I came out from the OR, blinking in the bright sunlight. It must be nearly afternoon… tomorrow afternoon, that is. I yawned. We'd been in surgery for almost two days straight.
I headed for the mess tent and found Hawkeye and Trapper, my two best friends, sitting there. I sat down with a tray of food next to Hawkeye and across from Trapper. Trapper was eating; Hawkeye was staring blankly into a cup of coffee. I nudged him. "You okay?"
"I'm too tired to know," he answered sleepily. He leaned his head on my shoulder and closed his eyes.
Frank Burns and Margaret Houlihan came in. They were the second in command and head nurse, respectively, and also the two most obnoxious and military people in the camp.
"Pierce, get off of her," Margaret scolded.
Hawkeye opened one eye. "Make me."
"Tsk, tsk," Frank said cheerfully. "Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning."
"That's the thing," Trapper said. "We woke up on the right side… yesterday."
Margaret glared at Frank. "Aren't you going to do something?" she murmured to him.
"Huh? Oh yeah…" Frank straightened up. "Pierce, I command you to-"
Hawkeye got up. "What's this war coming to? Can't even get some sleep in the mess tent!"
He murmured to me, "Can I come to your tent tonight?"
"Yeah, I'll get some sleep before then."
Then he left. Trapper and I went to sit with Henry, Father Mulcahy, Klinger, and Radar. Henry Blake is our commanding officer, and the company clerk is Radar. Father Mulcahy was our priest. Now Klinger is a character. He wants nothing more than to be shipped home and get out of the army. So he thinks that if he gets people to think that he's a psycho, he'll get sent home. So he does this… by dressing like a woman. Today he was wearing a black dress and pearls.
"You're dressed up today," I said.
"It's my mother's birthday."
After I ate, I went to my tent to get some sleep before Hawkeye would come over for our date.
