Herlong part 3

Throughout the war Herlong had been home to a compound of Italian prisoners of war. Sometimes Richard would walk along the chain linked fencing to see them. After a while some of the men would push a paper cup through the fencing and ask Richard to walk along the road and collect cigarette butts for them. He collected cigarette butts a number of times for the men, some of whom knew a few English words or could make themselves understood. They were thin, shabbily dressed, stubble bearded young men whom Richard thought of as old at the time. But they seemed overall to be contented and Richard knew they had no idea they were in Herlong. He could tell they thought they might be in the middle of Mongolia, they were that lost.

An older kid started hanging around the gang of wild savages. One day he suggested they all create a buried treasure. So the gang brought their best toys, proceeded to dig a hole and then buried all their things. Not two hours later they went to check the treasure spot only to discover all the toys had been looted, every one. Later they spotted the same older kid out in the sage brush and went to confront him. That time he told the gang that if they's take turns sucking his dick, he'd get them into the cub scouts. The immediate reaction of each of the gang was eeewww. Not understanding what the whole thing was about they scattered in all directions only to meet back in town to tell the parents. The adults made a search of the area but were never able to identify the culprit.

All that year Richard tried to be a good older brother to little Noel. He remembers especially holding his arms out and Noel taking his first few steps into Richard's outstretched hands.

Then one day the prisoners of war were gone. The gates to their compound were left open and over 60 howling boys ran through the prisoners' former quarters looking for something, something interesting or precious to keep. Instead the floors were littered with cigarette butts, strange posters hung curled at the edges on the wall, and other unnamebable detritus lay on the old narrow cots. Richard particularly remembers a movie poster of Cornell Wilde. The whole thing reminded him of the day one of Lillian's admirers, before Al, took Richard and Lillian to "see a deer." The drove out to the Herlong dump and from a distance Richard saw the most beautiful deer poised at the peak of the rubbish. But as they drew closer the deer deteriorated into a torn and shot up taxidermied carcass of some long ago throphy that was now missing its eyes and was losing its stuffing.