Nguyen Duy

Stop

Stop!…
He ran three steps ahead of me,
a ranger with the face of a child.
His shot just missed my temple.

My fingers tightened on the trigger,
the AK's clip pressed to my stomach.
Only half a second.
No! Only a tenth of a second.
If my finger moved half a millimeter,
he'd be dead.

Stop!
He kept running.
I kept running after him, rifle ready.
Chasing him was much harder
than pulling the trigger. A tenth of a second was all it would take.

I knew that so well.
Just as I knew
if the situation had been reversed,
and I ran in front empty handed,
and he ran behind, M-16 in hand,
very likely I'd have been dead.
Life and death crossing in a tenth of a second.

The clip pressed hard to my stomach,
beating harder, a disquieting thought:
"It's easy to kill him,
to save him is harder…"
"It's easy to kill him,
save him, it's harder…"
The thought ran forward through me,
Forward...
Forward.
With all my strength,
I forced him
To stop!