The Crane

It’s 1968 in Southern Butte Wyoming and James Anderson’s twin brother Dave has just been killed in action in Vietnam. James is heartsick with the politics of his country’s war, and he himself has just received his draft card. There’s no way he can bring himself to participate in the war; he’ll have to leave the country. His brother Dave had made a friend in the war, a man named Eric. Eric had learned just before shipping off that he was adopted and that his birth mother was from Newfoundland; Eric decides that if he survives the war, he is going to go there to find her. When their unit is involved in the killing of some Vietnamese civilians and Eric learns their orphaned son is in the same hospital as injured Dave, Eric carves a wooden crane for the boy. The boy does not want this ridiculous gesture and leaves the crane behind. Dave pockets it. When both Dave and Eric die, the crane comes home to James. If James has to go somewhere, it might as well be Newfoundland. He will find Eric's mother and give her the crane. What James finds in Newfoundland is not what he expects, but is maybe what he needed the most.