This particular chapter has been in my head from the beginning. I omitted a note regarding Colonel David Dobie in the last chapter. Ambrose misspelled the Colonel's name in BOB and I had a heck of a time finding any information on him. Then I hit the British sites and discovered why.
"All right let's see what we have, 450 Francs, 800 British pounds, 460 Dutch guilders, and 8500 American dollars, and a 45." JoJo counted the money and stacked it in little piles on the bed. The girls had never seen so much money in one place at one time.
"Goodness, have you ever," said Katie. "We ought to take a picture of JoJo lying on the bed naked covered in her winnings."
"Absolutely brilliant, but I think you if count that money one more time, I may shoot you with that 45," said Edie. "You are a credit to our sex, JoJo. Were they embarrassed by their total annihilation at the hands of a woman?" She sat cross-legged on the floor. "I warned Captain Nixon. I can't believe he bet his pistol."
"Oh, they bitched like teenagers. As for Nix, he did all right until he started drinking. That man is a scientific wonder. I have never seen a man who could drink so much and hold it together for so long, but then in the end Nix bottomed out and kablooie. I end up with his back pay and then some. Looks like Nixon is going to have to dabble into ye olde Trust Fund if he wants to go back to Aldborne to see his lady love."
"When is he leaving," asked Molly?
"I gather in the near future? You know I will miss him," said JoJo. "There is so much to the man that will draw women like bees to honey, and I am not just talking about his money. He is good-looking and absolutely brilliant. I loved working with the man. But we all know there are always women out there who think they can help a man stop drinking. Lew is just too cynical for his on good." Counting to herself, she divided the American money into equal amounts and handed it to each girl.
"But he's fearless," said Edie as she put her share in her pocket. "Nix always walks the lines in the wee hours. Can you imagine following that thin line we held along the river in the dead of night all by yourself?" JoJo and Molly shook their heads no. "When he is focused, there is no one better or braver in uniform. Too bad he doesn't get his life together until sometime in the 1950s."
"Don't tell me that he sobers up for the love of a good woman," said JoJo. "That is just too storybook."
"Well, it happens to be true," said Edie. "Lew meets and marries this lovely Japanese woman named Grace, and they spend the rest of their life together traveling the world."
"Sounds wonderfully romantic, but I am relieved," said Molly. She rolled up her money and stuck it down her boot. "I hope he hasn't already done permanent harm to his body drinking all that whiskey. Is he alive when we get back?"
Edie shook her head no, "I am afraid he passes away in the late 90s before the movie comes out."
"Why do we have to leave now when we have a load of dough, and are surrounded by gorgeous men who really know how to party hard," sighed Katie? "I've always wanted to do this." They watched as Katie stuck the wad of dough in her bra. "Right between the girls."
"Because eight days from now, the German Army is going to launch one final attempt to defeat the Allies under the direction of one of the craziest, meanest bastards the world has ever seen," said Edie. "We won't be able to get a train, bus, or plane out of here. Eisenhower is going to have to move supplies and men as fast as he can to push the Krauts back. Easy Company is going to be in the middle of one of the biggest battles in history. We would just be in the way. Since we failed in our attempt to get the supplies they need, the men do not have enough ammo, warm clothes, or food. We would just be another headache. The conditions are going to be far worse than they were in the Netherlands. Sink is not going to stick his neck out for us right now. He cannot afford to do it. Besides, all of your watches are working now. Mine is loosing time. Perco gave me one as a souvenir. My grandfather returns to his unit in two days just in time to leave with his unit. That means he picks up his watch and winds it. If my theory is right, that's when the opening for lack of a better word reappears."
"Wait a minute; you are forgetting Einstein's theory. According to Albert, a person can only move through time in one direction, which is the future. We moved back in time, and now you are telling me we are going to move forward to our time," said Katie.
"Hello, I am a fricking History major, remember?" Listen, if I am wrong then we better get use to living in 1945."
