Vietnam

Probably wondering why the title is vietnam.

I was at the cash register, just chillen cause there was no one at my line. I see this old white guy, probably 50s, coming to my aisle with two crutches. Just by the way he was using the crutches I could tell he was a pro. This wasn't a "sprained ankle so i gotta use it for a few days" kinda cruches walker. He was a master. He would just plant the two ends of the crutch to the ground and kinda do this leap frog momentum swing to get from point A to point B.

I guessed some kind of disability where his legs were paralyzed. I was wrong. As I got a full view of his body, his left leg was MIA. Where'd it go? Wtf happened to him? Was he born like this? He's pretty buff for an old guy, did he lose it in war?

All these questions in my mind. I knew that the moment he steps out of h-mart, I'm going to regret not asking him what happened to his leg but at the same time that's kinda jacked up. I've been in these situations before. Not once did I ask the person what happened because it's just unstandard and I'm a pretty standard guy.

I was thinking of worst case scenarios of what would happen if I ask him. What would be the worst reaction? I put myself in his shoes. I'm an old white guy. One leg. Mildly decent looking asian kid at h-mart asks me what happened to my missing leg. Wtf is this kids problem? Who asks those kind of questions? You're supposed to not stare at that kind of thing, pretending they are perfectly normal. Except they aren't.

It's like if a midget walked into h-mart to buy food. The moment she comes to my line, I would scan her stuff. Bag it. Take her money. Give her change. Say thank you. Perfectly standard. The moment she leaves, I turn around to choi and say "yo did you see that midget?"

You're not supposed to talk about that kind of stuff TO that person. "Why are you a midget?" That's just inappropriate.

But I was curious so I had to ask about his leg. I'm not used to these kind of questions. These semi rude, should be polite when asking. So I tried to formulate a sentence to say to ask him what happened. What came out was

"Is it rude to ask what happened to your leg?"

Instantly I realized how dumb this question was. This isn't asking him about his leg. It's asking him if I'm being rude. He could just say yes or no and have answered that question. It was just a horrible way to ask him. I SHOULD have said something like

"I'm sorry. This may be rude but I'm very curious. What happened to your leg?"

But naaa. I had to say something quick. So I asked him the question. He stared into my eyes for a second or two. Then he finally opened his mouth and said "Vietnam".

"That's what I thought. Did you step on a land mine"
"Ran over one"
"I'm sorry to hear that"

That's how the awkward conversation started. I read this article about the vietnam war once and the affect it had on the soldiers. One of them was how much the soldiers hated asian people during the war. They HATED them. Wanted to exterminate every single viet they could see. I'm korean yo. This man doesn't know this. I thought about how much he probably hates me. I wanted to ask him the dumbest question "Do you hate asian people?" but that would have been truly the dumbest. That would be full retarded. Can't go that far.

He kept talking to me for a few more seconds about benefits after his leg got cut off. But most of it I just smiled and nodded, pretending to understand what he was saying cause he was so damn quiet. He was basically whispering. All I got out of it was the word benefit from his 2 whispering sentences.

I thought about how great america is though. United states soldier loses his leg at vietnam. Probably gets monthly checks from the government to just live life. Probably doesn't have to work. Probably doesn't make much from it but enough to live a stable life. Probably crappy life but stable. Probably single in a tiny ass apartment. But still, he's living free. Now imagine the vietnamese soldier who lost his leg during the vietnam war. Probably got some crappy ass amputee surgery which consisted of needled morphine injections, a cutting saw, and a lot of towels. After that, he probably was sent back home to do what ever he could to survive. $0 from the government. Surgery was probably free. Probably had to cook noodles for the rest of his life.

I got jumped by vietnamese people once. Well, I didn't. My friend did. I was there. All he did was smile.