Klinger and I were friends, I guess. We often went on dates, to the Swamp
when Trapper and Hawkeye held parties, and to the weekly movie. Nothing
serious. Technically, he was planning to propose to a girl back home, and
Spearchucker had his eye on me. We just enjoyed each others company, me and
Klinger, that's all.
I remember the first time we really connected. Before then, I'd just seen him as the crazy guy who wore dresses, and nothing else. He must have just seen me as a black nurse. I had asked Klinger to take some things to the lab for me, around Christmas time. Nothing important. Quarter of an hour later, Father Mulchay comes into my tent with a shaking Klinger by his side. Seems there was a little bit of a punch up between Klinger and Major Burns in the Post Op room.
'Ginger, can you watch over him for a little while for me, while I make sure Major Burns isn't seriously hurt?' the Father whispered to me. He disappeared before I had a chance to say anything. Klinger sat on the end of my cot, rocking backwards and forwards.
'What happened?' I asked kindly, sitting beside him.
'He broke the bottles, I was suppose to take them to the lab,' Klinger mumbled. He was still shaking, and I put a hesitant arm around him. Klinger looked at me, his brown eyes wide, almost scared looking. 'He wanted me to take my bandana off,' he said, staring at me. 'I can take it off, I'll be killed!' He tugged a little at the red bandana around his neck when he said this, and I realised it was fear I had seen in his eyes.
'You poor thing,' I mumbled, my heart melting. I gave Klinger a warm hug, and we sat there like that for a little while. Then Klinger burst it all out, how Frank had made him spill the bottles I had wanted in the lab, how Frank demanded Klinger take his bandana off, how it was his good luck charm, and how tired he was. He told me about how he didn't want to be in Korea, and how he swore he'd be home before Easter. My heart went out to Klinger, and I saw him for what he was, a man who wanted to go home in one piece, just like everyone else. After that, I decided I'd help him try and get home.
It was during the power crisis when Klinger came to me again.
'I've been kicked outta the Swamp. The Colonel says my nightly beauty routine keeps everyone awake,' he said, sounding annoyed.
'You can sleep in the nurse's tent with us,' I said. With a grin, I added 'you're almost a woman.'
'Ha ha,' Klinger said sarcastically. Later that night, I glanced around, to see if anyone was watching the door. When I was sure the cost was clear, I waved Klinger in. He slipped in and hid under the cot I had brought in earlier for him. A few minutes later, Major Houlihan came in, and got ready for bed. Before the lights were turned off, she gave some speech about how hard it was on all of us for her to share a tent with us. The lights were switched off.
'Goodnight, girls,' Margaret said in the dark.
'Goodnight, Major,' us nurses chorused back.
'Goodnight, Major,' Klinger added.
'Klinger!' Margaret yelled. The lights were switched back on, and Klinger was yelled at by Margaret for almost an hour. Mostly about him not getting out on a discharge, no matter how crazy he seemed.
It wasn't all trying to get Klinger out of the army. Hawkeye and Trapper once had a patient who before going under wanted to make sure he had the "right coloured" blood. So they made up a mixture which was to be applied to his skin while he was asleep to make him appear darker. Hawkeye told me about the scam, and I told Klinger. He watched Trapper apply it one day, and decided he wanted in on the prank. After being asked by this man if he looked darker than when he came in, Klinger agreed.
'Are you sure you got the right blood? It's happened before,' Klinger warned. He apologised for that to me afterwards, feeling bad. After all, Klinger wasn't racist. Later on, I spoke to the man. Before the prank was started, he ignored me, and if he wanted something, would wait for one of the other nurses to come in. I got sick of him after speaking to him for only a minute, knowing he had to gall to ask for the "right" blood, and I went off at him. I stalked back to my tent, and stayed there for the rest of the day. Two nights later was another party at the Swamp. I went with Klinger, but the man who had asked for the "right" blood came in, a rifle in one hand. For a moment, fear shot through me, but all he wanted to do was thank Hawkeye for "setting him straight". Before leaving, he saluted me, and pride for my friends at the 4077th filled me as I saluted back.
