Disclaimer: The Rat Patrol is not my property. They come out to play sometimes, then I send them home.

Sand

By Suzie2b

There was sand in his boots. Sand in his clothes. Sand in his hair. Sand everywhere plus a few places sand should never be. He gave his blanket a hard shake and sand flew from its folds, engulfing him in a cloud of the gritty stuff. Great! Just great! Now it was in his nose and mouth. He coughed, sneezed, and spit, but it was still there. Crunching between his teeth with an odd sort of earthy smell that tickled his sinuses. He resisted the urge to give the offending blanket a toss, because he would only have to shake it out again.

Moffitt walked over with a smile and a cup of coffee. "Did you have a bad night, Tully?"

The private snapped, "As long as I didn't try to sleep, I had a fine night!" He looked at the still smiling sergeant and sighed. "Sorry, sarge. I haven't gotten much sleep the last few nights."

Moffitt traded the coffee for the blanket and began to fold it. "Any particular reason why?"

Tully took a sip of the dark liquid, swished it around in his mouth, then spit it out, hoping to get rid of at least some of the grit in his teeth. "Sand. This'll be the eighth day that we've been out here. No shower. No clean clothes. The grit makes me itch and it's rubbin' me raw in places."

Troy said matter-of-factly, "We're all in the same situation, Tully. We'll be back at base in a day or two."

Hitch handed Tully a plate of powdered scrambled eggs. "Yeah, I must've poured a full cup of sand out of each of my boots when I took them off after watch last night. I can hardly wait to get a shower."

Tully set his coffee on the hood of the jeep and scooped some eggs into his mouth. There was a distinctive crunch as he chewed and wondered if sand was in the eggs or still in his mouth. He swallowed and said, "Really—is sand good for anything?"

Moffitt said, "Agriculture. Some crops grow best in sandy soil. And sand is good for drainage as well."

Hitch grinned. "Nothing better than a warm, sandy beach with your girl."

Troy joined in with, "I remember having a sandbox when I was kid. I would spend hours at a time playing in it."

Moffitt smiled. "We wouldn't have glass or concrete without sand."

"Then there's sandbags and sandblasting. Both very useful."

Hitch said, "Sand castles. My folks and I would spend two weeks every summer at Lake Ontario. I loved making sand castles."

Tully finally smiled as his mood lightened. "Okay…"

"Don't they use sand in hourglasses?"

Troy nodded with a grin. "Yeah, they do."

Tully chuckled. "All right, so sand is good for a lot of things."

Moffitt grinned. "Feeling better?"

"Yeah. Thanks guys."

Hitch said with a smile, "We're here to help."

Troy finished his coffee and said, "Okay, let's finish up here so we can get moving. If we're lucky, we'll be able to hit the showers by noon tomorrow."

Tully watched his friends as he ate and listened to their banter. Sand under his shirt made his back itch in that one spot you can never quite reach. He just smiled to himself and kept eating.