her coat
and made her way to the partition. It was a tawdry site, as bundles of
strangers were forced to sleep together in a barrack they never wanted to come
to. Some of the units had their blankets up as partitions, others had not
bothered yet as they probably needed the blankets more for warmth than privacy.
Minami quietly made her way down the center of the barrack, trying to not
betray anyone’s privacy by keeping her head down and her eyes focused ahead.
She reached the door and slowly pulled it open as it creaked loudly. She
slipped out into the morning sun.
    The air was brisk, but the
sky was clear. She turned right and walked along the length of the barrack. At
the end, she looked left and saw what seemed like endless rows of barracks. She
walked past each row and looked for the water pump that her mother had
mentioned. She had passed about five rows of barracks until she finally spotted
a grayish metal pipe coming out of the ground and set against one of the
barracks. There was a spout at one end and a handle at the other. It was the
water pump.
    Minami placed the pail
underneath the spout. The spout and handle were parallel to the barrack. She
grabbed the handle and tried to pull the handle upward and it didn’t move. With
both hands around the handle, it still didn’t budge. She relaxed for a moment
and tried to yank the handle upward. That only shook the pipe coming out of the
ground but the handle held fast. With determination, she used all of her might
to grudgingly move the handle upward and then with equal determination, pushed
the handle downward. But there was no water.
    She brought her hands to
her knees and hunched over to catch her breath. She was dismayed at how hard it
was to work the handle. Maybe the handle was stiff because it was never used
before or the intense heat of the desert fused the metal parts together. Any
excuse would satisfy her as long as she didn’t have to admit that she was
actually in worse shape than she thought.
    Her eyes looked up at the
handle and from that hunched position she had an idea. She placed her shoulder
underneath the handle and in an upward motion, the handle moved and then using
her entire body weight, she pushed the handle downward. The pump grumbled from
beneath the ground and she repeated the entire awkward motion as the pipe
started to shake until finally, brown colored water spurted out. Minami froze
at the sight of the brown water. It was disgusting.
    After a quick rest, she
tried again as more brown water spurted out. Each spurt was clearer than the
last. The pail was finally full of misty brown water. Minami breathed heavily
while she leaned over. She looked at the pail, as the surface of the brown
water reflected the blurred vision of her silhouette and the rippling outline
of the sun overhead. She was fixated as it reflected the blurred future of her
situation. She was in quiet thought when it was disturbed by a shadow that cast
itself over the surface of the water.
    Minami turned her head
upward