Pranksters, Inc.

By: AliasCWN

Chapter 3

"That's the last one." Hitch tossed the sponge into the water and pushed the pot away. "Do you think Sarge will be satisfied?"

Tully wiped his brow and stretched tired muscles. He surveyed the pile of pots and pans on the tables around them and shrugged. "I sure hope so. We cleaned every pot and pan on this base at least twice today." He glanced at the watch on his arm. "We'd better let the cooks know we're done before they start messing them up again making supper."

"We aren't going to have to clean all of them again are we?" Hitch moaned.

"Not if I can help it," Tully answered. "Sarge said to clean the pots and we did. Then he said to stay around people; the bar has lots of people."

Hitch brightened at Tully's suggestion. "Hey, that's right! We can hang around there until lights out."

"And tomorrow we can go see that merchant and offer to build him a better chicken pen."

Both privates dropped their sponges and removed the aprons the cooks had insisted that they wear. Spotting the head cook, they headed directly for him.

"All done," Hitch announced. "We're out of here."

"Are you sure about that?" the cook smiled at them.

"Darn sure," Tully nodded.

"Okay," the cook laughed. "To be truthful, we thought you left a while ago. I'm surprised that you stayed this long. Just to show that there are no hard feelings about the green potatoes, help yourself." The cook pointed to a platter piled high with fresh baked cookies. "Just leave some for the supper crowd."

"Thanks!" Hitch and Tully answered in unison. They each helped themselves to four cookies; enough that they could share with Troy and Moffitt.

"We should go by supply and see if they have any crates or old pallets we can tear apart and use for the chicken pen," Tully suggested.

"Yeah, we could get a head start on tomorrow's job," Hitch agreed.

Forgetting about the bar the two privates took the less crowded back alleys to the supply building. After finding an assortment of old crates and pallets that they thought would work, they stacked them in a pile before going to look for someone to give them permission to use them. The door to the supply building was locked when they checked it. They hung around for a while hoping that the supply sergeant would come back but he never did. Finally they gave up and returned to their quarters.

"Where have you two been?" Troy and Moffitt met them in the street in front of the barracks.

"We were cleaning pots and pans all day," Hitch answered.

"We were just at the mess hall and they said that you left a while ago," Troy replied angrily. "I thought I told you to stay around people."

"We went to the supply building to ask if we could have some old broken pallets and crates," Tully explained. "We figured we could use them to build the chicken pen."

"Did you get any?"

"We found some," Tully answered, "but there wasn't anybody there to give us permission to take it. We'll go back tomorrow and see if we can get permission."

"Did anyone see you over there?"

Tully and Hitch both shrugged. "I guess it's possible," Tully answered. "We weren't hiding."

"I told you to stay around people."

"Somebody probably saw us Sarge, that part of the base has lots of foot traffic." Hitch added.

Troy sighed. "Yeah, maybe."

"Oh, here." Hitch remembered the cookies he had saved for Troy and handed them to him. "The cook gave them to us for all of our hard work."

"Even though you were the one who turned his potatoes green?"

"That was just me Sarge, and he wasn't mad about it at all. He said it was kind of funny the way everybody reacted to the color. He's thinking about adding red for Christmas and orange for Thanksgiving."

"Great!" Troy groaned. "All right, I guess it's too late to worry about it now. Did you eat before you left the mess hall?"

"We thought we'd wait and eat with you and Doc," Hitch explained.

"Then let's go eat. Moffitt and I have been waiting for you and we haven't eaten yet either."

A few minutes later the four of them walked intro the mess hall. As they stood in line for their food they noticed that they seemed to be attracting an unusual amount of attention.

"What's going on?" Tully asked after catching yet another group of men watching them.

Hitch shrugged and ignored the attention.

"Are you sure you two were here all day?" Troy asked suspiciously.

"Until just before we joined you," Tully answered. "We stopped at the supply building like we said and then we went back to the barracks."

"And that's all?"

"That's all," Hitch and Tully answered together.

"Something is going on, that's for sure," Moffitt remarked. "The two of you seem to be drawing the stares of practically everyone in here."

"Maybe they're just jealous because we already sampled the cookies," Hitch suggested.

"They wouldn't know about that," Tully argued. "I don't think the cook would have told anyone about it or they would all want cookies before supper."

Hitch shrugged. "Whatever their problem is, we didn't do it. I'm not worried."

"Didn't do what?" Troy growled.

"I don't know. I don't know why they're staring at us. We didn't do anything," Hitch answered.

"I suggest we eat our meals and go back to the barracks until things calm down." Moffitt suggested. "I don't like the way the MPs are watching us."

"We didn't do anything Doc!" Tully protested.

"Maybe not," Troy answered, "but it sure looks like someone thinks you did."

"That's their problem," Hitch groaned. "Why do we have to stay in our barracks because they have the wrong idea?"

"Because they might convince the captain that they have it right and the two of you are guilty of something."

"Guilty of what?"

"I don't know and I'd rather not find out," Troy answered. "Finish eating and we'll get out of here and head back to the barracks. We can play a little matchstick poker."

Hitch looked over at Tully and shoved his plate away. "I guess I'm done."

"Eat the rest of your food," Troy ordered. "We're not running out of here, that would only convince them that we have something to hide. We'll walk out of here after you finish eating just like normal."

"Normally we wouldn't be confined to our quarters." Hitch complained.

"You could always spend the night in the stockade until I could convince the captain that you're innocent." Troy offered.

"We'll eat and go to our quarters," Tully answered, "but we didn't do anything."

"And we believe you," Moffitt hurried to assure the younger men, "but discretion seems to be the better course of action here. Give this a night to blow over and tomorrow we will get to the bottom of it."

"Maybe by then there won't be any need to do anything," Troy suggested.

"Why do we have to do anything at all?" Hitch asked. "All they are doing is watching. No one has accused us of anything yet."

"Yet," Troy repeated. "Look Hitch, this isn't a punishment, I'm just trying to avoid trouble before it finds us. Just do me a favor and go back to your quarters."

"Okay, but I still don't see why it's necessary."