It was another humid day in the camp; then again it has always been humid, ever since they arrived. Major Riesmen was currently going over some paperwork, General Worden had sent, a knock at the door broke the dead silence.
"Come in" he sighed knowing today was going to be a rough morning. Sergeant Bowren, his second in command appeared, his facial expression showed worry and concern.
"Is there a problem Sergeant?" watching the other walked up to his desk.
"It's about Pinkley, Sir." He stated. "For the last three days, he has been isolating himself from the other men. And…I believe he is also refusing to eat." Bowren's gaze left the Majors eyes, towards the ground.
"And how did you notice Pinkley's behavior? You're always busy with keeping the camp running to notice. Someone else must have pointed it out to you. May I know who?" its true even he himself wouldn't have notice Pinkley's change in behavior.
"The source wishes to remain anonymous, Sir." His eyes still glued to the floor.
"Alright Sergeant, you may go." he sighed. As the sergeant saluted, as he reached for the handle, the major called out;
"And bring Posey here when you see him." getting up and began clearing off his desk.
"Yes Sir, right away Sir." And then the sergeant disappeared.
"You wanted to see me Major?" asked the gentle giant that stood through the open door. The major called him in towards the center of the room.
"It's been brought to my attention about Pinkley's recent behavior. If his attitude does not change soon, it will bring the moral of this unit down. Which means the deal is off. You do know what that means don't you?" He said as he paced around the room, he looked over at Posey who stood in grim silence, knowing the hangman will be the one waiting for them. Posey nodded as the Major continued.
"I know you are the source Bowren was talking about." He watched Posey's eye widen in shock, how quickly he had been found out.
"You're probably the only one here who can probably talk some sense to Pinkley. Even during the construction, you have been keeping a close eye on him. Get to the bottom of it; if you need some privacy use my office if needed. I'll make sure the both of you are not to be disturbed. Understood?" finally stopping at the door.
"Understood Major." Replied Posey as he followed behind Reismen outside, already guessing where the man in question would be hiding.
As Posey approached the empty lookout post, He noticed a slouching figure sitting beside one of the wooden beams.
"Pinkley, there you are, I've been looking all over!" he said standing across from the startled Pinkley, who quickly stood up from his spot on the ground to address the other man.
"The Major needs the both of us in his office right away!" he tried to sound urgent, and started walking back towards the office without giving Pinkley a chance to speak. Hoping his lie had worked, he exhaled a breath of relief upon hearing footsteps catching up him and a quiet mumble of okay.
That was one thing Posey noticed about Pinkley; when ever he get's upset or disagrees with something, he becomes strangely quiet. His behavior is like a carefree a child, cracking lame jokes or saying weird random comments out loud, no matter who was listening.
But during the knife training, Posey was forced to go against the unarmed Major. As he stood there with the knife in his hand, the other inmates began to cheer him on into stabbing the Major. He heard the words give it him! Or stick him Posey! Pinkley was the only one (besides Wladislaw, Jefferson, Jiminez and Sergeant Bowren who were keenly interested in the outcome) looked on in silence. Even as the Major kept pushing him, and the shouting going on around him, Pinkley refused to join the blood thirsty crowd. When he finally lost control and attacked, the Major quickly disarmed and had the raging man pinned on to the ground, all in one swift movement. As the Major helped him back up and called for another volunteer, Posey glanced over at Pinkley who looked back at him with a sad expression.
After training Posey notice that Pinkley had still remained quiet when they were sitting next to each other during dinner. He was ready to ask him what was bothering him, when he saw his goofy smile returning as he swallowed a big gulp of soup and began talking about the day's training, quickly forgetting what had upset him in the first place. Posey didn't bother asking after that.
As they reached the Major's office, Posey held the door open for the other man to go in first. As Pinkley walked further into the room, Posey quickly shut the door and placed the lock, blocking the only exit.
"P-P-Posey what are you doing!?" he began to panic; looking franticly for another way out, Posey was grateful the Major didn't have any windows.
"I'm the one who should be asking that. What are you doing? You have been ignoring everyone; lately you also have been the first one to fall asleep in the far corners of the hut, just like Maggott. And you haven't eaten in three days…" he vented, taking a deep breath as he looked over to Pinkley.
"Nothing's wrong…a-and I do eat, after everyone else is d-done." He lied.
"…Vernon…"he sighed, his face filled with worry. Pinkley suddenly felt guilty, not only had he lied to probably the only person who cared enough, but also had been at his side the entire time they all been in prison. What really made him sink further in guilt, was the fact that he was actually called by his first name. He only remembered saying his first name only once to everyone, when he first introduced himself when he first arrived in prison. However it seemed first names were pointless there, so his name was quickly forgotten among the prisoners. However Posey had cared enough to remember it.
