Chapter 4 – The Reluctant Target

Spring was around the corner. Kinch found himself in a typical situation for the season: being the mediator of a quarrel between Privates Barnes and Davis.

Barnes and Davis were usually best friends, but all of that changed at the start of baseball season. The American POWs were bitterly divided on choice of team: Barnes favored the National League's Chicago Cubs, and Davis liked the St. Louis Cardinals, the Cubs' archrival.

Kinch approached them in the mess hall, and found the argument in full swing.

"Dizzy Dean can't pitch himself out of a paper bag!" Davis shouted, as he pointed at Barnes.

Barnes snorted. "You didn't quite say that when Dizzy was pitching for your team."

Kinch managed to step in between them and steered them towards the pieces of sawdust-infused bread the Germans were offering. He looked on sternly as they each took a helping. Kinch was hoping that they would sit apart, but sadly they stayed together. And of course the quarrel continued.

Most of the time, Kinch was able to defuse these silly baseball arguments, but this one got out of hand.

Kinch continued to glare at both men. "Fellas, do you honestly believe a prison camp is the best place for a ... food fight?"

The American servicemen ignored Kinch. The ruckus attracted the attention of the rest of the hall, including Hogan, Schultz and Klink.

"At least I don't have my team represented by a pretty little red bird!" Barnes yelled, as he held his bread up high.

Davis smirked. "My team is at least competitive – your Cubs haven't won a World Series since 1908!"

Barnes saw red. He began to fling his bread and Kinch grabbed his arm. Despite his efforts, the bread managed to launch. It flew through the air and promptly hit the face of Klink, causing his monocle to fall and shatter.

Kinch winced. The whole mess hall began to laugh.

Hogan attempted to defuse the situation with humor. "A shattered monocle is the must-have accessory of World War II, Kommandant."

But a humiliated Klink didn't laugh as he rubbed his face and leaned over to pick up the broken eyepiece. Once he was standing, he glared at Kinch and the others and shouted, "All three of them get two weeks in the cooler! Schultz, take them away at once!"

As Kinch was led away by Schultz, Klink stomped off to his office. Hogan followed the Kommandant, eager to see if he could get the sentence eliminated. Kinch hoped Hogan could be successful. If he was, business at the camp would continue as usual. If he wasn't, Hogan did have a backup for the radio and there were times Hogan did need to give Klink the impression that Klink was the one who was running the camp. Sadly for Kinch, Hogan was unsuccessful this time.

HH

At the end of the sentence, the cooler was unlocked and Kinch was let out by Schultz. He walked out into the compound and shielded his eyes from the bright sun, which affected him after being in the dark for so long. Since smoking was forbidden in the cooler, he grabbed a cigarette that was in his pocket and lit it.

After taking a puff, he glanced over at Schultz.

Schultz wiggled his mustache and faced him with a look of absolute sadness. A chill ran down Kinch's spine. Another letter from Josephine so soon? What had happened? And Kinch assumed from the look on Schultz' face, that the news was probably not good.

Kinch accepted the letter and was about to run off when Schultz stopped him.

"Sgt. Kinchloe, I know you want me to say and know nothing, but I truly think this is a time to say something," Schultz said.

The tone of the usually jovial Schultz voice sounding downright devastated about Kinch's letter was heartbreaking, and Kinch numbly nodded. Although he didn't want to face questions from Hogan, Kinch was lucky that big mouth Schultz had waited this long to be a big mouth. Kinch silently thanked Schultz and hurried away to the barracks.

HH

When Kinch made his way down to the radio room, he found Sergeant Olsen, who was currently acting as backup radioman.

"Well, what did I miss?" Kinch asked.

Olsen smiled. "Actually a lot. Pierre needed to come into camp and get out, but was caught by the Kommandant. In order to free him, the Colonel convinced Klink that Klink's life was in danger, and they switched places and even uniforms. You should have seen the Colonel in Klink's uniform! Meanwhile, Pierre got out safely, and the Colonel learned some other secrets, too."

Kinch chuckled. "Sounds like the usual. Thank you for watching the radio for me. Why don't you hurry upstairs? Newkirk is letting people win for a change."

After Olsen went upstairs, Kinch finally opened the letter.

March 22, 1943

Dear Ivan,

How are conditions at the prison camp? I thought of you recently when I was giving Billy a bath. How often are you allowed to bathe? Are the showers ever hot?

