The Eyepatch Stories 1&2
Nooj picked up the small thick book and weighed it thoughtfully in his hand. Its very existence had quite slipped his mind until it had turned up during his packing for the move to Youth League headquarters. Just holding it brought back vivid memories of the days when life had been so much simpler and he had had the leisure to occupy his thoughts with puzzling out a minor mystery.
He was not one to pry into the affairs of others, accepting confidences if they were forced upon him but never eliciting them. As he guarded his own privacy, he respected that of other people. So he had set this little book aside until he had been led to seek it out again when he heard an interview with Gippal on the public sphere-cast. He sighed. Yet another story from the inventive Al Bhed.
Still the question of what lay behind Gippal’s eye-patch intrigued him. How did such a young man come to lose so well protected a part of himself as his eye? Nooj smiled inadvertently as he remembered why and how he had filled this shabby book with speculation and commentary. It had been a diversion during those days at Mushroom Rock Road and, later, in the bleakness of the desert.
Nooj rifled the stained pages as the scenes out of the past flashed before him - bright and perfect as though preserved in amber.
-x-
Gippal and Baralai were sitting by the pool where the squad bathed in these early days of training. Gippal was washing his clothes of mud from the rains of the previous day - all except his eyepatch, which he took great pains to clean without taking off.
Baralai was cleaning some of the supplies that had been splattered with mud. “Gippal,” he said, his voice rising in a question, “What… happened to your eye?”
Gippal laughed, looking down and away. Perhaps he was pretending to be shy. “It’s kind of embarrassing,” he said simply.
“It’s okay,” Baralai said. “I won’t tell.”
Gippal looked over. “Promise?”
Baralai nodded.
“Alright.” Gippal looked around, checking to see if Nooj and Paine were a safe distance away. “I was a little kid, and Sin attacked the island near where I lived with my family. You know how the attacks go… everyone dies except a few who barely survive. I was the barely survived one. But… the day after, when I found out that my whole family was dead, I was so upset that I ran from the house. I think I intended to go out and find my parents.” He laughed.
Baralai put his hand on Gippal’s shoulder. “Sin didn’t take your eye?” he asked.
Gippal shook his head. “No, I was fine. But when I ran away, I tripped over a rock and bashed my face on a ledge. I just about died in the desert before someone finally found me, all curled up and bleeding.”
Baralai looked sympathetic. “That sounds awful,” he said, lowering his voice. “I’m so sorry to hear that.”
Gippal shrugged. “I got over it,” he said simply. “But it still hurts sometimes.”
“Can I do anything?” Baralai asked.
Gippal smiled. “I’ll let you know.”
-x-
Nooj, standing with Paine, screened by the edge of a rock formation, noticed Gippal and Baralai seated close together a little way off at the pool. At first he thought they were merely washing up then he noticed something else going on. He was intrigued by the secretive manner of the Al Bhed who drew closer to his friend and looked cautiously around as if to guard against being overheard. What could be so private in this communal setting? Caught by curiosity, Nooj placed his fingers against Paine’s lips, stopping her conversation in mid-flight and gesturing with his head toward the two young men. Paine, quick as always, nodded and shaped a kiss against the hand silencing her. Nooj, still turned to listen to the words of Gippal, shifted his grip to caress her cheek as she leaned on his shoulder.
Gippal seemed to have no sense of how loudly he was speaking in spite of his concern for being heard and it appeared from the comments the others could hear all too clearly that Baralai had finally gotten around to posing the most obvious question in the world. What had happened to Gippal’s eye; how had he come to lose it? Nooj and Paine shared a smile. The relationship between the lads must be getting serious if Baralai felt free to tread on that delicate ground. As Gippal continued, Paine started to say something. Nooj again pressed his hand to her lips and frowned. He could feel her outraged expressions straining to burst out and shook his head, enjoining silence.
“Can I do anything?” Baralai asked.
Gippal smiled. “I’ll let you know.’
Paine was shaking with anger, trying to tear Nooj’s hand away. He firmly grasped her shoulders in his other arm and led her out of earshot of the other two.
“Why that little liar!” she expostulated once they were a safe distance away. “That’s not the story he told me!”
“You asked him about the eye?” Nooj raised a brow.
“Of course. I was curious. Why are the rest of you tip-toeing around it anyway?”
“It’s a private thing. I know everybody understands how I lost my arm and leg but I don’t like talking about it and hate it when somebody brings it up. A man should have his privacy about his own body.”
“Well, he flaunts everything else, so I never thought of it as a privacy issue.” Paine was sulking under the accusation of being insensitive. “Anyway, he’s a liar for sure because he told me a completely different tale. I’ll tell you about it one of these nights.” She cast a flirtatious glance at her lover.
