Author's note: This is the closest I've got to the "how it all began" ploy so far; I'd like to dig into it some day, but in the meantime there's this little piece, which I hope is not too shabby. Plus it did give me an occasion (excuse?) to play a little with the background guys and try to flesh out the characters behind the names I started using since the first chapter of Soul Food.
Disclaimer: I own the "background" characters (Harper, Saunders, Davies …) but not their names, which I picked somewhat at random from the HH wiki (there are a lot of them to choose from!); the Heroes don't belong to me. And honestly, even though they're fictional characters, can you see them belonging to anyone? (Oh yeah. Apart from CBS, that is …)
Stalag by Starlight
5. Misfits
Private Timothy Harper knows that some of the Barracks 2 boys don't understand why it always seems to be Colonel Hogan and the other four who go on missions and get all the danger – and the excitement, Floyd muttered last time one of them got back from town with shining eyes and lipstick on his collar.
He doesn't mind.
He's been there since the summer of '40, one of the very first English prisoners sent to Stalag 13, and somehow, somewhere between the shock, the confusion and the pain of these first few weeks, he formed a tentative friendship with a big, broad-shouldered Australian corporal and a scrawny Welshman sergeant that proved solid – if only because Harper so often acts as the voice of reason between Saunders and Davies.
What does pique his interest is how on Earth the little five-man group works so well when, as individuals, they seemed to fit in this Stalag like square pegs in round holes as they arrived one by one.
First, there was Newkirk, whom the prisoner transfer truck delivered a few weeks after Harper and the others. Looking back, Harper has to admit that the other blokes – himself included – gave him the cold shoulder a little bit, mostly because of class bias but also because he quickly acquired a reputation as sticky-fingered. Exactly how that came to be, Harper didn't know, because none of his meagre possessions ever made their way into Newkirk's locker, but somehow, at some point, from 'that shady Cockney fellow' he became 'the thief'. The fact that he was cheerfully unapologetic about cheating at cards didn't help a bit.
LeBeau arrived a couple of months later, the only Frenchman in a truck full of British prisoners. His uniform and his short stature made him stick out like a sore thumb even before he opened his mouth, and in these first few weeks he pretty much kept to himself and didn't talk much to the others – Harper would later find out that his English wasn't actually very good before he was captured, but he quickly improved as a matter of survival. The only one he did talk to (or at, more often than not) was Newkirk, who – in his own peculiar way – seemed to take to this newcomer, who not only didn't know (nor care) a thing about British class distinctions and regional accents, but shrugged off a whispered warning from Davies about the East Ender's alleged tendency to petty theft.
The two got along like a house on fire – the kind you run away from as quickly as possible.
To everybody's surprise, behind the smart-arse quips and the slick retorts, Newkirk turned out to have quite the fiery temper when wound up, and the Frenchman never backed down once; both finally ended up in a dust-up, until Sergeant Schultz grabbed each of them by the collar and put them in the cooler to sort it out. When they came out, they seemed to have reached common ground; they still butted heads from time to time, but together they also established a new record for escape attempts.
The third member of the 'core team' to arrive to Stalag 13 was Hogan himself. Harper – and the other guys – watched him surreptitiously during the first few days after his arrival. He was quiet, watchful, but little by little they realised that he was brimming with a sort of calm confidence that sometimes gave the men the feeling that he hadn't been sent to prison so much as posted to a new station. Which was, as they found out, half true. He stood out, too, the only officer in a Luft Stalag full of junior and senior NCOs, and one of the only Americans in camp (that changed quickly, too, as the United States entered the war and started bombing Germany, bringing Olsen, Addison and Floyd to Barracks 2).
What distinguished Hogan most from every other man in camp, however, was the strong sense of purpose. It made the other prisoners slightly wary of him, and it was some time before the whole camp started to trust him completely.
Staff Sergeant Kinchloe was first assigned to Barracks 7. This in itself was not a problem – this barrack was not particularly known for its troublemakers – but Edward Bowers was in Barracks 7, and he … objected to Kinchloe's presence under the same roof. Vocal, relentless bullying ensued, Bowers trying anything to provoke Kinch short of physical violence. Kinch could have laid him out with just one punch, but was too conscious of his own strength (not to mention too clever) to let his self-control slip. Their barrack mates were too scared or preoccupied with problems of their own to intervene; however, it got so bad that some of them eventually went to Colonel Hogan for help. Hogan did his own bit of investigation; the next thing Harper (and the rest of the camp) knew, Bowers got fourteen days in the cooler for some sloppy escape attempt, and Kinch was assigned to Barracks 2.
Hogan's core team gained a radio man, and the barracks gained a strong, sensible man with a good sense of humour, whose even temper helped keep all of theirs in check no matter how crazy things got – and they did.
Sometime after operations really started, Andrew Carter was transferred from Stalag 5. He seemed friendly, if a little awkward and eccentric, and eager to get to know everyone; most of them took him in right away, more or less eagerly (from Newkirk and LeBeau taking it in their stride to Floyd being a little wary of 'that screwball'). Exactly why he was transferred there in the first place didn't come up for the first few days, and then Harper heard Davies tell Saunders that Floyd had told Baker that he had heard Carter had blown up his old barracks, and things went downhill from there. Davies said nothing, but squinted coldly at Carter in a manner that made the American nervous; Saunders gave wordless, apologetic shrugs but was too unsure himself to voice outright disapproval of his friend's attitude; and Floyd actually went to Hogan to complain that Carter's presence in Barracks 2 endangered all of them.
Harper liked Carter. But he felt rather alone – the men he was closest to were of the opinion that he was a dangerous arsonist (or a mad bomber, depending), and the ones who stood by Carter (Kinch, Newkirk and LeBeau) were already such a tight-knit group that Harper felt slightly left out whenever he talked with them.
Hogan listened to the complaints, and then called everyone for a round table (so to speak). He explained that Technical Sergeant Carter had indeed been transferred after causing a small explosion in the recreation hall (as part of a coordinated but hare-brained escape attempt that had resulted in four escapes – except, unfortunately, Carter himself, whose way out had ended up blocked); he stated that Carter's skills could be a great asset if handled properly, and that he intended to use them; and finished by asking if anyone had a problem with Carter being a part of the team. His eyes glittered as he spoke.
Harper didn't miss Kinch's level gaze, Newkirk's narrowed stare, and LeBeau's fierce glare.
Floyd shuffled, Davies stuck his hands in his pockets, and Mills shook his head. Carter was in.
Sometimes Harper wonders how these five men came to make such a competent team and work together so well despite being so wildly different. Maybe that's precisely it, though: maybe they're five pieces of the same jigsaw puzzle who wouldn't fit anywhere but with one another.
Timothy Harper never felt like a misfit before. But considering the work they do and the part they play in this war, he doesn't mind feeling slightly like one now.
I think I like Harper. He's a good literary tool – sort of like an outsider looking in, but at the same time somebody who shares a lot of the guys' history as a fellow prisoner and (possibly) spy – but I reckon that, deep down, he's a pretty decent fellow, too, if a bit cautious and indecisive sometimes :o)
I've got another snippet cooking, and the next chapter of Into the Woods will be up by Tuesday. À la prochaine!