Klinger eventually got married to his girlfriend, Lavern, over the radio, and I couldn't feel anything but happiness for him. He was a fantastic man who deserved the best, and from what he'' told me about her, Lavern was the best.
One escape attempt I helped Klinger was when the nurses were told to move out, because of dangerous conditions.
'Let me come with you. From lower south, I can catch a ship back to the States,' Klinger pleaded. I agreed, knowing I could get a court martial for helping him. Ten minutes before the nurses were due to leave, Klinger got into a duffel bag, and I made sure it was put onto our truck. As we pulled off, a bag fell from the truck, and Colonel Blake called a halt.
'Hold it, you've lost a bag!' he called out. Unluckily, Klinger was found, and he was left at camp.
Henry died, just a month or so after that. He was meant to go home, but instead, he was shot out of the sky. Klinger and I sat in the Officer's club silently that night, the one time I really got drunk in Korea.
Two days later, the day Hawkeye went on R and R without Trapper for the first time, I was sent home. I didn't get a big send off like Henry, but the nurses did buy me a gift. Klinger also promised to write me every time he had a spare moment. I dismissed this as just an empty promise. I'd heard too many stories from the other nurses who had men "promise" to write regularly. They would write once, then forget. So I didn't have much faith in Klinger writing to me often. Instead, I nodded tearfully, and said goodbye, not expecting to see any of them again. Henry's death still hung over our heads, so I was scared I'd never even get home. But, to my surprise, two weeks after arrived home, a letter arrived from Korea. I'm not sure how the postman managed to read the address on the front of it, the envelop looked like it had been dragged through the mud from the 4077th to the States. It was, of course, from Klinger, with messages of envy from everyone else at camp. I was even more surprised when Klinger kept his promise and wrote at least twice a month. Klinger's letters made me feel as if I was still with my friends. Klinger told me about Trapper leaving, just a few days after me, BJ, Trapper's replacement, Colonel Potter taking over CO from Frank, Margaret getting married, Frank going crazy and being replaced by Charles Winchester, and everything else. I wrote back, giving him ideas for his section eight, even sending him a dress at one stage.
Meanwhile, my life back home wasn't going well. My father had just died from a heart attack, and my mother and my two sisters were all trying to help each other out, trying to make ends meet. I tried to keep the bitter parts of my life out of my letters to Klinger.
One day, Klinger sent me two letters at the same time. I read them in order, as you would. The older one made me feel sad and happy at the same time. He'd found another woman, someone called Debbie. "She's perfect," he wrote, "absolutely perfect". I was happy Klinger had been able to find someone as nice as her, especially after Lavern had left him for "Morty the sausage guy" (as Klinger referred to him), but I couldn't explain the sadness at that time. I read the second one, and the sad feeling I was trying to ignore, evaporated quickly. Debbie wasn't as perfect as she seemed. Klinger had mentioned something about them getting married after the war, and Debbie had told him that their relationship would be finished by the end of the war. Klinger was obviously drunk when he wrote the letter, his usual, neat writing had been replaced with a messy scrawl I could barely understand. Finishing the letter, I glanced over at my mother, who'd taken up drinking when my father died. I couldn't help but feel that Klinger's problems were tiny compared to mine at home. I didn't say so, though, Klinger had more important things to worry about than how I was doing.
Radar eventually left the 4077th, home on a hardship discharge. Klinger told me that he had been picked to replace Radar at Company Clerk, and he was going to give up trying to get out, as he had so much more work on his shoulders. I was disappointed, but I felt proud that Klinger wasn't being resentful about having to give up his dream of a section eight. I had felt resentful when I had to drop out of a hospital because I was with my family more than my work place, trying to hold it together. Another letter came, only days later, written again while he seemed to be drunk. He was upset because he wasn't able to do anything as well as Radar, and everyone hated him for it. I was halfway through writing a letter to Klinger a few days later, when another letter from him arrived. He apologised for anything stupid he may have said in the last letter he sent, as he was upset and not sober. I ripped up the letter I had been writing and began a new one.
