[ WP ] `` Kill the child , it 's the right thing to do . ''

`` Kill the child, it's the right thing to do.'' 
 
 I poured a slow calculated amount of booze into my shot glass. It was therapy for me more or less. It made me feel like I was in control, like I did n't have a drinking problem. As long as the mouth of the bottle never touched my lips, as long as I used the glass, I was n't just another worthless alcoholic, slowly circling the drain into a liver failure induced coma. 
 
 I looked out the window of my shabby fourth floor apartment, what a view I had. The cracked water-stained glass opened into an alley, except the alley was about two foot wide, and across my window was a nice brick wall, crumbling apart, kind of like my life. I had been proud once, a strong man, unable to break or bend; an unstoppable force. That was then, and this was now. I poured another glass, my previous one having been consumed by the maw that I called a mouth. 
 
 About three blocks down I could hear the church bells ring, it was 10 a.m. Late for work, another lost job, it was no matter. I still had my bottle, and the mouth was n't touching my lips. 
 
 `` Kill the child, it's the right thing to do.'' I had told myself that, I was crouched, low, I had my M14 tight against my chest. The kid was gushing blood, he would never survive. I was the savior though, I could save him. My sargent told me, `` Kill the child, it's the right thing to do.'' instead I picked him up. 
 
 Leaving the bottle on the table I rolled my wheelchair away I turned it to face the nightstand in my shabby studio apartment, there sat a 9x10 photo of my platoon. 
 
 `` Kill the child, it's the right thing to do.'' 
 
 I lifted him, he was tied to an explosive trigger. I saw his eyes, those sweet Vietnamese eyes, he did n't want this anymore than we did. The explosions rocked us, I thought I was dead. That boys body shielded me from the blast, he saved me. My platoon was wiped out, I was left a cripple, and all I can think of as I drink myself to death is: 
 
 `` Kill the child, it's the right thing to do.''
