Thank you to those who reviewed – I really appreciate hearing/seeing if anyone reads my story – so keep it up and so will I:D
Chapter 2 – Horn Dog
The women of October Company (or O Company, but being formed in October of 1943, they found it a good nickname) showered in fairly clean water for the first time in a week and a half. Janine, better known as Cop for often being the leader of the company, was the first out and dressed, but held back for Lace.
"I couldn't be the first one to the food," she said as Lace towel dried her hair. "I don't want to be the one to pick a spot to sit and be stared at. Its like secondary school all over again."
"For being so tough, who woulda known." Lace laughed at her close friend.
"Known what?" Janine's face hardened.
"That boys scare you!"
"I am NOT afraid of boys!" Lace could tell she had offended her this time.
"Prove it!"
"I have nicked off far more Krauts than you ever have – and you're telling me I'mafraid of boys?"
"I don't mean boys with guns in their hands," Lace rolled her eyes. "I mean boys with guns in their pants." With that she made a gesture of holding a penis at her crotch, which made
"You really are a Horn Dog," Janine was still offended. "And I'm not afraid of either, thank you!"
"Pfffh," Lace blew air out of the side of her mouth causing her dirty blond hair to fly up as she shifted her weight to one hip and crossed her arms. "We haven't been around a company of men in three weeks and even back at that last post, you played sick to get a better bed and stayed in for the day we had there."
"I was resting!"
"Bullsh-" Lace cut herself off. "Hey now…" she now leaned over to get a better view at what she had just glanced at over Janine's shoulder. Janine turned her head, her auburn locks shedding water as she did, to the couple no more than 20 feet away.
"Who is that?"
"I think it's the other Major." Lace recalled the redhead lieutenant who had been up addressing the companies with their own.
"And I think that Mama Becker is blushing." Janine's voice got girlie and sing-a-long-ish. At this, Lace and Janine ducked down behind a crumbled mess of what may have been the side of a building, to get a better glance.
"Whats going on-?" Plain Jane asked from behind.
"Shh!" Lace
snapped, "Becker is flirting with a Major!"
"She's justtalking to him!" at a low whisper Janine pointed out the
obvious. "There really is no flirting…wait…they're
laughing…all right, maybe some flirting."
"One minute you're a tough soldier, the next a giggling school girl." Loyola observed the scene of the three girls. "This may be why women aren't recruited to fight."
"You're right. The giggling would be a give away when you're trying to be stealthy," Lace laughed turning her interest away from the Majors and began to walk towards where they had been told food would be served.
George Luz leaned back and lit a cigarette in his mouth. The food had been decent, a feast in comparison to what they had been fed out in Bastogne. Guys stuffed themselves since for the first time in a good while they were offered refills. The warm food made everyone happy and spread a good mood.
"So, do you think those girls are…" a young replacement proposed to the guys, "Well, you know…"
"No," Luz look
down at the kid, "We don't know."
"Dykes." He
chuckled, "Or you think they're available?"
"How old are you?" Luz asked, but before the kid could answer continued, "Just focus on the gun in your hand and wait till you get home." He shook his head at the immaturity of this young soldier. They were all well deprived, but that didn't mean jump the first thing that walked by. George knew what he had had once before back at home was no longer there, but he didn't let himself focus on that. His currently goal was just to win this damn war and get home.
"Just sayin'." The soldier shrugged.
"Why don't you just ask them yourself?" snapped Wild Bill Guarene who gestured to the woman soldier who had just entered the area.
It wasn't a very formal cafeteria, but some company had set up three rows of tables with random chairs that could be found and put together a buffet-style arrangement of food. It wasn't much, located in what could have been an outdoor café at one point. There was a roof above their heads, but the ground was dirt and the only wall was the side of a building, the archway over them had openings that were more like holes made for windows so the center square of the town could be seen. It definitely did not look anything like it had long before, which may have had it a nice place for coffee.
Wearing her pants tucked into her boots from earlier, but a tank top displaying her dog tags with it, the soldier entered the scene going directly to the food and being followed by three other women. This was a larger, and definitely a tough woman the men who meet as Loyola who was the first to claim the empty table next to the one most of Easy sat at. She began to eat not even taking notice to the men nearby.