Klinger's letters became fewer in time as more work was piled onto him. He apologised each time for this, but it didn't bother me, mine had become fewer as well, as the sky darkened over my family. My youngest sister had taken up prostituting on the streets, and frequently came home late at night, covered in bruises.
After a long period where Klinger didn't send a letter, I got one from him, telling me that his wife had left the man she'd been with while he was in Korea. Not to be with him after the war, mind, but to be with Klinger's best friend Gus, who'd been asked by Klinger to make sure his wife's new love life didn't work out. Some best friend. I was annoyed at how Lavern could just discard Klinger like that, and I almost wrote her an angry letter. I stopped, because she might use it against Klinger to say that he was having an affair while they were married. Klinger's letter went on about how he was so depressed he got drunk, and was talked into signing on with the army for another term. Hawkeye tried to talk him out of it, but Klinger refused to listen. Luckily, the Colonel I'd only heard nice things about, gave Klinger the wrong oath, and he hadn't been able to sign on the army again. Klinger regretted trying to join the army, and had almost gone back to aiming for a section eight.
When I replied to his letter, I didn't mention my family being bullied by the racist family across the street.
My last letter from Klinger was dated the day after the war had ended. It told me about how he'd met a young Korean woman who'd lost her family, and he had fallen in love with. They had been married the previous day by Father Mulcahy, and were going to stay in Korea until they had found Soon Lee's parents.
I found myself ripping the letter up and letting the pieces falling to the ground. It tore me up inside, that I would probably never see Klinger again. It was him that I thought of when things got tough at home, as they frequently did, and it was him I promised myself that I'd go meet when he got back from Korea. He was going to make everything right for me again, and instead, he was staying the country who'd taken so many lives.
I write this all down, because I never told Klinger that he is what kept me sane throughout my time back home, while my life fell apart, and I want him to know. My last thoughts alive will be fond memories of him.
**~~*~~*~~*~~**
Two weeks later, people from all over the states who were in the 4077th went to Ginger Baylis' funeral. The only person absent was Max Klinger, who could not be reached in Korea.
**~~*~~*~~*~~**
Author Note: Don't know how to spell Ginger's last name; sorry.
And a thanks to redlady27 for getting me the names of Lavern's "male friends".
I remember the first time we really connected. Before then, I'd just seen him as the crazy guy who wore dresses, and nothing else. He must have just seen me as a black nurse. I had asked Klinger to take some things to the lab for me, around Christmas time. Nothing important. Quarter of an hour later, Father Mulchay comes into my tent with a shaking Klinger by his side. Seems there was a little bit of a punch up between Klinger and Major Burns in the Post Op room.
'Ginger, can you watch over him for a little while for me, while I make sure Major Burns isn't seriously hurt?' the Father whispered to me. He disappeared before I had a chance to say anything. Klinger sat on the end of my cot, rocking backwards and forwards.
'What happened?' I asked kindly, sitting beside him.
'He broke the bottles, I was suppose to take them to the lab,' Klinger mumbled. He was still shaking, and I put a hesitant arm around him. Klinger looked at me, his brown eyes wide, almost scared looking. 'He wanted me to take my bandana off,' he said, staring at me. 'I can take it off, I'll be killed!' He tugged a little at the red bandana around his neck when he said this, and I realised it was fear I had seen in his eyes.
'You poor thing,' I mumbled, my heart melting. I gave Klinger a warm hug, and we sat there like that for a little while. Then Klinger burst it all out, how Frank had made him spill the bottles I had wanted in the lab, how Frank demanded Klinger take his bandana off, how it was his good luck charm, and how tired he was. He told me about how he didn't want to be in Korea, and how he swore he'd be home before Easter. My heart went out to Klinger, and I saw him for what he was, a man who wanted to go home in one piece, just like everyone else. After that, I decided I'd help him try and get home.
It was during the power crisis when Klinger came to me again.
'I've been kicked outta the Swamp. The Colonel says my nightly beauty routine keeps everyone awake,' he said, sounding annoyed.
'You can sleep in the nurse's tent with us,' I said. With a grin, I added 'you're almost a woman.'
