Hawkeye hung up the phone, his rapidly aging hands trembling. The years hadn't been kind to his hands; years of performing intricate surgery had eventually caused the arthritis in his knuckles and thumbs. Now that he had retired, they didn't cause him too much discomfort. His slim fingers had served him well during his career as a surgeon.
His eyes were slowly starting to lose their focus; and so it was those same shaky hands that tediously adjusted his glasses before he started thumbing through his well worn phone and address book.
As his index finger traces over the lines in his book, Hawkeye was dismayed to realize that he had indeed developed yet another old man spot on his thumb.
His vanity had tempered out over the years, but still it was always unsettling to discover another reminder that he was no longer the young stud that he once was. There was once a time when it seemed as if the world were his oyster. Days of unendless amounts of dates had led to many a romantic nightime. Nowadays, his most constant nightime companion was his nightstand , a glass of water, and several bottles of medication.
"Where did the time go?" Hawkeye muttered as he started to dial a very familiar phone number.
"Ow! What's that noise?" a female voice blurted out over the phone connection. "There had better not be any operator sticking his big nose where it doesn't.."
Hawkeye smiled. "Well, if it isn't Hot Lips Houlihan herself!"
"Oh for God's sake, Pierce..no one has called me Hot Lips since.."
"Last Saturday night?" Hawkeye cackles.
"Always the wise guy," Margaret briefly laughed.
"Yeah, well, you don't get to be my age without picking up a few bits of wisdom along the way. Also, my boyish good looks also got me pretty far."
They shared an awkward chuckle, which led to an uncomfortable sigh by Hawkeye.
"Listen, Margaret..the fact that we both picked up the phone at the same time to call each other..." his voice faded, and he took a deep breath.
"Charles.." Margaret said with more than a hint of sadness in her voice.
Hawkeye nervously fidgeted with his glasses. "Give me a second to sit down. These days I need more like an hour and a half just to sit down. And don't get me started on how long it takes to get back up. By the time I've gotten up from after eating breakfast, its dusk outside. You know, I think I may need to prepare breakfast, lunch and dinner at the same time so I just have to sit down and get up just once. But then again, that's a lot of food. Maybe I'll just skip breakfast. Then again, as a physician I have counseled many a patient on the benefits of breakfast.."
"Hawkeye.."Margaret started.
But still, Hawkeye kept on rambling. "Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. As long as its a healthy meal.."
"Hawkeye! Will you shut up about breakfast!" Margaret yelled.
"Me, I like toast with butter. Just one slice..toast, that is..."
"Will you shut up about your breakfast? Charles is dead and I sure didnt call you to talk about goddamned toast!" As soon as Margaret said that, she regretted it.
"Bacon," he went on. "Now that is something I don't much care for."
"Hawkeye Pierce, will you kindly shut your trap! We have lost another friend and all you can think of is bacon? What is wrong with you?"
"What is wrong with me is precisely what you just said. Not the bacon...as Sidney once helped me realize, I have this tendency to ramble on about mundane things when the truth is too much for me to bear. Of course, Sidney can't verify that as we have lost him too. We have lost Colonel Potter..Trapper..Henry we lost far too early on in life..Padre...even old Ferret Face! Forgive me for not being able to talk about death one more time
not one more of our family..not one more of us...I can't do this again, Margaret. Not again."
And then Hawkeye began to sob.
"Hawkeye.." Margaret began softly. "I am sorry. I am. I loved Charles. I loved all of our friends. I think about our time together in Korea all the time. It made me who I am today. A damn bit better off for having known and served with each of you, I might add."
Hawkeye sniffed. "Yeah. I know what you mean."
no one spoke for a few minutes.
"Charles was not an easy man to deal with," Margaret sighed.
"And you were?"
She started to protest, to get riled up about his implying that she was a man...but then what happenes next took them both by surprise.
She laughed. She laughed and laughed and laughed, and then even Hawkeye had to join in.
"There is one thing I always wanted to tell Charles, but i never got the chance, " Hawkeye said solemnly. " He was pompous and egotistical and snobby to the tee. but i told him all that. What I always wanted to tell him that you were right..he did scratch his nose."
and they laughed some more until neither one could any longer.
"I will make the arrangements with Klimger" Radar and BJ. this time its at your place, right?" Margaret reminded him of their now familiar gathering at one of their group's hometown to reminince and pay respect to the latest death of a friend.
"I wish to God it didnt have to be this way. I wish I could go years without seeing you all again. I mean that I don't want it to be this circumstance that reunites us.." Hawkeye trailed off.
Margaret took a deep breath. "Well..I will be seeing you in a few days, I suppose."
They said their goodbyes, and Hawkeye struggled to hang up the telephone.
He closed his eyes , and thought back to Korea. To a moment with Colonel Potter and their friends, witnessing a rare display of Potter's sentimental side as he. toasted the memory of his own fallen comrades.
Hawkeye picked up his glass of orange juice, lifted it and thought of his friends from Korea. Trapper. Henry. Sidney. Frank. Padre. Potter. and now..Charles Emerson Winchester the Third.
"I have loved each and every one of you. Until we all meet again."
And he drank the remnants of the juice, closed his eyes, and if he listened really closely, he could practically hear the sounds of a chopper taking off in flight.
"Until we meet again."
Fin
Thank you David Ogden Stiers. You did one thing..Taking on the role of Charles..you did it well..and then you moved on to your next role.