Section Eight Discharge

Gene set out to go to Leper's town in Vermont. He told me everything that happened when he went there. He said he took a train and then a bus to get to Leper's house. He told me that he would not let himself think that Leper just deserted the army. "You dont "escape" from the army, so he must have escaped from something else" (131). He would never think that Leper would just leave the army so Gene started to think of other things Leper could have escaped from. When Gene arrived at Leper's house, Leper forced him into the dining room so no one would know that Gene was here. Gene told me that Leper said he did escape from the army. Leper said that he escaped because the army was going to give him a Section Eight Discharge for insanity. "they were going to give me a discharge, a Section Eight Discharge" (136). Leper did not want to get a Section Eight Discharge because that means he will probably not be able to get a job after the war, because no body would want to hire a crazy person. After that Gene and Leper got into a fight and Leper accused Gene of pushing me out of the tree on purpose. Leper's mom comes in and then stops the fight. Then they all have dinner together. After that Leper and Gene go for a walk and Leper tells Gene that is seeing strange hallucations at training camp. "the idea pf his face on a woman's body. That's what made me psycho..." (140). Leper would imagine very starnge images and that is why he got a Section Eight discharge. Gene told me eventually Leper told him so many gross and strange things that Leper images, Gene just ran away into the snowy fields. Who could blame him, Leper is really a messed up kid.