Still there? I am busy. Work is a bitch and so is life, come to think of that. I will probably write more frequently this week as my schedule is less than punishing. But then again, I just might end up catching up with lost sleep, TV, movies and life in general. But I will try!
Happy reading.
Chapter 45
They got back after an hour or so. As usual, Frank had missed a piece of shrapnel that had nicked ileum and he had closed without running the bowel, apparently. My first day out of isolation had exhausted me almost as much as a thirty six hour stretch would have. I was not ready for OR yet and that was a fact.
"Hey Hawk!"
"Yeah?" I looked up at BJ after he returned to his post.
"You OK?"
"Yeah, Beej. Just a little tired. Guess its too soon to be back to humanity after all." And with that, my thoughts drifted a little. What would it be like to be back home again? However hard I - we - wanted to get back home, somehow, I did not see it happening all that smoothly. Maybe Col. Potter could come with some pointers when the time came.
IF the time came...
STOP THAT!
"Go sleep. I will tell Brendt to get you from Swamp."
I conceded. That made a lot of sense.
Radar was busy with his typewriter again.
"In some cultures, if you stay that close to something, you would be declared married, ya know."
He looked at me quizzically.
"Uhhhhh, never mind. Hey, Radar, can you do me a favor please? I need a wake up call for 2:45 pm. And I need you to ask someone to drop the lunch basket in the Swamp around 3:15 or so. Can you do that?"
"Sure, Hawkeye. No problem." He looked at me in what seemed like a concerned gaze. I had enough of this so I made a beeline to Swamp after mumbling a thanks and 'owe you one'. I owed him so many more than one. I just hoped he could collect from me when he needed to.
Enough morbid thoughts, Hawkeye-san!
It was getting pretty cold outside. Why did winters have to be so depressing? It was not like that back home somehow. The advent of winter was colorful, beautiful and brought the whole town together. Winters brought the camp together as well but it was more out of necessity than desire. People had to sleep in cramped up quarters and while in some ways, it brought them closer, it also made them get on each others nerves. I remembered last year when we ran out of heating and supplies and Radar was made housing officer and Henry slept in the Swamp. Good man! There were times I missed him, when I had the time to dwell on the past. Or the future. How many of us won't return home? Statistically speaking? Somebody must have done the math and told someone else whose toughest challenge of the day was perhaps avoiding a paper cut. Or maybe stapling himself?
Stapling reminded me something important. Frank sleeping also contributed. I wondered if he had replenished his lost underwear stock. Last batch was used by BJ's practice for finger painting. Erin would need his skills in a year or two, he rationalized. I of course could never disagree with my friend, could I?
Frank was asleep. I silently reflected what we would have done had it been someone smarter and with more scruples? We couldn't have done half the things we did to Frank and all for the wrongest of wrong reasons. In a very twerpy, pervasive way, Frank was a help to us. I tried to remember someone like him from school but nobody came to my mind. Town was too small for a high school and all of us went to the nearby high school together. We lived like a gang and nobody messed with us and we were too busy with our lives to notice anybody like Frank anyway. The same girls we bugged earlier, we started protecting as we got into foreign territory which was the nearby HS.
I stretched out on my cot. Swamp was warm. It helped that nobody was coming in and going out every five minutes. I thought about dad, as always, whenever I thought about town and winters always remided me of Crabapple Cove. So did summers. And fish. Everything reminded me of home. What the hell was I doing here? Last few days had been rough for me, physically and emotionally. Too many things were wrong, all at the same time. And slowly, most of them had returned to some semblance of normalcy if anything this place ever had could be called that. I thought about my own life. I could not possibly fall in love in this dreary place, could I? First, there was no one to fall for. Brendt seemed like a good candidate but that was probably my Italian blood. Or maybe the French blood? So, no one to fall for and if I did, which I had a feeling I could not possibly, what were the odds of us both making out of here alive? And in one piece?
"US Army has to imburse me for everything I have lost by coming here, from a lucrative practice to a life as an eligible bachelor to all the nights I spend hugging myself instead of a family." I mumbled.
Just then Frank made a sound that was a cross between a cats mewing and something even less admirable.
I smiled as I imagined what he might have been dreaming about. And then, I decided I had to do something. Or maybe later. I was too tired to do anything right now. I just closed my eyes, trying to block the daylight and the mewing out of my mind as I slowly drifted to sleep.
Not the way you want to be awakened. Frank was humming some absurdly unfamiliar tune. Loud enough to wake even the deeply anesthetized people, I thought. And equally out of tune, I was sure.
"HEY! FRANK! I am trying to sleep here. Shut up, would you?"
"Awww, wee Captain Pierce is trying to sleep. The whole camp should stay quiet, that what you want Pierce?"
"No Frank. Right now, I will settle with just you shutting up. Unless you want me to surgically render you quiet."
"You cannot threaten a superior officer, Pierce!" He pointed his razor at me. He was shaving.
He was shaving?
"You are shaving, Frank." I perched myself on my elbow as I looked at him.
"Yes. You have a problem? Women like a clean man!"
"Still trolling for Margaret's replacement, Frank?"
"Mind your kippers, Pierce." I saw two tiny spots of pink appear on his cheeks. I chuckled before remembering who the possible replacement was.
"I heard you were married Frank."
"Go stuff yourself, Pierce." And with that, he slammed his razor on the floor. "Have you been using my razor again, Pierce?"
"Nope. BJ needed to do some work on his underarms. Look closely at the blade and tell me the color of hair stuck in it."
And that somehow made Frank angrier than I had expected. He rushed towards me. That was not good.
"HEY!" I yelled as he started tossing my stuff around. He probably had gone insane or something because he did not listen and kept tossing my things around.
Where was BJ when I needed him.
I tried to restrain him and was almost successful but now, he was struggling like a maniac.
"WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU? FRANK!" I turned him around forcefully, his face still covered with foam. Some of it on his lips. or was it the foam coming from inside his mouth? I silently pondered while releasing his arms.
That somehow broke his spell. He pushed me aside with considerable force before storming out of Swamp. His push did not go so well with me as I landed on the cot on my injured side. It took me a long time to get over the dizzy spell that was threatening to drown me. Meanwhile, Frank had returned to get his jacket which was previously mine and then he stormed out again.
"DON'T...slam the door!" My outcry died in my throat as he stormed out. That was strange. Frank acting like a man, albeit a fourteen year old one. Usually, he only stood up for himself when no one was looking. And that too, in a purely below-the-belt way. But that was not one of my major concerns. Not right now anyway.
The way things were going between me and him, I could not ignore the possibility of a booby-trapped cot next time. With an anti-personnel land mine, no less. Deciding to dial back my antics for next couple of days or so meant I could not make this his most memorable Thanksgiving. Maybe Col. Potter did have a point. I almost always lost perspective when it came to Frank.
Things we do, or don't do.
That thought had a feeling of deja vu.
It was then that I heard the knock at the door.
PS: Nothing scary. Just a friend at the door!