Note
Hawkeye paced inside the Swamp in his dripping wet clothes. He looked around at everything except the cot and locker where Trapper and his things used to be.
"Damn. Not as much as a single note or a damn goodbye."
He kept reaching for the pitcher where the finest kind used to pour so freely when he used to pouring but kept pulling back his hand as if he was waiting for it strike him for thinking about Trap like he was.
"Well he didn't leave me a note when he should have," he tried to persuade the pitcher. The pitcher just stood there half empty saying nothing.
Finally Hawkeye had the guts and looked at Trapper's now empty cot. There sat his hat with the roaster feathers and red band. There also sat a notepad and a pen. Hawkeye looked at the objects as if there was never such a thing like it on earth before. He picked up the pen and paper to find that the pen was Trapper's favorite pen. He used it for everything. It had been a present to him from his wife before he had left the States to come to the great party called Korea.
Hawkeye looked at the blank paper almost expecting words to just appear saying Trapper's goodbye, but nothing surfaced. On the surface of the paper he could see that there were some words on it as if from a piece of paper on top of it had been written on. Hawkeye held it up to the light as he sat down.
Dear Hawk,
I know by the time you read this I'll probably be gone. We did try to reach you but you must been in the middle of someone. Don't try to blame Radar he tried his best. I got my orders the second day you were gone. I do hope you understand. I really missed my girls but now they'll have their daddy back.
I've never been good at saying goodbye. Hell, I couldn't even say it to my wife and kids when I left. It should be easier on paper. Goodbye Hawk. Catch ya in the States after all this bullshit in Korea.
Your buddy, Trapper McIntyre
It was hard to read it but it was there. Hawkeye kept looking at the sheet of blank paper where a letter to him had been for a moment. Then he tore off the page, crumpled it into a ball and threw it into the stove.
"Not even a damn note."
He caught sight of Trapper's hat still on the cot and he saw red. He got up and threw the hat, the symbol of the man who wore it so often, at the mesh walls with an unsatisfactory brush against the mesh. He let it fall between the still and the forlorn cot. He stood there calming himself down when a short corporal came into the tent.
"Sir, I was wondering if you would like to see the orders for the new surgeon coming in to…"
"Replace Trapper?" finished Hawkeye as he gazed down at Radar.
"Uh, yeah."
"When is he supposed to come in?"
"In about an hour. I have to go pick him up at the air base."
"I'm coming. I have to see if Trapper has a note or at least a goodbye."
Radar and Hawkeye left the Swamp to go to the CO's office to see Frank about picking up the new member to the 4077th family.
Hawkeye didn't even see the sheet of paper stuck inside the hat of the man who he thought who couldn't even leave him a single damn note.