Pots and Kettles
"SNNNAAAARRRR!"
Moffitt's snore seemed to reverberate off the tent walls, vibrating them in its passage.
Troy jammed his pillow over his head, trying to muffle the sound. Moffitt didn't normally snore. At the moment, however, he had a bad cold, which he had tried to alleviate by ingesting a large quantity of scotch. "It might not cure you, old man," he confided after the third shot, "But after a certain point, you won't care any longer."
"Serves you right!" Troy muttered. He had a sneaking suspicion that Moffitt had caught his cold from a blond file clerk he had poached from Troy.
Another snore rattled the air.
"That's it!" Troy had to get some sleep.
"Moffitt!" he hissed.
The figure in the opposite cot didn't move. "Moffitt!" Troy said louder. The sergeant stirred, rolled over, and promptly started snoring again.
"MOFFITT!" There was a groan from the other cot, and a bleary voice replied, "Troy?"
"Moffitt, you're snoring," Troy told him.
"Huh?"
"I said you're snoring."
"I don't snore." Moffitt assured him indignantly.
"Fine," Troy agreed, deciding this conversation was going nowhere fast. "Just go back to sleep."
"Why did you wake me then?" The voice was petulant. "You know I'm sick. I need my rest."
Troy snorted. The man could undergo torture by the SS and barely flinch, but let him catch a cold and he turns into a six-year-old again. At least the snoring had stopped. Troy relaxed and begin to drift off.
"SNNNAAAARRRR!"
"Of all theā¦!" Troy gathered up his blankets and shoved his way through the tent flap. A full moon illuminated Hitch on watch near the crest of a nearby dune. He climbed up to join him.
"What's up, Sarge?" Hitch asked as Troy approached.
"Can't sleep" Troy yawned. "Moffitt's snoring." He found a flat spot and began to lay out his bedding.
"Right, Sarge," Hitchcock rolled his eyes.
Ten minutes later, Hitch picked up his rifle and stood up, having decided that a move to an adjacent dune might be a wise course of action. Troy was snoring so loud a German Panzer column could pass by and he would never hear it.
