Barkley's Story: Looking Back At The Vietnam War

The new coach seemed peculiar, and it wasn't just because of that third eye. I walked out of the locker room after school for practice and I saw the new coach sitting on the bench. When he looked up I saw the strangest thing, he had a third eye on his forehead. It was hardly noticeable because of his hat but you could still feel it watching you. The new coach told us to start our warm ups. His voice was really low and gravely. He walked around as we did our normal routine and I noticed he walked with a limp and that one of his hands was mangled. He hardly talked all practice, the only time he did was to tell us what drill to do. After practice, when I got home I asked my mom if she new anything about our new coach. She said she didn't

I asked what his name was and he said it was Charles Barkley. I asked Coach Barkley about himself like why did he move from Vermont to Nebraska. He said that he used to live in Nebraska when he was younger then when he turned 18 he drafted for the Vietnam War. He went to Vietnam when he was only 24. He fought along the front lines and he ended up being a prisoner of war. He was a prisoner for what seemed like months but was only two weeks. By the time the troops came for him he was starving and only had water for those two weeks. The enemy had broken his leg and had when he tried to escape. Then they started healing by the time he got out. That is why his hand is mangled and he walks with a limp but I didn't want to seem rude and ask about his eye. He must have noticed my hesitation because he then went on to explain that he had a birth defect that caused him to half the third eye. I asked him why he hardly talked in practice. He said that when he was a kid others would tease him about his third eye and that he didn't have any one to talk to so he just learned to ignore the other kids and he hardly talked. I told him he shouldn't be scared that we would tease him, that we are one big family and that we wouldn't make fun of him, and if others did they would have to go through a bunch of high school girls. He thanked me and said that no one has ever said anything like that to

By the time he finished his story he had all of us in tears. We had never felt so close to a coach and we were glad we was going to consider us as family. Practices were really fun after that every one worked hard but still had fun. The games went really well we only lost one game and won districts so now we get to go to