Searching for Love in Movies chapter 3

Two days later, an article titled “Save Jerry, a Poor Prisoner of War, and His Mother” appeared on the front page of a local Mexican newspaper. There was also a photo of Marianne in the newspaper. She was sitting pitifully in the room, staring blankly ahead.

The news caused a sensation in the whole city. Driven by the media, public opinion formed a huge voice: “Help this great mother from the United States.” Soon, this news was reprinted by national Mexican newspapers, and some even spread to the United States.

Meanwhile, Marianne’s letter also reached Washington. After reading the letter, the president’s first reaction was disbelief: How could there be such a coincidence? After investigation, the president learned that the documentary was actually secretly filmed by a war correspondent. The last soldier had become an idiot because of the great shock in the war. To avoid a bad influence when shown in the country, the film had been edited.

At this time, some major American newspapers also started to reprint the news from Mexico, and it caused a sensation across the country. The president felt a great deal of pressure. Under his arrangement, the work of exchanging prisoners of war with Vietnam was started. Jerry and the other soldiers who appeared in the documentary were among the first batch of prisoners of war to be exchanged and were about to return home.

It was a sunny afternoon. A helicopter landed steadily at a civilian airport in New York. Marianne was also brought here from Mexico.

The reporters who heard the news put their fingers on the camera shutters one by one. They knew that a happy reunion scene was about to appear. How would the son who had gone through so many hardships meet his mother who had taken so much trouble? This would be the top – story news in newspapers and on TV. Nothing could be more emotional and more eye – catching than this.

After the plane’s cabin door was opened, two diplomats who had gone to Vietnam for negotiations walked out first. But when they saw the large number of reporters, they quickly slipped away. Then, the prisoners of war walked out one by one. Although they had put on new clothes, their young faces still showed the vicissitudes of the journey. Facing the microphones stretched out by the reporters, they all remained silent.

Marianne anxiously waited for her son Jerry to appear. From the moment the first soldier got off the plane, her eyes never left the cabin door. The last ones to get off the plane were two crew members carrying a stretcher. They walked down the gangway slowly, step by step approaching.

Marianne saw the person on the stretcher at a glance. His hair was in a mess, and his beard almost covered his face. Despite this, Marianne recognized her son, Jerry, at once.

Marianne rushed over like a madwoman. The two crew members stopped and gently said to her, “Sorry, when he learned that he was going to come back, his mind suddenly cleared up. He kept saying that you would be disappointed if you saw him in this state. He even broke the ring on his hand and secretly cut his artery… By the time we found out, it was too late, so…”

Marianne’s mind went blank with a loud noise, and then she cried out sobbingly, “Jerry, my dear, I just wanted you to be alive. Why were you so stupid…”