Margaret began to move beside him. The morning light crept in through the shades and made her hair a thousand different shades of gold. Hawkeye wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her close. He buried his face in her hair, thinking about what was going to happen that day.
"Hawkeye, what's wrong?"
Margaret turned to face him. She took pains not to lose his touch.
"Let's stay like this all day. We could just stay in bed. We've stayed in bed all day before," he mumbled into her ear.
Margaret reached up to caress his stubbly cheek. Outside a semi truck started with a rumble. It didn't take long before Hawkeye's hands found her breasts.
"Wait...wait. We've got to go. The kids'll be waiting for us at breakfast if we dawdle," Margaret said quickly, getting up.
"I like to dawdle."
"Uh huh, that's a given."
She smiled and headed for the shower. Hawkeye was left in a tangle of bed covers. He let his head fall back heavily on the pillow. His heart was so wrapped up in everything she did. Every time she'd go out of town for conferences, his heart would be empty until she came home. The warmth she always had would be gone. It was only after he'd look in on the kids that Hawkeye was able to doze off.
Feeling both sad and needy, he got up and walked into the bathroom. The room was steamy and Margaret was humming something tuneless from behind the shower curtain.
"Can I wash your back?" he asked, peeking through the curtain.
"You scared me. I hate that "Psycho" movie," she replied, stepping quickly to the back of the shower.
Interpreting all that as a yes, he jumped in and pinned her to the wall, kissing her softly amid the warm beads of water. Hawkeye then began to soap himself up as Margaret rinsed off. He leveled his gaze on her body. Radar had mentioned the day before that Margaret never seemed to age. The guy was right.
"Well, come here and give me another kiss if you're going to stare," she said, meeting his gaze.
"I wish they were all still alive," said Hawkeye, meaning his dad, Henry and now Colonel Potter.
"Me too."
They kissed and Hawkeye stuck his tongue in her mouth as a matter of principle. Margaret laughed, ruining his desired intentions.
Ben and Ellie were drinking orange juice in the coffee shop when their parents came down. The eatery had a strange tropical theme, complete with false cabanas and painted palm trees. This was all in the paradise of Hannibal, Missouri.
"You nervous about your speech, Dad?" Ben asked over his pancakes.
Hawkeye rolled his eyes. If he didn't love Potter so much there was no way he would have even considered making one. But when Mildred asked him on the phone, there was no way to get out of it. Margaret would have killed him.
"I'm not nervous about singing," Margaret piped, although no one had asked.
"They're making the kids all sing Red River Valley, you know," Hawkeye said, taking some of the wind out of her sails.
"Fantastic," Ellie frowned comically.
Hawkeye let out an explosive guffaw. On that cue, Charles Winchester ambled in, looking amused at the decor.
"This must be the Honolulu of Missouri. Except I hear the beaches aren't much to look at," he sniffed.
"Join us," Margaret said, pointing to an empty chair. "We were just talking about the services."
"Where's Tex?" Ellie asked.
"He went over to the Potter home to take care of the horses. They deserve to look good today and the boy knows all about the beasts," Charles said with a faraway look in his eyes.
Ellie shook her head and went back to her plate. The adults chattered about old times. Charles complained about having to sit in the coach section for his flight to St. Louis, then being assigned a "terrible American car". Ben and Ellie stifled smiles. They'd seen his orange Pinto yesterday.
"Well, there's nothing like a good meal and that was nothing like a good meal," Hawkeye said, getting up.
"It will always beat the swill we had back in the mess," Charles reminded him. "Can I catch a ride with the lot of you? I gave Tex the car."
"Only if you don't mind being seen in a terrible American Vista Cruiser," Margaret said in syrupy voice.
"I do, but it's better than walking." He tipped her a wink and headed back to get dressed.
An hour later, the Pierce clan was in the lobby, waiting on Charles. Hawkeye noticed other hotel patrons staring at his daughter, who'd pinned up her long chestnut hair and slipped into a black dress. Well, he thought, she does look like Agent 99. Who would have thunk it. Ben was in a black suit that would have normally been too conservative for his tastes. The bow tie was an alarming size and the pants flared. He had lightning bolt cufflinks.
Hawkeye's attention turned to Margaret. Her hair was up, too and she had on a black dress very similar to Ellie's, although you'd piss both of them off by pointing this out. While Ellie was tall and willowy, Margaret was short and bird-boned. When angry, she puffed up taller than anyone he'd ever seen. "Let me fix your tie, honey," she said, addressing Hawkeye like a five year old. "You always mess up the knot."
