"Try with this hand." I was trying to teach Dick Winters another way to play poker since we both were sitting in the same area now on the train on our way over to New York. We still had no clue where ew were going, yet we were all sitting on pins and needles as to where they were going to send us. With me, I had a small hint that they were going to send me over to England to help out with the other pilots there, while I was still working with Easy Company and being one of their main drivers. If I was going to go to England, that would eventually mean that I would have no clear idea when I would be able to see Beth again. It was going to be harder than ever to just get through the day without being able to talk to her every once in awhile. I had to find a way to make it work and make it bearable for me really.
"How did you learn how to play like this?" Winters asked me as we were playing our round and sitting across from each other.
"My brother mostly, along with some of his friends. You tend to have the greatest times in a tavern and cheap beer," I explained to him as I was looking at my own hand. Poor Winters, he wasn't sitting too well with this new set of poker rules I was giving him. But then again we were just having a good times talking to one another, given that the last time we were together I almost burned my whole hand and he whisked me away to the medical cabin. All I knew from him before we got on the train was that he was a 1st lieutenant, came from Pennsylvania, and he grew up in some kind of farm life none the less.
"You grew up in a tavern and you fly planes, there's more to you than meets the eye." He commented to me as he was analyzing his own cards and I grinned at him.
"I'm not one for playing it safe really," I said to him as we both grew into another moment or two in silence. We looked a teach other one more time before I placed my hand in front of him, the cards facing up on the table now as Winters looked too.
"Sorry, Dick." I said to him sweetly, watching him groan and throw down his cards now in defeat but still have a small smile on his face. He didn't look too broken hearted about it, nor did he seem sour about the whole thing too when I grabbed all of the cards to shuffle them again.
"You heard from your family as of late?" Dick asked me casually from across from me.
"I spoke to them on the phone before we got on the plane." I explained.
"You never told me too much about your family," Dick informed me, which did have me pause for a brief moment considering that he sounded very intrigued about knowing more about my family.
"What would you like to know about my family?" I asked him in a causal yet careful way. But Dick only smiled, showing real no sense of harm or work for me to think about.
"Anything you wanna share with me really. You have any siblings?" He asked me in curiosity as he leaned in a bit, showing he was naturally curious about it and wanting to know more about me.
"I have one brother. Older brother, who's a professor at a University." I explained, "And I have my mom and dad, and also…my daughter." After I told him about my daughter, I could see his eyes going a bit brighter, but only slightly and now all the way huge like I thought he would. It was almost the same thing as Luz, Dick was drinking in that fact that I was a mother. But with Dick, he didn't look too shellshocked like Luz did. Dick looked more relaxed about the news, which was making me more shocked than anything.
"You have a daughter?" He asked, intrigue was in his voice along with a small hint go happiness there. I couldn't help but smile from how he sounded.
"Her name is Beth, she's three now, going on four in October." I explained to him lightly, a grin was back on his face and it felt more at ease with our conversation.
"I didn't think you were married." he commented to me, having me grimace slightly.
"I'm not, actually…my husband died about a couple of months after she was born. Car accident." I explained to him with more hesitance then and I could see his smile falter a bit, like he was the one who was hurt about what he heard. It was always awkward to tell someone that you were a widow, since I doubt it was a normal thing to be a widow with a 3 year old child that you left behind to got to war.
"I'm sorry to hear that, Adaline. I shouldn't have asked." He said in almost a mourning kind of way. I shook my head, since that last thing I really wanted was another person to feel and for me when I did nothing wrong to be completely hones and fair about it. I did not want to be seen as someone's pity party and as someone's excuse to feel sad.
"I really don't mind talking about it. It's better to talk about than to wallow in it." I explained to him more with some boldness back in my tone. I remembered my mother telling me the same thing the day of my late husband's funeral. I could remember the day clearly, the both of us dressed in black and my mother had Beth swaddled in her arms as I was weeping from coming from his wake. She looked at me directly in the eye then, the stern look of a mother but then again the kinds there since she could somehow feel my sense of lost and pain.
"Adaline, it will be better for you to talk about it then to wallow it in." She said to me as I was eying my infant daughter there in her arms, asleep and looking more soothed than ever. I was back in the present when I reached into my jacket pocket to pull out the latest picture my brother sent me os Beth. She got bigger since I saw her last, taller and her hair was now longer than ever. In this picture, she was wearing her overalls and shirt and she was helping her grandmother, my mother, in the garden.
"Here she is." I said to him as I passed the picture over to him now, seeing him hold it within his fingers and smile from seeing my young girl there.
"She beautiful, Adaline. You should be proud of her." Dick commented to me with that sincere tone in his voice when he handed me the picture again. I grinned from his remark to me, still looking at the picture myself and how she was grinning in the picture with her grandmother next to her.
