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They is another letter addressed to me which say, "Dear Mister Gump: You has been chosen to win a bran new Pontiac GTO, if only you will send back the enclosed card pro to buy a set of these wonderful encyclopedias an a updated yearbook every year for the rest of your life at a 75 per year" I thowed that letter in the trash What the hell would a idiot like me ith encyclopedias anyway, an besides, I can’t drive

But the third letter is personally writ to me an on the back of the envelope it say, "J Curran, General Delivery, Cae, Mass" My hans is shakin so bad, I can hardly open it

"Dear Forrest," it say, "My ave to her, and I aht in that terrible immoral war" She say she kno horrible it oin on an all "It h I know you are being ainst your will" She write that it must of been awful not to have no clean clothes an no fresh food, an all, but that she do not understand what I mean when I wrote about "havin to lie face-down in officer shit for two days"

"It is hard to believe," she say, "that even they wouldas that" I think I could of explained that part a little better

Anyhow, Jenny say that "We are organizing large des in order to stop the terrible io on bout that for a page or so, an it all soundin sort of the same But I read it very carefully anyway, for jus to see her hanwritin is enough to make my stomach turn flip-flops

"At least," she say at the end, "you have lad to have a friend in your ive Bubba her best, an add in a ps that she is earnin a little hts a week at a coffeehouse near the Harvard University, an if ever I get up that way to look her up The group, she say, is called The Cracked Eggs Froet to Harvard University

That night I aet my Medal of Honor an meet the President of the United States However, I do not have nothin to pack cept ave me at the hospital, cause everthin else I own is back at the firebase at Pleiku But there is this nice lieutenant colonel that has been sent over froit all that shit, Guonna have a bran new tailor-ooks in Saigon, on account of you cannot meet the President wearin your pajayonna accoot a place to stay an food to eat an a ride to wherever we is going an also will tell me how to behave an all

Colonel Gooch is his na match with a feller from the headquarters co player in the Army or somesuch as that He is a little wiry feller who refuse to lookhis own paddle in a leather case When I be whippin his ass he stop an say the ping-pong balls ain’t no good cause the huo on ho balls he brung, an they could really use the I was to leave, a nurse come in an lef a envelope with my name written on it I open it up, an it was a note from Dan, who is okay after all, an had this to say:

Dear Forrest,

I am sorry there was no time for us to see each other before I left The doctorstaken away, but I asked if I could stop long enough to write you this note, because you have been so kind to me while I was here

I sense, Forrest, that you are on the verge of soe, or event that will move you in a different direction, and you must seize the moment, and not let it pass When I think back on it now, there is so in your eyes, some tiny flash of fire that comes now and then, mostly when you smile, and, on those infrequent occasions, I believe what I saas almost a Genesis of our ability as humans to think, to create, to be

This war is not for you, old pal - nor me - and I am well out of it as I’m sure you will be in time The crucial question is, ill you do? I don’t think you’re an idiot at all Perhaps by the ht fall into soory or other, but deep down, Forrest, I have seen that glowing sparkle of curiosity burning deep in your , s and never give in, never give up You are a good fellow, Forrest, and you have a big heart

Your Pal,

DAN

I read over Dan’s letter ten or twenty tis in it I do not understand I ettin at, but there is sentences an words that I cannot figger out Next o now, first to Saigon to get ooks last night, then right off to the United States an all that I shown him Dan’s letter an axed him to tell me what exactly it means, an Colonel Gooch look it over an han it back an say, "Well, Gump, it is pretty plain to me he means that you had better the hell not fuck up when the President pins the medal on you"