"I'm sorry Posey…it's just…" his voice quickly began to crack. "I'm nothing but a joke…no, I'm just a big sack of disappointment. A slow useless dim witted moron who wouldn't know the difference between us and the Germans, and much less know how to use a gun…" tears slowly started to pool around his eyes.
"It was Franko wasn't it?" he glanced at Pinkley, knowing full well, who was capable of speaking such harsh words. Pinkley nodded, wiping a few tears from his face.
"The only reason I joined the Army was to impress my dad. A while back, I wrote a letter to him, well I had help writing it from some of the doctors where I was stationed at. I soon got a letter back, a-and…it wasn't pretty…" he paused as he looked over at Posey, who stared back in earnest for him to continue.
"He…he called me a coward. All I ever did was make stupid choices in life, one right after another. And I was nothing but a disappointment and hoped to God, that I never showed my ugly face back home ever again…after that I became careless, and did what I did and got sent to jail. Three days ago…I guess I did something wrong to upset Franko and…" he couldn't fight back the tears anymore. "He reminded me so much of my dad…" he choked and broke down into a fetal position and cried into his arms. Posey didn't think twice, as he quickly leveled himself to Pinkley and placed him in a tight embrace, sheltering the shaking man beneath him. Growing up as a kid, he knew how this simple little act comfort meant to people in their time of need.
"You're not a coward Vernon" He cared deeply for Vernon as a brother he never had. "Look at how far you made it. You're still alive in this hellish war. You're almost a free man, you just need to finish this mission and everything will be okay…"he waited for a response, after a few minutes in silence, he noticed his cries slowly dying. And his breathing began to go back normal, save for a hiccup or two. Posey broke the embrace as Pinkley looked up at him.
"I did didn't I?" his eyes red and a small smile returning to his face.
"Yeah, come on champ, let's go join the others." He tapped the other's shoulder and helped him to his feet.
"Thank you Posey…"he dried his tears on his arms.
"Samson." he replied, smiled as he held out his hand. Pinkley smiled back and shook the hand before him, grateful for having Posey as a friend.
"We better hurry back, before the Major comes looking for us."
"Just in time you two." A small chuckle escape from the Majors lips, as the two men approached.
"Were practicing grapple techniques, fall in and start." He said walking among the group. While Posey was practicing with Pinkley he could easily hear Franko's voice. He followed the voice and notice that the man was on the other side of the area. Unfortunately it was Bravos who ended up being Franko's next victim.
"Hey you better be careful there, you can easily get hurt Bravos." Franko joked, holding onto the other man, without much of an effort.
"Shut up will ya?" replied the shorter man, agitation clearly in his voice.
"Aww what's wrong? Having a little bit of trouble?" he chuckled at the man's failed attempts to break out of his hold.
"Just back off…" Bravos snapped back, letting go of the hold.
"Here, let me show you how it's really done." he then wrapped his arm around Bravos neck while looking around for any guards close by.
"You place your arm around the other person's neck like this…" he coxed taking one final look around.
"And then…it's all about the pull!"He quickly locked both of his hands together and shifted Bravos over his should, dragging the other off his feet and twisted the shorter man hard into the ground.
"That's it." stated Posey to no one in particular, already walking towards the pair, leaving Pinkley to look on in confusion.
"Keep falling like that and you'll end up stuck in a neck brace or worse…"commented Reismen as headed towards Sergeant Bowren.
"I agree with you Major! See even the Major can see your not falling the right way!"Franko joked, failing to hear a pair of footsteps stopping right behind him.
"Here let's try again, ya idiot." He extended his hand towards Bravos giving him an evil smirk. The shorter man glared at Franko as he quickly slapped the hand away.
"Hey now, that's not a very nice way of showing teamwork…"he teased, his smile fell short as a hand quickly forced him to go face to face with a set of eyes which held a glint of anger that belong to the giant Posey.
"Aren't you taking it a bit too hard for the little guy? Want to try that again, this time with me?" he offered. Franko compared his height to the giant's, Posey was the tallest of the dozen (a solid: 6'6"), while he was the second shortest (a mere: 5'7"), (next to Bravos: 5'5") though he definitely was not lacking intelligence.
"You're lucky I'm not in the mood anymore." He chuckled as he slowly walked back towards the barracks; leaving the remaining two too looked on in silence.
"Everything okay?" asked Pinkley as he approached.
"It's nothing to worry about. Here let's practice with Bravos, we'll switch since we're one man short." assured Posey, as Pinkley and Bravos started to practice on each other. Posey looked over at Franko's back as he was walking away, he vowed to himself:
'One of these days Franko…you will pay and you'll never see it coming…Just you wait…'