I am writing so soon because life has been frankly terrible lately. I probably don't have a right to complain as you are stuck in a POW camp but…

Someone used a racial slur against John, as he was walking to work. Usually, John is fairly relaxed about it, but this person actually grabbed him. I was so glad he was able to get away! And we were fortunate he did get to work, because he got a slight raise in salary. Apparently the plant *censored* *censored* *censored* *censored* *censored*. John is very pleased he is supporting the war effort by *censored* censored*.

I wish I could give you happy news about our Billy but I can't. His behavior has been pretty bad. I was wondering if behavior of this age could be bad, but I had no idea it would be this bad.

Billy doesn't seem to like change. For example, usually I take Billy to a nearby park after Sunday school but on one particular day, we needed to head home because Papa needed to fix our sink. Billy reacted by throwing a temper tantrum to end all temper tantrums. I have seen other temper tantrums by kids who are Billy's age and they last only a few minutes. Well, Billy's temper tantrum was 45 minutes of Hell! I tried my best to calm him down, but it didn't work- he flailed about so much! Another example happened during dinner time. I usually am able to get a few favorite foods of Billy's with our ration stamps, but this time the market was out. Billy was not happy to get a different food—he had another 45 minute temper tantrum about this. My poor boy was even scratching himself and trying to pull his new hair out.

Ivan, I am worried sick about his behavior. Why would he do this? I realize that it probably is because he still isn't talking yet and can only do this to communicate. What can I do to get him to communicate? Sometimes I wonder if he knows anything around him—including me—are even here.

The doctor came to the house. He told me he was worried by Billy's lack of development and then began questioning me about my style of parenting. He almost blamed me for Billy's lack of speech! Can you believe that? Does he really think I want my child to be this way?

Things may seem bad but I need to keep up hope he will make improvements, and this will be like a bad dream. Hope is the only thing that keeps me from crying. I also have a determination to be the best mother I can be, despite the doctor's suspicions.

I have been given support from as many people as I can find, including our minister. I have met with him and he said he would pray for me. He gave me advice that he thinks Billy's lack of speech is like an impossible mission, which needs an entire team to pull off. At least he is tolerant enough not to think Billy is the spawn of Satan due to his tantrums, which is what another parishioner thinks!

I have been praying to Mama in Heaven. I wish she was here to give me child-rearing guidance. How would she be helping Billy? Am I doing something wrong? Please excuse any smudges in my handwriting as I was attempting not to cry as I wrote this out.

I sure wish you were here to help out.

Love,

Josephine Kinchloe Harris

Kinch paled as he finished the letter. He couldn't believe the emotions swirling around inside him: sadness over Billy's condition, sympathy with Josephine's despair and anger about the doctor's opinion. There was even a part of him that wished he had stayed in the cooler because then he could've avoided the letter. But that was impractical—he had to know this.

For the first time, he wondered about whether he should ask Hogan to go home. Carter almost went home and that was only because the crafty Hogan had the power to do it. Once home, Kinch knew he could be of help- it looked like Josephine had her hands full.

But then he thought about the reason he was here and what a privilege it was to serve. He was here because a fruitcake currently running Berlin was trying to take over the world. He knew the Führer had low tolerance for people who were different than him and Kinch shivered as he thought of what might happen if the Führer took over the United States. Billy seemed to be doubly cursed—not only did he have these physical limitations, but he was black, too. What would the Führer do with a child such as Billy?

A wave of despair and hopelessness hit Kinch as he thought about possible answers to that question. A single tear escaped his eyes and he put his face into his hands. He kept his hands there for a little while as he quietly sobbed. He was so preoccupied that he missed someone coming down the tunnel stairs.

HH

Hogan stepped down off the ladder and found Kinch in tears. When Hogan had heard from Schultz that Kinch needed his help, Hogan thought Schultz was pulling his leg. Sometimes the others would not tell him things, but Kinch was always one who did. Now it looked like Schultz had told Hogan the truth and Hogan was pained about why Kinch chose to react this way. Hogan respected Kinch greatly and knew there had to be a good reason for keeping it to himself. With this in mind, he kept still and silent. He wasn't about to force a confession until Kinch was ready.


Dizzy Dean was a baseball pitcher who played for both the Cardinals and Cubs in the wartime era. He is in the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

Source: Wikipedia article on Dizzy Dean

Sadly, criticism of Josephine's parenting is typical of the time for parents of developmental delayed children. In future years, the now debunked theory that an emotionally distant parent (almost always he mother) was to blame for what is now known as autism became known as "refrigerator mother theory."

Source: An Article Titled "Early Infantile Autism and Refrigerator Mother Theory 1943-1970" from Embryo Project Encyclopedia, available online