Leaving Phnom Penh.

We left the port of Phnom Penh prior to sun set. The boat slowly made its way up river. Steve looked uneasy for some reason which didn’t surprise me. Usually before him and I went out on a patrol, or a job, he was usually squirrelly. I think since he was joining me an internal switch had been put into a position it hadn’t been set to in years. Then again, I hadn’t seen him in years and I hadn’t been too aware of his coming and goings since then. Just because someone is an old mate doesn’t mean you should let your guard down, because you don’t “know” them really after that long span of time. It reminded me of time I had spent doing works overseas for years. I came back to civilization after all that I had seen and done and in the end, I didn’t know what to make of my surroundings, my friends, my family and what was going in “normal” society. “Normal” had a different ring and meaning to me. Items like death, war criminals, regimes, dictators, corrupt governments, politicians, life and the world I saw in a different light after my time spent in the forces had concluded.

Steven sat in the corner of the boat smoking cigarettes like a chimney, I knew this routine as well. He did this ultimately to pass time and it was a non-verbal way of broadcasting he was nervous and uncertain about what was ahead. He had every right to be nervous, we were going up the Mekong, which wasn’t territory the regiment, or SBS operated in, even during the Vietnam war.

I walked up to Perry and he immediately asked where we were going.

“The Lao/Cambodia border is where we need to go.”

Perry didn’t ask questions. All he worried about was the money I was going to hand off to him before I walked over the border. If there were too many Laotian soldiers guarding the border, Steve and I were probably going to have to resort to swimming over the border, but I wanted to avoided that as much as possible. I had done that before in places like East Timor and up in Norway during the winter.

Steve looked at me for a long moment.

“Something on your mind mate?” I asked.

“Why?”

“Why what?”

“Why are we going up river?” he asked.