The Line in the Sand : The Fate of Kuwait and Beyond

When the television news came on Thursday, George Bush was eating a turkey supper with some of the soldiers. The Langlois family thought that was great, although they weren’t so much interested in the President. They kept looking for Marc in the TV.

No luck.

“I thought I saw him,” said Nicole, 20, Marc’s sister. “But all the backs of the heads look alike.”

It was the same thing with the phone. Every time it rang, they thought that maybe, just maybe, Marc had found a way to call. Uh-uh.

Marc is a terrific letter writer, but they have only gotten mail from him twice. It is so discouraging. The family has sent him cookies and a camera and a pocket-sized Nintendo game. Who knows if he has gotten them?

“Sometimes I just want to march over there and tell Saddam Hussein to stop all this,” Donna said. “No amount of oil is worth it. In fact, I’d tell him he could keep the oil. Who cares?”

Grandpa Powers, recently retired as a shop foreman, said he wasn’t so sure that was a good idea. Saddam Hussein is a dangerous man to have that much control over something everyone needs.

But Grandma insisted otherwise. If that’s what it would take to get Marc home, then that’s what it takes. “We can learn to make our own oil,” she said. “I don’t see why not.”