'Ha ha,' Klinger said sarcastically. Later that night, I glanced around, to see if anyone was watching the door. When I was sure the cost was clear, I waved Klinger in. He slipped in and hid under the cot I had brought in earlier for him. A few minutes later, Major Houlihan came in, and got ready for bed. Before the lights were turned off, she gave some speech about how hard it was on all of us for her to share a tent with us. The lights were switched off.
'Goodnight, girls,' Margaret said in the dark.
'Goodnight, Major,' us nurses chorused back.
'Goodnight, Major,' Klinger added.
'Klinger!' Margaret yelled. The lights were switched back on, and Klinger was yelled at by Margaret for almost an hour. Mostly about him not getting out on a discharge, no matter how crazy he seemed.
It wasn't all trying to get Klinger out of the army. Hawkeye and Trapper once had a patient who before going under wanted to make sure he had the "right coloured" blood. So they made up a mixture which was to be applied to his skin while he was asleep to make him appear darker. Hawkeye told me about the scam, and I told Klinger. He watched Trapper apply it one day, and decided he wanted in on the prank. After being asked by this man if he looked darker than when he came in, Klinger agreed.
'Are you sure you got the right blood? It's happened before,' Klinger warned. He apologised for that to me afterwards, feeling bad. After all, Klinger wasn't racist. Later on, I spoke to the man. Before the prank was started, he ignored me, and if he wanted something, would wait for one of the other nurses to come in. I got sick of him after speaking to him for only a minute, knowing he had to gall to ask for the "right" blood, and I went off at him. I stalked back to my tent, and stayed there for the rest of the day. Two nights later was another party at the Swamp. I went with Klinger, but the man who had asked for the "right" blood came in, a rifle in one hand. For a moment, fear shot through me, but all he wanted to do was thank Hawkeye for "setting him straight". Before leaving, he saluted me, and pride for my friends at the 4077th filled me as I saluted back.
Klinger eventually got married to his girlfriend, Lavern, over the radio, and I couldn't feel anything but happiness for him. He was a fantastic man who deserved the best, and from what he'' told me about her, Lavern was the best.
One escape attempt I helped Klinger was when the nurses were told to move out, because of dangerous conditions.
'Let me come with you. From lower south, I can catch a ship back to the States,' Klinger pleaded. I agreed, knowing I could get a court martial for helping him. Ten minutes before the nurses were due to leave, Klinger got into a duffel bag, and I made sure it was put onto our truck. As we pulled off, a bag fell from the truck, and Colonel Blake called a halt.
'Hold it, you've lost a bag!' he called out. Unluckily, Klinger was found, and he was left at camp.
Henry died, just a month or so after that. He was meant to go home, but instead, he was shot out of the sky. Klinger and I sat in the Officer's club silently that night, the one time I really got drunk in Korea.
Two days later, the day Hawkeye went on R and R without Trapper for the first time, I was sent home. I didn't get a big send off like Henry, but the nurses did buy me a gift. Klinger also promised to write me every time he had a spare moment. I dismissed this as just an empty promise. I'd heard too many stories from the other nurses who had men "promise" to write regularly. They would write once, then forget. So I didn't have much faith in Klinger writing to me often. Instead, I nodded tearfully, and said goodbye, not expecting to see any of them again. Henry's death still hung over our heads, so I was scared I'd never even get home. But, to my surprise, two weeks after arrived home, a letter arrived from Korea. I'm not sure how the postman managed to read the address on the front of it, the envelop looked like it had been dragged through the mud from the 4077th to the States. It was, of course, from Klinger, with messages of envy from everyone else at camp. I was even more surprised when Klinger kept his promise and wrote at least twice a month. Klinger's letters made me feel as if I was still with my friends. Klinger told me about Trapper leaving, just a few days after me, BJ, Trapper's replacement, Colonel Potter taking over CO from Frank, Margaret getting married, Frank going crazy and being replaced by Charles Winchester, and everything else. I wrote back, giving him ideas for his section eight, even sending him a dress at one stage.