"I am, though it pains me sometimes that I'm not with her all the time." I admitted to him now with a small bitterness there in my tone.
"I would be too if I had to leave my child behind." Winters agreed with me.
"But she's in good hands. She reminds me a lot of her father really, very adventurous and bold. That's nothing like me." I explained in a chuckle now, just think gin about her and how she was really like Adam in how he acted and how he spoke. She was beyond bold, sometimes too bold for me to deal with, but she was also the one who want to go on plenty of adventures and be a daredevil.
"Well you have to some kind of bravery to be part of the Air Force, let alone being one of the only females in the Air Force. I bet you anything she is proud of you." Dick reminded me, and hearing it from him was enough for me to smile at him. I was placing the photograph back in my jacket pocket when I heard a knock on the seat where I was in, above me on the wood. I looked up and over, having to crane my neck to see who it was, and I saw it was a new member of the officers for Easy. He was transferred in before we got on the train. He was a bit older then me, though he still looked younger in the face really with short curly light hair and bright blue eyes that were twinkling with youth and a grin to show for it.
"Ah, Harry. You need a seat?" Dick asked him as he moved the table between us out of the way, folding it up and placing it once again against the wall.
"If that's not too much trouble, rather sit back here with you than with the privates up front who aren't really too keen on meeting a newbie." He said in a grunt as he shuffled his way past me and over to sit back next to Dick and sit down with a casual manner to him. He leaned back in his seat, making eyes with me and then grinning without showing any of his teeth.
"You the Air Force Pilot the other guys are talking about?" He asked me casually, though he seemed gentle enough to be talking to me and not scaring me.
"I am, Adaline O'Malley." I traduced myself to him, holding out my hand for him to shake. He shook it without hesitation.
"Harry Welsh, good to meet you Adaline. Dick here told me as soon as I came in that we had a Air Force pilot in our Easy Company." He explained to me as we realized hands and he sat back in his seat and Dick nodded.
"Sink wants to use her as one of our drivers mostly, I think he's still skeptical of her being one of the pilots." Dick explained to him as I shifted in my seat and the cards were still in my hand.
"Oh yeah, the buzz is that the women in the WASP program will be doing some action over in the war in Europe," Harry added into the conversation as he folded his hands on his lap and crosse his legs to get himself more comfortable there in his seat.
"Hopefully I won't be doing a whole lot of fighting from a plane." I reassured him with my own shrug of the shoulders.
"Unlikely if Colonel Sink has any say in it." Dick added with a bit of bitterness to it really, having me feel a bit of a grimace come though me from how he made it sound. Harry eyed me with a eye cocked, not clearly understanding what was going on and why that was said.
"Sink won't use you as a pilot? Wow, that's saddening." He replied in a amused tone. It could be amusing if you see it from that angle, having someone who clearly knew how to fly a plane and get through the air with ease was not going to be used for that, only for dirking jeeps and anything she can get her hands on. It almost felt like a tug of war, where I was supposed to be and where I wanted to be.
"Trust me, I don't get it either." Dick commented to him since I was just trying to get over it myself and not make it a bigger deal than it already was, "She is a good driver though, I saw her get around in a jeep once when we were back in Toccoa, one of the best drivers in a jeep I have ever seen."
"No shit." Harry said in a grin.
"She can put the other drivers to shame, not that Sobel appreciates that really." Dick explained, which was my cue to finally speak up about the whole conversation at hand and how it was progressing between the two of them now like I wasn't even there sitting with them.
"Okay, thank you for trying to make me feel better about all of that, but I wouldn't really want to get on Sobel's bad side again." I said to the both of them almost like a warning.
"Fair enough, sorry about that Adaline." Dick apologized to me as he saw the hesitant look I was giving the both of them, and even Harry looked a bit more hesitant now than he did before.
"Wait, Sobel has more sides than bad?" Harry asked us in a sarcastic manner, the three of us now breaking out into grins and it felt light again there in our spot on the train. It was nice to get to know the officers a bit more than I did before, and they were trusting me as one of their one instead of add-on from the Air Force.
September 18th, 1943
Aldbourne, England
"These planes here, are going to be the ones we are going to be using to carry our men over the target and having them jump. They are made with the latest technology to hold more than a dozen men, and to withistand any ariel attack that could be coming our way." I was sitting in on a lecture with some of the other pilots, but American and British, that was talking about the planes we were going to practice and fly in.
After we landed in England, I was whisked off to have both training in driving the jeeps that were there, learning road maps that we would use, and some some aspects of fighting that may come in handy in the near future. It was a bit of a shock that I was going to learn how to both shoot and handle a gun, only excuse it would seem more dangerous for me to drive around in a jeep than for me to be on a plane. They knew I had to prepare myself for anything that would come my way.