Her hands shook while she pulled the knot tightly. Ellie wobbled a little in her heels and Ben steadied her. Charles walked into the lobby, wearing a tasteful suit with expensive shoes, a decision he'd regret later. His eyes fixed on Margaret and he ogled her for quite sometime. Hawkeye grabbed her hand, noticing this.
"Wagons ho," he chirped. When they walked out, he wrapped his other arm around Ellie and kissed the side of her head.
"You look nice," he said, hugging her to him. There had been an "incident" the year before, when Ellie was getting ready to graduate from high school. She'd always been high strung about school and she began to push herself a little too hard. Somehow, she got her hands on sleeping pills and took too many. Margaret was out of town and Ben was at a friend's house when Hawkeye found her choking on her own vomit, lying in the upstairs hallway. He managed to drag her down the hall and pump her stomach. She finally came around and started to cry. Ellie hung onto her father for dear life. He never told Margaret. He promised he wouldn't. But now he was haunted. Was it really an accident? Did she need psychiatric help? So now Hawkeye was very protective of her, remembering his own demons.
When they pulled up to the church, Tex was there with the orange car. Both Margaret and Ellie smiled at him. Charles had obviously accompanied him to the tailor. They looked like secret service agents. Tex helped Margaret out of the car, and reached in to pull Ellie out. Noticing her struggles with the evil heels, he escorted her into the church. Margaret grabbed for Hawkeye's hand and they followed. The kids all headed off to get the lyrics for Red River Valley and Margaret sought out Father Mulcahey, because he was the best piano player of the group. Hawkeye and Charles sat down near the Klingers. Max owned the Corvette the kids had gushed about the day before.
Margaret rushed up, out of breath. "Mulcahey's piano playing hasn't improved much. Whew!"
The kids all slunk off to the side and took their place just off the pulpit. People began to flow into the church, one by one. An honor guard marched in and fiddled with the flag that was on the casket. "I want that at my funeral," Margaret whispered loudly, and Hawkeye gave her a horrified look.
The preacher stepped up to the pulpit. He was a distant cousin of Potter's and looked the role. Father Mulcahey moved the piano bench back with a loud squeak. Over where all the kids were sitting, someone giggled. It was Ben, cut short with an elbow in the ribs from his sister.
"Will Misses Pierce come on up for our first song?"
Margaret walked stiffly to the front of the church. The first microphone she grabbed gave an enormous shriek of feedback, causing more hilarity in the children's section. She shot them a withering look just as Mulcahey launched into the song. He began to sing, too, so Margaret compensated by drowning him out completely.
Hark! now the Drums beat up again,
For all true Soldiers Gentlemen,
Then let us list, and march I say,
Over the Hills and far away;
What tho' our Friends our Absence mourn,
We all with Honor shall return,
And then we'll sing both Night and Day,
Over the Hills and far away...
With that done, the preacher went through the normal service. Margaret came back and sat down. Hawkeye squeezed her hand, remembering her rendition of "My Blue Heaven" all those years ago. The honor guard stood at attention the entire time. Over the years that had passed, Hawkeye had almost forgotten Potter was a soldier. They were just two country doctors, trying to patch up their own communities to varying degrees.
"Doctor Benjamin Pierce will now deliver a eulogy."
Hawkeye walked up and avoided the screechy microphones. Instead, he just sucked in a breath of air and launched into what he'd written a week ago.
"I remember when Colonel Potter came to our MASH unit in Korea. He was spit and polish, old army...or so I thought. In the course of two years, he became someone whose advice I sought frequently, not just about medicine but about life. I loved hearing his stories of Hannibal because it reminded me of my own home, so far away."
"He was like a second father to me. He was like a father to my wife. Sherman Potter made our little branch of the Pierce family happen. Without him, I wouldn't have two gorgeous kids and the love of my life. We were all so lucky to have known him. He was a top-notch doctor and a good soldier. He saved our lives so many times in Korea...I remember especially a tornado, and how his country hunch kept us all alive for one scary night."
"There aren't many people in this world who are genuinely good and pure souls. Sherman Potter was one of them. All he wanted to do was come home just like the rest of us. When he finally did, and he saw his beloved Mildred again, he vowed never to leave again. Now I hope he's watching us. You know, I can just hear him now. 'Pierce, can the mushy stuff and get on with it!'"
"So Colonel Sherman T. Potter, I salute you. And I will always remember you."
Hawkeye looked up. Margaret smiled through her tears. Klinger and Radar had lost it, too. Charles Winchester sat stiffly upright. Mildred Potter stared up at him, smiling. She mouthed a thank you.
When the other eulogies were over and the guard had given Mrs. Potter the folded flag, all the kids stood up and Mulcahey cranked up the piano again. The pallbearers lifted the casket off the dais as the first few bars of "Red River Valley" rang out.