As women gradually entered and sat with their food, Luz was the first to speak to Loyola, "So why is it, that you ladies, rather than become nurses or factory workers back at home chose to come all the way out here and fight like us?"
It was Janine who beat Loyola to the answer and she was witty, "To meet charming men, such as yourself." She grinned at him. "Isn't that why you joined?"
"Oh no," Luz was quick with her. "I enlisted for the free trip to Europe."
"And you really get what you pay for, don't you?"
"Well after we jumped out of a perfectly good plane, I knew I had gotten ripped off." Luz couldn't help but grin as well, he liked the spark this girl had.
"So is there a 'nice Jewish girl' amongst you all?" Liebgott was a bit mad with how Webster brought that up, but couldn't help but have interest. Joseph had been eyeing the women as they entered with their wet hair either up or dripping down their backs. They really weren't anything special in his opinion and war was no place for a woman, especially as the role of a soldier. This was mainly because Joe viewed women as delicate beings in skirts and heals spending too much time on their make-up, nothing like the dirty men who risk their lives and see men's heads blown clear off in combat. This was no place for a woman.
However he still leaned forward to hear the answer Webster posed, who had looked back over his shoulder and grinned to Joseph.
"Great, we need the Jews breeding…" Guarene teased Liebgott. Having had prior fights on the issue, both were on good terms with the other.
"A Jew?" Loyola paused as she swallowed, and then nodded her head pointing to Lace, "Yeah. Horn Dog."
"Why does she have THAT nickname?" Guarnere butted in wanting to know.
"Well…"
Having heard her name, Lace wandered over just in time to butt in, "Let me tell it, let me tell it," she pushed her comrades aside and assured the men, "Its' not as bad as it sounds." Lighting her cigarette she hopped up onto the table top and sat leaning forward, "So." She cleared her throat. "While we were in France, somewhat still in training."
"This was a few weeks after we formed." Janine added sitting at the table, leaning into the conversation, which quickly gathered a good amount of interest from the other men and women around them.
"Right," Lace nodded. "And well, obviously the odds were in our favor and there was a lot to look at because the men, didn't initially know we were women, and wore shorts and ran a lot…" she trailed off for a moment with a silly grin on her face.
"And one day we were in role call," Janine pushed her to continue.
"Yes, in role call we had to be lined up straight – you all know," she nodded to the men, "Well, the men were running about, sweating, and being men, and I couldn't help but look.
"And she just had to look-"
"And I was the only one who got caught looking," Lace corrected her. "And our Major got right in my face, 'PRIVATE! ARE YOU LOOKING AT THOSE MEN?!'"
"First I said, 'no ma'am' because I'm scared – I had never been called out up till then." Lace continued, "But she yelled again, 'ARE YOUR EYES ON THOSE MEN?'." There were many eyes on her as she yelled out the dialogue that had taken place, "'YES MA'AM!'."
"Why are your eyes on those men?" Janine yelled pretending to be Major Becker and played along with Lace who was standing at full attention to illustrate the scene.
"I don't know, MA'AM!"
"Private, I asked you, 'why are your eyes on those men?'."
"And by this point, she is in my face and spitting on me." Lace described, "So, I say the first thing I can think of, 'Because I am horny, MA'AM!'." The room of women and men burst into loud laughter at the conclusion of the story.
"She didn't know what to say." Laughed Loyola, "Just speechless,"
"And we're all looking at her in awe that she just said that." Another soldier added.
"So after a minute, she says to me, 'Well, aren't you just a horn dog, Private'." Finished up Lace, "And it stuck." There was still a hum of laughter amongst those who had gathered to listen to the story, drawn in by all of the yelling and acting.
"Well you didn't just get away with it," Janine pointed out.
"Oh no," Lace agreed, "I had to run 4 miles after that and clean guns, but the smile she cracked after saying that to me, was well worth it."
"That was what probably got her to break," Plain Jane said, "After that she wasn't so uptight, strict…and well, mean."
"My sense of humor rubbed off on her." Lace boasted with a drag of her cigarette.
"And being out there," Janine nodded her head to refer to the front line, "We've all gotten comfortable with each other enough to well…"
"Make you men look prude!" laughed Lace.
"We'll see about that!" Guarene shook his finger at her as he laughed.
"You are just a different breed of woman," was all Shifty Powers could say as he got up with a chuckle shaking his head and smiling.
R&R:D
