I met Alex at Zen Hospice where she was a graceful addition to an already enlightened organization. I've never seen her perform, but if she does that the way she does everything else - with depth and heart and deep integrity - then I'm sure she's amazing to watch.

Alex and I worked closely in a happy, sappy holiday show about small towns, their wacky yet loveable residents, and need for these simple folks to burst into song whenever they feel they have something important to say. We were portraying the heartwarming tale of Grayson's Ridge, the tinsel capital of the US and the that might not be able to put on their Winter Carnival. Alex and I were singing a upbeat duet about gumdrops and tinsel on Christmas Trees, when Charlie staged a suprise attack on the Theatre. It was at this time when Alex saved my life...

The attack started as Alex and I watched from Stage Right. First, rockets hit Bravo Sector, concessions and the Lighting Booth. A Freedom Bird managed to get crewed, and started lifting off the runway. As he climbed over the fence line in Echo Sector, I saw a curtain of red and green tracers rise from the ground to the Freedom Bird. Thousands of tracers told me just how many VC and NVA were kicking at our door. I heard on the radio that the fence line was penetrated, and positions in Echo and Alpha Sectors were overrun. The Jean Shelton Lab was hit hard and fighting to repel the attackers. Then my radio croaked and died and I was cutoff from the world. I didn't learn until later that Jean Shelton Lab was overrun and Sergeants Cyr, Fisher, Hebron, and Billy the Mime were killed in valiant defense of their post.

Scared? You bet! My knees were knocking louder than a jackhammer, and my teeth were chattering so hard it's a wonder they didn't shatter. I didn't lose my cookies, but my bladder and bowels were taking on a life of their own. It didn't matter that the 377th Method Actors Squadron was at 100% alert, the Bretch Division and the 199th Un-Scripted Theatre Brigade were taking names, and many more units were engaging the enemy.

When the first choppers arrived, my spirits soared, and I knew we then had a FIGHTING CHANCE. With each pass of a gunship I let out a cheer! Every time a gunship fired a rocket in to the enemy I shouted YesAND! Every time a chopper took a hit and went down another took its place. Choppers and Improvisors--we were in a still desperate fight for our lives, and we were in it together, to win, whatever it took.

Heavy automatic firing chattered for several minutes. All I knew was that I had a radio that didn't work, there was no one within actual shooting distance, and Snoopy was on R & R, so we would be without illumination. For me, there was only total darkness with combat raging all about with everyone on the planet trying to kill someone else.

At that point I was out of Ammo, stuck behind a Riser USR. I saw a shadow rush foward. I dropped my '16 and unsheathed my combat knife, I keep strapped to my dance belt. I recognized the VC from the front row and it seemed that Charlie was unhappy with space work in the opening number. He snapped off a few rounds, but he was firing from the hip while rushing up. The rounds went wild and I was able to close and knock the barrel of his AK aside while jamming my blade deep into his left eye. The zipperhead's body jerked and then dropped like a sack of meat...he didn't even utter a sound....I went to pull out the knife, but the damn thing was stuck in the bone and cartilage and my handes were too slippery with his blood to get a good grip...I saw then the other four...bayonettes affixed and charging forward.

Abandoning the knife, I tried to grab the dead VC's AK, but it was lying underneath his crumpled body...I would never get it in time...I braced my self in a Alexandrian Judo techinque and hoped I could at least get close enough to bite off some chunks of those fuckers before they speared me like a pig against the Cycorama...

Then I heard a great Bang right next to my ear...and nothing else but ringing...my world disappeared into a great wash of Pain and tinnitus...Alex had appeared right behind me with the '60. She has detatched it from the turet and lugged it over, wrapped the whole ammo belt around her arm. Charlie and his brothers jerked like puppets as Alex emptied the entire belt into them.. ripped them apart until they were nothing more than a pile of blood, flesh and Black Pyjammas...

I should have been dead that day...but Alex risked her life to pull my ass out of the fire...I then realized that I hadn't even given her clerk character from the second scene a name yet.

I forgot to endow her with a name...and she still greases those gooks for me. I owe her a debt I can never repay....

Alex is perfect.

(read: I agree with her politically)