"Some of you will be working with the American and British Companies personally, since I was already notified. Today we are going to be going over the European maps and our lane maneuverings in the sky. Some of you are qualified to fly our fighter planes, and other our planes for storages and dropping off rations in certain areas. We are going to need both for the long haul." Our British flight officer was explaining to us as we were sitting in our rows of chairs underneath one of the tents that was set up. The rest of the boys in Easy were going over combat training, gun control, and hand to hand combat. I had my own hand than combat with the rest of the pilots, and it was still shocking to me that I was training to be a pilot and also a driver at the same time.
Throughout the days that we had there in our makeshift training camp, I would have no real time to be with the guys and hang out with them, though we had plenty of times to do that on the ship on our way over here. I would play plenty of card games, some books that the other guys would have, and there best of the time consists of getting to know more and more members of Easy.
Luz was one person that I was around constantly, we would swap stories about more movies and what else we liked to do. It made me more confused as to wha I was to him, more than a friend or our friendship staying the same. I was never good with something like that, even getting to know Adam was tough for me since I hardly read the signs he was throwing at me. It was the same thing as Luz, I was so blind to the concept of flirting and dating that he could be throwing me signals and signs that he likes me and I would have no real clue as to who tor receive and run with it. I only wished that I had my mother around, or someone who can clearly point out the flaws that I had. The flaw of being complement blind of flirtation.
I was driving through the camp now in one of the training jeeps that we were using. it's been nothing but driving for me really, going from place to place and handgun errands that were needed. I was mostly dropping off supplies, or officers, but it was fine with me since the rest of the day would have consisted of me sitting still on my butt and twiddling my thumbs. Another reason why I was glad that I was in the jeep was to avoid Captain Sobel, whom still seemed to have hated me because of my lashing out at him in Fort Benning some time before. Just being around in the same area as him was going to make my skin crawl, and he was Easy's Captain. I felt bad for them really, since they were still under his command and having to listen to him the whole time.
Once I turned the corner and was deriving down one of the lanes that was leading into the small English town we were in, I saw a small gang of easy members walking and talking together in such a excited manner that I grinned from seeing them. Its been in a long while since I saw them last, and one they made eye contact with me, they waved me over to drive by them. How could I resist that, since I wanted to talk to them about their training with Sobel more than anything. I got the jeep over there, seeing that they were all in their combat training gear and some of their helmets were still on.
"Hello boys, you all look far too happy." I joked with them as I parked the jeep in front of them now and they were all bouncing on their heels and toes. Joe LIebgott glided over to the hood of the jeep, hopping on the top of the hood as the others came in close to be near me and the jeep. As Joe was leaning back and taking out a cigarette to light it, I could see Perconte, Muck, young baby faced Sisk, and Luz with his radio on his back and him just grinning as Perconte spoke up to me.
"We just goosed Sobel!" He said in glee, having me almost be floored as I sat up a bit in my driver's seat and rested my hands on the steering wheel.
"You're kidding." I said in a wide smile.
"No way in hell are we gonna kid about something like that! The guy gets us lost, can't read a map to save his life you know? The next thing we do, we impersonate Major Horton and have Sobel cut the Goddamn fence to let the cows out!" Muck explained to me, having me hear the others chuckle and laugh from hearing the story from him. I never thought they had it in them to do something like that to their own Captain, but then again I was betting they were waiting for the perfect moment to trick him since they already hated the guy.
"How did you impersonate Horton?" I asked in curiosity. Joe grinned at me from his spot on the hood of my jeep, exhaling and then pointing with his cigarette in the direction of Luz, who was rearranging his radio pack on his back.
"This guy did the Major's voice, spot on," He replied, "I wasn't there, I was on the winning team in the game of 'who can get their first'. But this guy, he made a lot of the boys laugh and he made Sobel look more like a dick than ever before." He explained as he then inhaled and I smiled at Luz. For some reason, Luz looked more sheepish to agree with Joe, maybe because it was me or something else could be happening with it really. But I could see how he was fidgeting a bit in his stance there with Perconte shoving him playfully and others were tapping his head in approval.
"You did that?" I asked him, shock was there hear din my voice as he nodded with the cocky grin back on his face as she almost puffed out his chest a bit from being called out and almost being seen as a hero.
"I do that the un-divine gift of voice, you know that Adaline." He said to me with the cocky tone back in his voice and in how he was standing there in front of me. The others laughed from his remark.
"You should have seen it. I think Sobel was about to shit his pants from what he heard coming out of Luz's mouth." Perconte explained to me in a snort.
"Should I be proud of you boys being mischievous?" I asked them all in curiosity, seeing them look at me now with sheepish looks and grins on their faces that would remind me of children, like I caught them in an act that they thought they were going sneak by with it and not get in trouble or get their wrists slapped.
"Very much so." Joe replied back to me with his smooth tone as he inhaled through his cigarette.
