Winston Groom

You died on a Saturday morning. And I had you placed here under our tree. And I had that house of your father's bulldozed to the ground. Momma always said dyin' was a part of life. I sure wish it wasn't. Little Forrest, he's doing just fine. About to start school again soon. I make his breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day. I make sure he combs his hair and brushes his teeth every day. Teaching him how to play ping-pong. He's really good. We fish a lot. And every night, we read a book. He's so smart, Jenny. You'd be so proud of him. I am. He, uh, wrote a letter, and he says I can't read it. I'm not supposed to, so I'll just leave it here for you. Jenny, I don't know if Momma was right or if, if it's Lieutenant Dan. I don't know if we each have a destiny, or if we're all just floating around accidental-like on a breeze, but I, I think maybe it's both. Maybe both is happening at the same time. I miss you, Jenny. If there's anything you need, I won't be far away.

Yes. Well, I-I don't know. Sometimes it would stop raining long enough for the stars to come out… and then it was nice. It was like just before the sun goes to bed down on the bayou. There was always a million sparkles on the water… like that mountain lake. It was so clear, Jenny, it looked like there were two skies one on top of the other. And then in the desert, when the sun comes up, I couldn't tell where heaven stopped and the earth began. It's so beautiful.

That day, for no particular reason, I decided to go for a little run. So I ran to the end of the road. And when I got there, I thought maybe I'd run to the end of town. And when I got there, I thought maybe I'd just run across Greenbow County. And I figured, since I run this far, maybe I'd just run across the great state of Alabama. And that's what I did. I ran clear across Alabama. For no particular reason I just kept on going. I ran clear to the ocean. And when I got there, I figured, since I'd gone this far, I might as well turn around, just keep on going. When I got to another ocean, I figured, since I'd gone this far, I might as well just turn back, keep right on going.

Momma said there's only so much fortune a man really needs and the rest is just for showing off. So, I gave a whole bunch of it to the Foursquare Gospel Church and I gave a whole bunch to the Bayou La Batre Fishing Hospital. And even though Bubba was dead, and Lieutenant Dan said I was nuts, I gave Bubba's momma Bubba's share. And you know what? She didn't have to work in nobody's kitchen no more…

Mama always said, God is mysterious. He didn't turn Jenny into a bird that day. But instead - he had the po-lice say Jenny didn't have to stay in that house no more. She went to live with her grandma, just over on Creekmore Avenue. And that made me happy, because she was close. And some nights she'd sneak out and come on over to my house, because she said she was scared. It may have been because of her grandma's dog, or somethin'.

Now I don't know much about anything. But I met some of America's best young men who served in this war. There was Dallas, from Phoenix; Cleveland - he was from Detroit; and Tex… well, I don't remember where Tex come from.

So Bubba was from Bayou la Batrie, Alabama, and his mama cooked shrimp. And her mama before her cooked shrimp, and her mama before her mama cooked shrimp, too. Bubba's family knew everything there was to know about the shrimpin' business.

I hadn't seen anything so beautiful in my life she was like an angel. I just sat next to her on that bus and had a conversation all the way to school. Next to momma no one ever talked to me or asked me questions from that day on we were always together Jenny, she helped me learn how to read and I showed her how to swing sometimes we'd just sit out and wait for the stars for some reason Jenny never wanted to go home she was my most special friend, my only friend

another time when I was running along somebody had lost all his money in the T-shirt business and he wanted to put my face on a t-shirt but he couldn't draw that well and didn't have a camera some years later I found out that man did come up with an idea for a T-shirt and he made a lot of money off of it.