Nooj was brooding about what he had learned. It was possible that the version Gippal had told Baralai was the true one and he had told Paine a falsehood out of resentment at her prying. It was obvious that Gippal and the spoiled priest were beginning a relationship which would demand honesty from them both - at least that was the way Nooj understood intense relationships. Would the Al Bhed lie to his prospective partner? Why would he lie at all? There was considerably more than met the eye to this business.
Later, in his tent while the other three prepared a meal around the campfire, Nooj continued to think about the incident. He had instructed Paine to keep quiet until they knew more about the meaning of the conflicting stories. In the meantime, as leader of this group, he felt an obligation to keep the various members under some sort of control. He was reluctant to impose discipline for lying about a purely personal matter but thought he had better keep a record of what was being said, to whom and under what circumstance. Besides, he confessed to himself with a wry twist of his mouth which might almost have been a grin, he was damned curious about the truth of what had occasioned the eyepatch.
Another thought crossed his mind. This most recent happening cast an episode from about a week ago in a fresh light. It had happened shortly after the teams had been put together and had been called to their first inspection.
-x-
During the initial inspections, just after squad assignments, the officers lined all the recruits up and checked their belongings. Appearance was not an issue because there weren’t enough standard-issue uniforms for everyone, but the men in charge still insisted on inspecting everyone. They stood in the dust along the road while a cart of supplies was being unloaded into the Crimson Squad camp.
An officer was walking through the ranks, eyeing all of the recruits up and down. He looked to be a priest, or at least a priestly type, for the way he was dressed. The golden symbols of Yevon glinted from their place on his militaresque jacket.
He stopped in front of Gippal, a member of Nooj’s squad. “Soldier, what is that on your face?”
“A smile,” Gippal answered crisply.
“You will address me as ‘sir’, soldier.”
Gippal paused before saying, “Yes, sir.”
“What is that over your eye, soldier?”
“An eyepatch, sir.”
“Doesn’t cover both of those heathen eyes, does it?”
“No, sir.”
“Why do you think you, an Al Bhed, are man enough to be in this squad?”
“Because I’m tougher than everyone else here, sir.”
“Is that an insult to your fellow candidates?”
“Possibly, sir.”
“Are you aware that you defile everyone else with your very presence?”
“Is that so, sir.” It wasn’t a question -- Gippal was grinning, even though he shouldn’t have been.
The officer backhanded him. Gippal’s head turned to the side, and he stayed in place for a moment.
“That eyepatch isn’t a fashion accessory, is it? The military is not a place for frivolity.”
Gippal turned his head to face the officer again. “I’m missing an eye.”
After a pause, Gippal got backhanded again.
“Sir,” he corrected after a heaving sigh.
“Did your barbaric people cut it out of you for bad behavior?”
“No, sir,” Gippal said, staring the officer directly in the eye. “Your barbaric people cut it out of me for bad behavior.” He paused. “Sir.”
“And what behavior,” the officer paused, looming over Gippal, “was that?”
Gippal did not flinch, but looked up at the other man. “Daring to be born with these eyes, sir.”
The officer stared him down, and Gippal stared right back. After a long moment of tension, there was a shout from the camp nearby which grabbed everyone’s attention. Apparently the supplies were unloaded and ready to be dispersed. Gippal had won the battle - for now.
-x-
Nooj watched with quiet amusement as Gippal responded to the impertinent questions of the Yevonite officer. Having no respect for the priest-ridden corps of commanders who were so ineptly handling this Crimson Squad endeavour, he found a certain amount of pleasure in seeing them made fools of. He had warned the younger man that he would face open prejudice as an Al Bhed in this army. However, Gippal seemed sharp and tough enough to withstand any amount of abuse.
The slaps from the back of the officer’s hand, although hard, did not seem to much damage Gippal, not even making him take a step backward. He would face worse during the trials, Nooj was sure, and this would serve to prepare him for what was to come.
“Why the eyepatch, heathen?” upon hearing these words, Nooj sucked in his breath. This trespass on private territory was one he had not expected. He was curious about how his cadet had lost his eye but did not have the temerity to ask. Prying was not what a good officer did. He waited with dread for the scene to play itself out.
The shout alerting the officers and candidates to the duties awaiting them broke the stand-off. It seemed to Nooj that both were equally glad to turn to other business. He mulled over the answer Gippal had spat out: “Your barbaric people cut my eye out of me for being born with these eyes.” It was a challenge, not a response and Nooj did not believe it for a moment. It was not meant to be the truth and no one would take it for such. It was not clever but it was typical of what Nooj was beginning to learn about this buttery haired youth.