De laatste tijd mail ik met een man die in Vietnam heeft gevochten. De titel van dit stukje is een bekentenis. Hij is ook gescheiden, maar op een iets andere manier dan ik. Het gaat voornamelijk over muziek. Bepaalde (bepalende) stukken heb ik weggelaten. Het gaat zo:
Ellingmann: May I ask you something? Did you fight in the Vietnam War? Have you seen Saigon in the Sixties? Has Lyndon B. Johnson been your chief? My name is ******, I was born in 63, and from 68 on Americans were living in our street, in our village (Leersum), in Holland. I loved them. The father was a marine, his name was Jerry Meisel, and he showed me around on their US base in Soesterberg, near the place where we all lived, he was very proud of it, I remember his pride. They gave us their food, we gave them ours, and we had parties together, all kinds of parties, like Halloween parties. I guess everybody knew the Vietnam War was going on, but nobody ever talked about it. I still don't know why. They must have been aware they were torturing the world, at least parts of it, with no reason. He had two sons, Jimmy and John. They went back to the US, some day. I wonder how they're going.
Hij: [...] I enlisted 1973 nixon was chief
Ellingmann: [...] Thanks, I really enjoyed watching Jimi perform.
Hij: Thanks. I hope watching jimi is the best.
Ellingmann: It sure is. I watch Jimi all the time. But let me tell you, I guess I'm the only one, because there's nobody I know who really likes Jimi. Nobody likes Jimi Hendrix these days the way we do. These people seem to have other things on their minds.
Both: That ain't too cool.