We lived about a quarter mile off route seventeen about half a mile from the town of Greenbow, Alabama that's in the county Greenbow, our house has been in Momma's family since her grand pa's grand pa's grand pa had come across the ocean about a thousand years ago or something like that. Since it was just me and Momma and had all these empty rooms Momma decided to let those rooms out, mostly to people passing through like from Mobile and Montgomery places like that, that's how Momma and I got money, Momma was a real smart lady

Night time in the army was a lonely time. We lay there in our bunks and I'd miss my momma and I'd miss Jenny. Turns out Jenny had gotten into some trouble over some photos of her in her college sweater and she was thrown out of school but that wasn't a bad thing because a man who owns a theater in Memphis Tennessee saw those photos and offered Jenny a job singing in a show, the first chance I got I took a bus to Memphis to see her show.

and then she was there. She came back and stayed with me. Maybe it was because she had nowhere else to go, or maybe it was because she was so tired because she went to bed and slept and slept like she hadn't slept in years. It was wonderful having her home: every day we'd take a walk and I'd jabber on like a monkey in a tree, she'd listen about ping ponging and shrimping and Momma making a trip up to heaven. I did most of the talking, most of the time she was real quiet, I really never knew why she came back but I didn't care it was like old times we were like peas and carrots again everyday. I'd pick pretty flowers and put it in her room for her. She even showed me how to dance, we were like family, it was the happiest time in my life

For some reason ping pong became very natural to me so I started playing all the time I played ping pong even when I didn't have anyone to play ping pong with, the hospital people said it made me look like a "duck in water" whatever that means, even Lieutenant Dan would come watch me play I played ping pong so much, I even played ping pong in my sleep.

When I was a baby Momma named me after the great civil war hero general Nathan Bedford Forrest. She said we were related to him in some way what he did was: he started up this club called the Ku Klux Klan they'd all dress up in their robes and their bed sheets and act like a bunch of ghosts and spooks or something. They'd even put bed sheets on their horses and ride around and anyway that's how I got my name Forest Gump

Anyway I guess you can say me and momma was on our own, but we didn't mind our house was never empty: there was always folks coming and going sometimes we had so many people staying with us that every room was filled with travelers folks living out of their suit cases and hat cases and sample cases one time a handsome young man was staying with us he had himself a guitar case.

I liked that guitar, it sounded good I started moving around to the music swinging my hips, this one night me and momma was out shopping and walked by the appliance store, some years later that handsome young man they called" The King" he sang too many songs and had himself a heart attack or something, must be hard being "The King"

Remember how I told you that Jenny never seemed to wanted to go home? She lived in a house that was old as Alabama, her momma had gone up to heaven when she was five her daddy was some kind of farmer, he was a very loving man always kissing and touching her and her sisters then this one time Jenny wasn't on the bus to go to school

College ran by real fast because I played so much football they even put me on the All American team where you get to meet the President of the United States, some years later for no particular reason someone shot that nice young President when he was riding in his car and a few years after that somebody shot his brother too, only he was in the hotel kitchen, must be hard being brothers I wouldn't know

I sent Jenny a letter not every day but almost. I told her what I was doing and asked her what she was doing. I told her how I thought about her. I was looking forward to getting a letter from her when she had time. I always let her know I was ok and I signed each letter "love Forest Gump."

They told us Vietnam was going to be a lot different than United States of America. I got to see a lot of the country side. We would take these real long walks, the good thing about Vietnam, there was always some place to go and there was always something to do.

I ran and ran just like Jenny told me to. I ran so far and so fast pretty soon I was all by myself which was a bad thing: Bubba was my best good friend I had to make sure he was ok. On my way back to find Bubba there was this boy laying on the ground, I couldn't let him lay as scared as he was, so I grabbed him up and run him out of there. Every time I went back looking for Bubba someone else was saying "help me Forest," I started to get scared, I might never find Bubba.

We walked around all night: just Jenny and me. Just talking, she told me all the traveling she'd done, how she discovered ways to "expand her mind and live in harmony," which must be out west or somewhere because she made it out to California. It was a very special night for the two of us. I didn't want it to end.

I thought I was going back to Vietnam but instead they decided the best way for me to fight the Communists was to play ping pong, so I was in the Special Services, traveling around the country cheering up all the wounded veterans, showing them how to play ping pong. I was so good that some years later the army decided I should be on the All American Ping Pong Team. We were the first Americans to visit the land of China in a million years or something like that. Somebody said world peace was in our hands.