Through a series of related events, privates Hitchcock, Patterson, and Pettigrew found themselves holding paring knives and sitting up to their elbows in potatoes.
After a couple hours, the laughter of the three miscreants had died away and the grumbling began. Well, Hitch and Andy did anyway. Tully preferred, as with most things, to take his punishment in silence.
Andy muttered under his breath.
"If Sadie could see me now. I bet she'd be REAL proud of her soldier boy." Hitch's ears perked up.
"Sadie, huh?"
"Yeah, my girl in Kansas City. She's waiting for me." Andy ducked his head in an uncharacteristic show of embarrassment.
"We're gonna get married after the war. Guess I've been thinkin' about her a lot lately." He suddenly became very interested in the potato in his hands.
"Hey, that's great! Congratulations. Got a picture?"
"'Course." Andy's knife dropped into the big kettle and he fished in his pocket for his wallet. "There she is. The future Mrs Patterson."
The small black and white photo elicited a low whistle from Hitch.
"That's quite a doll!" He folded the wallet and handed it back.
"Isn't she though? And can she cook. I can hardly wait to get back to her." Andy dwelt on the photo a moment longer before replacing his wallet and taking up the knife again.
"Wish I had someone waiting for me."
"You don't? You?!?"
"Surprising, right? Yeah, a couple girls promised they'd wait, but I know them better than that. I bet they're both married now." Andy didn't know what to say. Now he felt bad for showing off his girl.
"I'm not too broke up about it, though. Neither of them were my type. Not a lot goin' on upstairs, if ya know what I mean."
"I didn't know you had a type." Andy ribbed.
"Sure I do." The blond replied easily. "The pretty kind." They sat there, chuckling over their potatoes like a pair of old biddies.
"What about you, Tully?" Hitch piped up. "I'm sure you've got someone waiting for you in Kentucky."
"Say, you're right. I've never heard you mention anyone." Andy leaned toward Hitch, confidential-like. "I'll bet he's got a little knockout hidden away in the mountains."
Tully hadn't raised his eyes the whole time. Now he spoke up.
"Three." The quiet word threw Andy and Hitch for a loop. That much was apparent on their faces.
"Whaddaya mean?" Tully raised his head to look Hitch and Andy in the eye.
"I've got the three prettiest girls in the Appalachia's waiting for me." There was no hint of joking in his voice, or on his face.
Hitch almost pared his thumb and Andy's potato took a flying leap across the room. He scrambled to fetch it.
"Three?!? You???" Tully shrugged and went back to peeling.
"What's so surprising?" He looked up quickly. "You don't I could have three girls at once?" It was an accusation more than a question.
"It's not that you couldn't. It's that you wouldn't." Hitch couldn't believe his ears. Andy returned with his rogue potato.
"If I hadn't heard it with my own ears. These ladies got names?" Tully tossed a potato into a pot and leaned back in the rickety old kitchen chair. He crossed his arms across his chest and let his long legs stretch out in front of him.
"Well," he began, "there's Beatrice. Everyone calls her Bea for short. She can be a little uptight, but that's only because she wants the best for the people around her. She's got a heart of gold." He tilted his chin to the ceiling and a small smile played on his lips, as though he were recalling something very pleasant.
"Then there's her twin sister, Bridget."
"Hold on, twins?!?" Tully looked Andy dead in the eye.
"Did I stutter?" The look on Andy's face was laughable. Having dealt with the interruption, Tully turned back to recollecting.
"Let's see. Bridget. She's rowdy. I've seen her beat my brother in wrestling. But she fights dirty, and her victory didn't last long. Where Bea is sensible, Bridget is reckless. But never stupid. She knows how to pick her fights." Hitch and Andy both had shell-shocked expressions. Tully didn't seem to notice.
"And then there's Anne." Tully wore a bright smile now. "She's something else. She loves all her animals, and all the animals love her. Always a smile to cheer you when your day's gone bad. Prettiest little girl our side of the Mississippi. Next time I see her, I'm gonna pick her up and never put her down again." Hitch nudged Andy's arm.
"Really miss her, huh?" Tully leaned forward again, reaching for another potato.
"Of course I miss her. I miss all of them. What guy shipped overseas wouldn't miss his sisters?" Tully threw up his arms in defense when a red kepi and filthy kitchen rag came flying through the air at him. He laughed in the face of Andy and Hitch's outcry.
"Hold up!! Hold up!" When Tully could finally speak again. And Hitch and Andy had run out of things to throw. "I never said they were my girlfriends." He stopped to stifle a cough that sounded suspiciously like a snicker.
"You asked me if I had any girls waiting for me back home, and I answered honestly."
Andy reached for Hitch's arm. Unable to contain his own smile anymore.
"He's got a point." Hitch turned to stare at him incredulously. "Oh, I'm not defending him. I don't like being strung along like that anymore than you. That was a low trick to pull. About gave me a heart attack."
Tully's laughter started afresh.
"You should have seen the looks on your faces!" Hitch's retort was cut short by the arrival of a small, assistant cook in a greasy apron. He eyed them suspiciously.
"Cook says these'll prob'ly be enough for tonight. You c'n leave when ya like." The little man stalked away without waiting for an answer.
"Wonder what's eatin' him? It's not like he was involved with what got us here in the first place."
"If he had been, he be a WHOLE lot madder." Andy answered Hitch's query.
After disposing of the buckets of potatoes and washing up, they ducked out of the kitchen before the surly cook could change his mind.
Once outside, Tully took a deep breath and let it out slow.
"Nothing like the feeling of freedom after serving time. Can almost smell it."
Hitch snorted in derision.
"All I can smell is potato peels."
"I know where there's a game of matchstick poker tonight, wanna come with me?" Andy jerked his thumb in the general direction of the barracks.
Tully nodded and pulled a match out of his pocket.
"Sure thing."
"What about you Hitch, you in?" The blond fine-tuned the kepi on his head before turning to his buddies.
"Sorry fellas, I've got a heavy date tonight. Being fancy-free makes life more interesting, for sure." With a final tug on the bill of his hat, he swiveled and sauntered down the street.
"See you guys later." He called over his shoulder as an afterthought.
Andy rolled his eyes and Tully smirked at his friend's back. Andy tapped Tully's am.
"Come on, that's the last we'll see of Signor Casanova for a while."
"Doesn't have to be so dang smug about it." The two privates turned and headed off in the other direction.