Familiar Faces
AMA Convention, Chicago, Illinois, 1956
Ben didn't recognize any of the people here, which wasn't surprising. The only reason he'd really come to this thing was to accept an award for some surgical procedure that he'd come up with on the fly in Korea. Maybe I ought to just go back to the hotel, he thought…
"Hawkeye?" At the mention of his old nickname, Ben stopped and turned around. A lanky guy with a mustache and thinning hair grinned at him.
Ben blinked to make sure that he wasn't seeing things. "Oh, my God…"
4077th MASH, 1953:
"C'mon, we'll see each other again."
"How? You'll be on one coast and I'll be on the other."
"We'll meet at a convention…"
"Can you see either one of us at a convention?
1956…
"So, I heard you've gone into pediatrics back in Maine," B.J. Hunnicut said as they sat together at the bar.
"Yeah…now that Margaret and I are expecting our own kid, I find being a kids' doctor has really helped me prepare."
B.J. laughed. "I can't wait to see you as a father."
Ben chuckled. "So how's it going with you?"
"You are now looking at the new chief surgeon at one of San Francisco's largest hospitals," B.J. replied. "Now maybe Charles and I can be equals."
"I've been in contact with him-Trapper, too," Ben replied. "They're actually friends down in Boston now. Can you imagine that?"
"I guess peace can make for strange bedfellows as much as war can." Hunnicut looked thoughtfully at his drink. "I have to ask…do you ever miss it?"
Ben stared at him. "Me? Miss Korea? Are you kidding?" But then his eyes got a faraway look in them. "But we did make a hell of a team then, didn't we?" He chuckled. "Remember when we accidentally sent poor Frank to that aid station?"
B.J. grinned. "Oh, the Colonel was mad about that one. What was it we put on that tag? 'Emotionally exhausted…'"
"'And morally bankrupt!'" Ben laughed.
The laughter felt good-almost like being back in the Swamp again. That was one good memory that he'd kept since Korea.
B.J. and Ben raised their glasses together. "To memories," they said.
THE END