Meanwhile, my life back home wasn't going well. My father had just died from a heart attack, and my mother and my two sisters were all trying to help each other out, trying to make ends meet. I tried to keep the bitter parts of my life out of my letters to Klinger.
One day, Klinger sent me two letters at the same time. I read them in order, as you would. The older one made me feel sad and happy at the same time. He'd found another woman, someone called Debbie. "She's perfect," he wrote, "absolutely perfect". I was happy Klinger had been able to find someone as nice as her, especially after Lavern had left him for "Morty the sausage guy" (as Klinger referred to him), but I couldn't explain the sadness at that time. I read the second one, and the sad feeling I was trying to ignore, evaporated quickly. Debbie wasn't as perfect as she seemed. Klinger had mentioned something about them getting married after the war, and Debbie had told him that their relationship would be finished by the end of the war. Klinger was obviously drunk when he wrote the letter, his usual, neat writing had been replaced with a messy scrawl I could barely understand. Finishing the letter, I glanced over at my mother, who'd taken up drinking when my father died. I couldn't help but feel that Klinger's problems were tiny compared to mine at home. I didn't say so, though, Klinger had more important things to worry about than how I was doing.
Radar eventually left the 4077th, home on a hardship discharge. Klinger told me that he had been picked to replace Radar at Company Clerk, and he was going to give up trying to get out, as he had so much more work on his shoulders. I was disappointed, but I felt proud that Klinger wasn't being resentful about having to give up his dream of a section eight. I had felt resentful when I had to drop out of a hospital because I was with my family more than my work place, trying to hold it together. Another letter came, only days later, written again while he seemed to be drunk. He was upset because he wasn't able to do anything as well as Radar, and everyone hated him for it. I was halfway through writing a letter to Klinger a few days later, when another letter from him arrived. He apologised for anything stupid he may have said in the last letter he sent, as he was upset and not sober. I ripped up the letter I had been writing and began a new one.
Klinger's letters became fewer in time as more work was piled onto him. He apologised each time for this, but it didn't bother me, mine had become fewer as well, as the sky darkened over my family. My youngest sister had taken up prostituting on the streets, and frequently came home late at night, covered in bruises.
After a long period where Klinger didn't send a letter, I got one from him, telling me that his wife had left the man she'd been with while he was in Korea. Not to be with him after the war, mind, but to be with Klinger's best friend Gus, who'd been asked by Klinger to make sure his wife's new love life didn't work out. Some best friend. I was annoyed at how Lavern could just discard Klinger like that, and I almost wrote her an angry letter. I stopped, because she might use it against Klinger to say that he was having an affair while they were married. Klinger's letter went on about how he was so depressed he got drunk, and was talked into signing on with the army for another term. Hawkeye tried to talk him out of it, but Klinger refused to listen. Luckily, the Colonel I'd only heard nice things about, gave Klinger the wrong oath, and he hadn't been able to sign on the army again. Klinger regretted trying to join the army, and had almost gone back to aiming for a section eight.
When I replied to his letter, I didn't mention my family being bullied by the racist family across the street.
My last letter from Klinger was dated the day after the war had ended. It told me about how he'd met a young Korean woman who'd lost her family, and he had fallen in love with. They had been married the previous day by Father Mulcahy, and were going to stay in Korea until they had found Soon Lee's parents.
I found myself ripping the letter up and letting the pieces falling to the ground. It tore me up inside, that I would probably never see Klinger again. It was him that I thought of when things got tough at home, as they frequently did, and it was him I promised myself that I'd go meet when he got back from Korea. He was going to make everything right for me again, and instead, he was staying the country who'd taken so many lives.
I write this all down, because I never told Klinger that he is what kept me sane throughout my time back home, while my life fell apart, and I want him to know. My last thoughts alive will be fond memories of him.
**~~*~~*~~*~~**
Two weeks later, people from all over the states who were in the 4077th went to Ginger Baylis' funeral. The only person absent was Max Klinger, who could not be reached in Korea.
**~~*~~*~~*~~**
Author Note: Don't know how to spell Ginger's last name; sorry.
And a thanks to redlady27 for getting me the names of Lavern's "male friends".