"Man, if we do, we will make an absolute killing on the stock market," said JoJo. "We can find a bookie and bet on every major historical event and win mega bucks." Looking at Edie's face, Joanie stopped. "I know, I know you miss your family. Not all of us like our family as much as you."
"JoJo, even if we stay, that is no guarantee that you will marry Joe Toye. Every attempt I make to prevent one known historical occurrence has snafued since we have been here. What we are experiencing has to be some weird phenomena similar to what Jules Verne describes."
"That is fiction. This is real life. I want to go back to England and find Win. Besides Joe is going to need Joanie after he gets hit in Bastogne," said Katie.
"What, you didn't tell me that. You told her. What happens to him? You better tell me or so help me I will…" JoJo stood up and towered over Edie as if to intimidate her, but it didn't work.
"You will what…hit me?" Edie struggled to calm herself and to find the words. Katie mouthed I'm sorry. Standing up, Edie inhaled deeply then exhaled. "I was going to tell you later because I know you will be upset. Sometime in the beginning of January, Easy is holding the line in the Bois Jacques and takes a pounding from German artillery. Poor Joe is out of his foxhole and gets hit by an artillery round. He looses his right leg and calls for help. Bill hears him and crawls out of his foxhole, and tries to drag him into a foxhole then Bill gets hit and looses his right leg. They survive and both have a ticket home."
"You have to warn them. If you won't, I will," said JoJo as she headed towards the door.
"If you tell him and Bill, it's just going to upset them. Bill already knows that nothing can stop it from happening. You want them to walk around every day until then dreading the inevitable. Can you live with that because if you can I wish you would tell me how? I love Bill maybe not like you love Joe, but he's very special to me, but I know Bill is going to have a great life, and Joe does too eventually."
JoJo stopped and turned around. Tears ran down her face. "I am sorry Edie. You are right. Joe really doesn't love me." Edie put her arms around JoJo.
"How do you know," asked Katie? She too got up and put her arms around JoJo and Molly followed suit.
"Joe never talks about our future after the war. Not once has he ever suggested that he and I will get marry, settle down, and have children. He is the first man that treats me like a woman instead of one of the boys, and I love him for it. Is that so wrong?"
"No, JoJo, there is nothing wrong with it, but we are too different for these men," said Edie. We have not shared the same experiences that they have back home. They went through the depression. We are use to having an easy life with every modern convenience. Besides, UVA did not allow women undergraduates until 1970. Technically, if we stay here, we would have to start all over again as freshman. No, thank you very much. We have to try and get back so we leave on the twelfth. Now, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but it looks as if those supplies will not be coming in before the men move out. I found out through certain channels that Sobel is holding up the paperwork until he talks to Sink, who is on leave."
"You are plotting something that is fun but might get us in trouble," said Katie. "I can the see brilliant wicked thoughts dancing in your eyes. What are you planning?"
"If we are going to buy weapons on the black market, I'm out. We'd have to go to Marseilles or the backstreets of Paris, and even I am not that ballsy," said JoJo plopping back on the bed.
"No, I was thinking of something ridiculously asinine as well as being a totally futile gesture on our part that might go down in the annals of Easy Company History as Eddie Murphy, Joe Namath, and Mo Rocca take on Paris and Sobel."
"And we are just the guys to do it," smiled JoJo. "I don't even know what it is, but already I like it. When do we leave?"
"Let's make a plan first," said Molly. "We always have a plan. That is the genius behind our madness, and why we have never been caught."
"Never say never, it's bad luck" said Katie. "Who is Sobel because I have absolutely no idea what you three are babbling about, but whatever it is, I'm in."
"What about Buck," said JoJo? "I thought you would want to spend your last days with that all American grade "A" hunk of beefcake. You do know what his name rhymes with don't you?"
"No, I'm illiterate, and I grew up in a convent. Besides, I can't even get that man to hold my hand. I might as well tag along just in case you guys screw the pooch. Ah, Edie has formalized the plan. I can see the evil wheels of misguided justice in her eyes have stopped spinning."
