R is for Reify

"To consider or represent (something abstract) as a material or concrete thing"

It took Edward the Dramatic far longer than he anticipated to get everyone on set and ready to begin filming. He had no idea why anyone would want to delay the production of grand art, but these women, as eager as they were to become movie stars and help end the war, took far longer than they should have in preparing their costumes and getting ready to leave. He was tempted to complain to them about taking too long, but he did not want to make them grumpy or have them decide to take longer just to punish him for complaining, so he held his tongue. Still, when they decided to take time to make coffee when they were only minutes away from leaving, he very nearly broke his resolution. How could they possibly call themselves true lovers of art when they actually wanted to sleep instead of go create art? It did not make sense, but he was not about to tell them that and risk having to find himself another free film cast. That would take too long. Still, at least the delay was giving LeBeau enough time to sell the paintings. With the money he made, Edward could undoubtedly find a theater willing to show his film for the first time. After that, all the other theaters would undoubtedly flock to him for the chance to show his first movie.

"Alright," one of the women who seemed to be in charge here finally said, "we are ready to go. It would be better if you would let us go home and rest so we can begin filming tomorrow, though. We have not had a good chance to sleep, and we did not know until last night that we should be preparing for this."

"Madam," Edward replied, giving the woman his most flattering smile, "you look perfect. This film is about how hard work is inspirational and how we should all focus on that instead of on war. You make think you look tired, but that will only make the film more real to everyone who watches it. This is truly the best thing we can do."

None of the women seemed that happy with his explanation, but they accepted it, and so Edward stepped outside the Hammelburg Women of Wartime Art Society only a minute later with several tired women following him in costume. While they were preparing their costumes, one had told him that her brother had a movie camera, and so he sent her to go get him. The two siblings joined the procession just as they were turning off the street, and Edward proudly led them along to a nearby field he had seen earlier.

There was a large barn at one end of the field, and Edward had grand ideas for how he could use it as a set. Everyone knew that any film about hard work and pioneers and farming needed a barn in the background. He decided that in one scene they could burn it down to show how people persisted even when all their harvest was destroyed in one fell swoop. It would be a moving scene—a true turning point in the film.

"There now, that went splendidly, if I do say so myself," Crittendon said happily as he looked at Carter and Kinch, both of whom were tired and worried about how this whole scheme would play out.

Even though they had left Stalag XIII at 0300, just as Crittendon had planned, it seemed that the man did not know where he was going quite as well as he thought he did. He led them first back to the Hammelburg Dinner Theater, and then to the HMSS Tubby III where it sat in its field, and then back towards Hammelburg. He said that he knew where the field was, but that he did not know how to get to it directly. So he had simply retraced his steps to where he had last seen the field, as he put it.

To make matters worse, Carter had looked at the ammo dump layout again and decided that they should use multiple smaller charges instead of one main explosive. "You see," he explained, "I'm not sure the underground member who drew this really knew what he was doing. No one who knows a thing about explosives would think it was a good idea to arrange them like this." And so they had prepared for what Carter said was a much more probable layout. It meant that they had to carry more explosives, and Crittendon's detours meant that they had to carry them far further than they expected. And then, when they finally got to the field, which had a large barn at one end, just like the one in the underground's diagram that assured Carter and Kinch that they had the right field, it took far longer to set up the multiple charges in the way Carter specified.

But now they were done with all the setup, and they were finally ready to set off the explosion. The only problem was that it was far, far later than roll call, and Carter and Kinch knew that they would have been missed by now. Even with Hochstetter out of the picture, they could not afford to blow up an ammo dump when the two of them did not have rock solid alibis.

"Is there any way we can set these on a timer so we can make sure we're captured before the ammo dump explodes?" Kinch asked Carter, who immediately began shaking his head no.

"I thought this was just going to be a quick setup and that we would have plenty of time to get back to camp. I don't have a timer with me."

"Could we rig it to explode when something else happens, like we did once with the train track and the telephone?"

"This is a field. There's nothing we could rig it to, unless there's something in the barn. But even then the wire is not long enough, so we would have to reset all the explosives to even try to make the ends reach the barn."

"Alright, maybe we could leave the setup here and send the underground a message that we need them to complete the mission."

"That might be the best," Carter agreed.

"I say, I have a better plan," Crittendon said, not really noticing that he had been left out of the conversation. "You two can go get yourselves recaptured, and I can stay here and set off the explosions myself."

Kinch exchanged a glance with Carter. Neither of them liked trusting Crittendon with a solo mission, but he did offer a good plan. Besides, all he would have to do would be to wait for an hour or two before setting off the explosives. It would not be that hard.

"Okay," Kinch agreed at last. "You need to give us at least two hours to be recaptured. That way we have a little extra time if something unexpected happens. Then set off the explosives and get back to Stalag XIII. If anything unexpected happens on your end, leave the explosives and get back to us. We can always send a message to the underground."

"Jolly good," Crittendon agreed, happy that he could do something to help.

But as Carter and Kinch were getting ready to leave, they saw a small group of people march onto the field and start wandering around all over it.

"Is that the Colonel?" Carter asked in disbelief as he watched the leader of the group ordering a bunch of women dressed as pioneers and a camera man around.

"It sure looks like him," Kinch muttered.

"I say," Crittendon added, "he should know better than to go wandering around in a field that is set to explode in a few hours."

"Something isn't right," Kinch said after they had watched the group for a few more minutes. That can't be the Colonel. He would never authorize a mission like this unless we all knew about it in advance. Someone needs to go find out what is happening before we do anything else."

Edward never knew how close he came to being blown up that day. After all, he was an artist, not a spy, and he had no idea what a field converted into an ammo dump and then rigged with more explosives looked like. In his mind, art was all that mattered, and if he had known about the explosives, he would probably have only thought of it as a grand idea for making his film better.