"Remember the movie?" Hawkeye shouted at Margaret over the noise. The entire congregation was singing the old song, and Tex Winchester's voice rang out above the rest of the kids.
The committal was in the little churchyard cemetery next door. That was the hardest part for Hawkeye, just watching the coffin being lowered into the ground. Charles Winchester shed a few tears and even gave Klinger and Radar a hug. They all walked back to their cars together.
"He was a no-bullshit kind of guy, wasn't he, Dad?" Tex asked Charles.
"Yes, he was. Just seeing all of us there burying him made me weep."
Hawkeye was drying his own tears. There was a picnic waiting for them back at the Potter farm, but he wanted just to go back to the hotel and hug his family.
"Your head's in the clouds," Margaret said, taking his arm.
"I love you," he said, very seriously.
A smile lit her puffy face. "I know. I love you too."
"Christ!" bellowed Winchester, as he watched the two of them. His shoes were covered with sticky Missouri mud. "Do I have to turn the hose on you two? Have you seen my son? We've got to get back to Saint Louis to catch a plane."
"I thought I saw him go behind the church to help Misses Potter out," Radar shouted from his Datsun. "Ellie was with him."
"I'll get them. Charles, can't you even stay for the picnic?" Hawkeye asked, a little annoyed.
Charles checked his watch. "Well, maybe a few minutes."
Hawkeye walked past a rose trellis and through the fence to get behind the building. When he rounded the corner, there were Ellie and Tex, locked in an embrace. Hawkeye felt his face turn red. He thought about Charles's comment about the hose.
"Ahem...we're ready to go, guys."
They broke apart, blushing furiously. Hawkeye smiled at the two.
"Come on, lovebirds."
Tex and Ellie walked towards the cars, looking sheepish. Margaret caught up to her husband, who was about to burst out laughing.
"What's going on? Did Mildred need any help?"
"Nope. I just caught Tex Winchester giving our daughter CPR."
"Huh? Oh! That's...interesting. He's a handsome young man. Good for her, I guess," Margaret said awkwardly.
Ellie didn't say much on the drive to the farm. Hawkeye winked at her in the rearview mirror, making her turn bright red again.
"That was a beautiful service. He would have wanted a simple, country funeral," Margaret sighed.
"I'm looking forward to more of that country food," Ben said, leaning over the seat. Margaret ruffled his hair.
When they pulled up to the house, all the kids took off towards the food. Mildred Potter laughed as they ran by.
"Sherman loved those kids. Said they were like his own grandkids," she said, watching them attack the platters on the picnic tables.
"Can I talk to you guys for a minute?"
Mrs. Potter pulled all the MASH veterans into the barn. Radar, Klinger, Charles, Hawkeye and Margaret all kicked at the hay on the floor.
"You guys were like Sherman's children. He told me that all the time. So I can't help but feel you're family."
Hawkeye felt a lump rise in his throat.
"He died in here, you know. He woke up and told me he was going to polish Chestnut's saddle. I came out to bring him lemonade and he was gone. Sherman never even made it to the can of polish."
"Margaret, I remember how proud he was when you had your first baby. He strutted around for weeks and even bought cigars. And Radar, he so looked forward to your visits. You were the light of his life. Charles, I know you two weren't terribly close but he always praised your skills as a doctor. Max, he told me how loyal you were...and what a snappy dresser you could be."
Klinger smiled, remembering Colonel Potter's initial reaction to his Section 8 efforts.
"Hawkeye, he was upset when you had your episode. Sherman wrote me the saddest letter I've ever read. He always said you and Margaret were the love story of Korea, how flowers can bloom from a field of cow chips."
"When he left for Korea, he kissed me and promised he'd be home when the violets bloomed again. Well, I waiting two years, and when he came home in September the frost was on the pumpkins. The day he died, I walked out to the backyard and noticed that our old back field was just covered with them. He'll stay with me forever. I know he'll stay with all of you. Please, come down whenever you want."
She started to cry, They all rushed forward and embraced her. When they broke, she smiled and pointed to their children, all sitting together and eating and laughing and talking. Tex Winchester had a hand on Ellie's back.
"See? Life goes on," Mildred Potter smiled. They all walked out into the bright sunlight and joined the kids.
Two days later, Ben loaded the last suitcase into the wagon. Ellie was at the wheel. If he could help it, Hawkeye planned on sleeping most of this trip. He hopped into the backseat beside Margaret. Ben jumped into the front seat to act as navigator.
They pulled away from Hannibal, past the churchyard where Sherman Potter now lay. It was dotted with violets. Hawkeye smiled as Ellie pointed the car back towards Maine. Mildred's words rung in his ears as he looked towards Margaret.
You were the love story of Korea.