Three hours later, the girls found themselves in Paris. While a certain Captain Herbert Sobel finished his dinner, three scruffy looking privates watched from a bar across the street. Having obtained the name of Sobel's hotel prior to leaving Mourmelon, they quickly took a cab upon arriving in Paris and requested the driver to take them to that vicinity. Each girl booked a room a room in four strategically located small hotels near Sobel's hotel. After administering bribes to the concierges, they went upstairs and three of them changed into their ODs then lightly glued small hairs onto their faces. Exiting out the back way of each hotel, they took up various lookout posts and waited. When JoJo signaled that the mark was on his way, Katie began following him. She was not in ODs. In fact, Katie was probably the prettiest Lieutenant walking the streets of Paris at that very moment. Everything depended on timing and teamwork. Just as Sobel finished his meal, a pretty WAC, came up to the Captain, and asked if he would mind walking her to her hotel. Her friends had left with some other officers, and she was a little worried about walking back alone. Sobel being far away from home was flattered that out of all of the men in the restaurant, this beautiful young woman requested his services. Especially since she said, you look like a man who knew how to take care of himself in a fight.
Offering his arm, the two walked down the street the tall, attractive strawberry blonde continued to cajole and flatter him. "I am so proud to be walking along a paratrooper. You men are so brave." When she discovered he was the supply officer, the young woman, Katie was her name, raved about how important a job he had. "Such a major responsibility, your CO must think highly of you."
Sobel was happier than he had been in months. As they turned a darkened corner, Katie squeezed his arm. "I am sorry, but dark places in a strange city unnerve me."
Suddenly, they heard a deep voice with a strong southern accent call out, "Captain Sobel, we have a message for you." Turning they saw three figures across the street. When he asked what it was and to identify themselves, he heard the following "Joe Namath, said one voice, Mo Rocca was another and then came the deep southern voice again, and Eddie Murphy of the 506th have one thing to say to you." In one unified voice, the men said, "Captain Sobel, kiss our assholes, then the three figures pulled down their pants, showing their bare white asses and took off running yelling, "Hi, Ho, Silver." Sobel watched as they ran in different directions, but then he saw one of men enter a nearby hotel.
"Oh, my," said Katie as she turned her head. "How utterly disgraceful, I have never seen such a sight. I think I am going to be sick." Her legs giving way, Captain Sobel had no choice but help her to her hotel.
Furious, Sobel called for MPs from the lobby of Katie's hotel. Fifteen minutes later, a taxi pulled up in front of a small hotel and Captain Edwina Witherspoon in her new Class "A" uniform stepped out to pick up her friend Lieutenant Margaret Morrison. They met up with Lieutenant Katherine Jackson four blocks from the hotel where she just left after making sure that Sobel was nowhere in sight.
"I don't care if his name is not on the register. I want this hotel searched," screamed Sobel. They began on the first floor. Some of the residents were out and those that were in were not very happy to have their lovemaking interrupted and told the MPs and Sobel as much.
When they reached the second floor and knocked on the door and a busty, blonde Lieutenant Riordan opened it. They explained the situation to her, and the Lieutenant was extremely polite. "Sorry boys, do I look like a man to you?"
One of the MPs was a young man from Mississippi, and he could not remember when he has seen such a tall, full figured gal. "No, m'am," he drawled. As she closed the door, JoJo heard Sobel say, "Goddamn it."
Waiting for the MPs and Sobel to head up to the next floor, JoJo picked up her valise containing her ODs and tennis shoes. When she was sure they were upstairs, JoJo headed out, walked two blocks and entered a waiting cab. The latter drove to the Gare de l'Est station and went inside the beautiful building. Then oddly enough, they separated on the platform, each entered a different car and began either reading Stars and Stripes or filing her nails. When the MPs held up the train to search for three tall men sitting together from the 506th, they found none, and the train sped off into the night. By the time, it reached Mourmelon, the four sleepy friends stepped off the train only to be greeted by fuming Captain Winters and a smiling Captain Nixon.