"Good to hear, now get off my jeep. I have to deliver some medical supplies to the medical wing before Sobel gets me in more trouble." I said to Joe, seeing him roll his eyes and slide off the hood of my jeep as I got the engine back on and going.
"You going over to see Doc?" Muck asked me in curiosity.
"Of course, he still has more training to do with the other medics in town." I explained to them all. it was when Luz spoke up then from his own spot.
"You think you can give me a ride?" He asked as he shifted the radio pack some more and then tried to get it off his back without breaking his back in the process. I smiled and I couldn't help but nod my head, since we haven't had a good amount of time together as of late. "I need to take this by the radio matience station, I think I broke it while we were out today."
"Don't tell Sobel know or he'll rip you a new one." Muck advised him as Luz moved over to the passenger side of the jeep, getting in the seat and propping the radio pack to be between his legs as I got the jeep in gear.
"Go to hell, Muck." Luz grumbled to him as he got comfortable in the jeep.
"Love you too, Luz." Muck replied with his grin as I eyed Joe giving me one wink before he moved out of the way. If I was alone with Joe, I would really flip him off for doing that in front of the boys, I could tell from the look he was giving me that he had some idea of what was going on between Luz and I. All I could do was try to be the nice friend there that he needed me to be. I got the jeep to hit drive as we were off before I would hear anything else from another Easy member, and I could see from the corner of my eye Luz was glad to be away from the guys too. Once we were back on the road, just the two of us, Luz sighed in relief and rubbed his eyes with the heels of his hands.
"Rough day?" I asked casually, trying to make small talk with him really.
"Rough training with Sobel. The guy couldn't read the Goddamn map he was working with." Luz explained to me as I was making a large turn to go along another road that was going to take me more North in the town.
"What kind of training was this anyways?" I asked him.
"Map direction and battalion training. Though it felt more like we were just running around like chickens with our heads cut off." Luz went on with his own ranting now as he was leaning back more in his seat and I could see him closing his eyes with a small smile there evident on his face. The wind was picking up, cool because of the fact that it was Autumn and some clouds were rolling for the rain that was going to come into the area now. I would think Luz would be more uncomfortable because of his day, still stewing in anger for Sobel. But I didn't see that at all, more like the opposite actually. He still had that smile that he would always war on his face, his face looked beyond relaxed and soothing with his one leg prepped up to be near the window and his hands folded in his lap. There was always something about him that seemed so calm and so sincere to be around, almost like he was letting things roll off his shoulders and not scare him.
"For someone who thinks he broke the radio pack he's been wearing, you seem so calm." I commented to him as I made another turn along the dirt road we were on. Luz opened one eye at me and he grinned, a mischievous grin now.
"If I can handle Sobel and his rants with me, I can handle any other radio mechanic. Trust me, this is going to be more like a cake walk." He convinced me with his smooth talking kind of style, having me grin back at him in return.
"You always surprise me, Luz." I said back to him.
"I tend to do that from time to time. And yet, you still find me interesting enough to call me friend." Luz said with a bit of a boast in his tone.
"I find your jokes entertaining, not mention your voices and how to carry yourself with the men around you." I informed him more than talking to him.
"You make it sound like a bad thing." Luz joked with me in almost a snort, having me shake my head from the thought of me talking like it was a bad thing at all.
"More the opposite really. I think the guys need someone like you from time to time. We need that kind of moral to lift up our spirits." I explained to him in such a kind matter, thinking that he would want to hear something like that really. But it was when I looked over at him, I was floored from how he was staring at me. He was no longer having his eyes closed, but they were looking right at me now with his smile smaller now but with a hint behind it. He knew something in his own head then, and I could see that it was moving him around and making him look a different way.
"Are you trying to flirt with me, O'Malley?" He asked me, not in a coy manner but with a joking kind of way to it. It surprised me that he would talk like that to me with no shame behind it, yet I still drove on down the lane when we were about to make it into the part of the town where the office was where Luz needed it be. Something about him asking me if I was flirting with him, it made it sound so casual and so easy. It almost was like he was saying it like it was normal to him, like breathing. Once we pulled up to the office where he was going to go, I just shrugged my shoulders at him really to see what he was thinking about it.
"What do you think?" I asked him, not trying to sound coy as I got the jeep to come to a slow stop in front of the radio matinence station. I placed the jeep in part, the engine was still on and gently humming in the quiet neighborhood as Luz was still eyeing me with his small grin on his face now. I was waiting for him to do something, anything really since he was just sitting there and staring at me.
After a solid few seconds that felt more like minutes, George leaned over and gave me a single yet tingling peck of his lips against my cheeks before he scurried out of the passenger seat with his pack on his back. He grinned at me before he walked into the building, but I was frozen there in my jeep with mynahs still on the staring wheel and my thoughts going all over the place. I felt hot right where he lips touched.
George Luz kissed me on the cheek. I was in hot water now.
