OK. I might be posting really frequently, I think. I am on a streak and even if its not a winning streak, a streak is a streak!
Last chapter was the storm before the calm before the storm. Maybe I forgot to write the calm but still, you get the idea, right? I won't know if you do and so, I won't be asked to explain which is just fine and dandy.

If I were you, I would stay tuned over the weekend.

Enjoy the story!

Chapter 66

So much for a quiet day.

I could not wait for this one to end. It had already dragged on longer than I cared for. I could feel a headache building up behind my eyes. As if on cue, my stomach rumbled and I barely made it to the bushes before my lunch made an exit. I knew a mistake when I ate it and maybe it was time to trust my instincts. There was a reason why they called a mess a mess! I stayed in the same position for a long time before the retching subsided. Glad to have no audience, thanks to the cold, I stood up again. I was not feeling very steady and decided to return to Swamp. Maybe the earlier sleep deprivation would come in handy now and I could sleep, even if Frank does his best to not let me.

What I had not contended or more accurately, had forgotten, was the presence of one shrink from Tokyo. For fear of reinstating the now receding nausea, I hung my head low as I approached and then entered my humble cesspool of an abode. A bomb going off next to me wouldn't have achieved the startling effect Sidney's calm voice had.

"Hello Hawkeye!" Leave it to a shrink to disregard the obvious and regress to basic conversation. I wondered for a second if this display of oblivion was part of their curriculum or was it Sidney's specialty. He, I was grateful, did not comment on my current state of disrepair or surprise.

"Hello Sidney. I forgot you were here."

"Its known to have happened." He smiled though his eyes were less than smiling. Or maybe I was hallucinating. I did not respond to his attempt at humor and just sat on the cot heavily. It creaked, rather loudly. Only then did I notice he was not drinking.

"You're not drinking." I stated, looking at him this time, square in the eye. If he was trying to probe me, he was doing a good job.

"The still was dry. Will take a few hours if this gurgling is any indication." He had his hands clasped in his lap now, as he leaned forward to give me his penetrating stare. I could see the questions in his eyes and just shook my head, more to myself than to him.

"Yeah. I turned it off. Nobody needed it and I figured we could use with saving some electricity." I said, lying back down on the lumpy mattress.

"When will you be able to use it again?" He asked, and I could hear trepidation in his voice.

"No idea. Anytime from two weeks to two months from now, depending on my liver function. Don't wanna tank it."

"I remember somebody saying something about it back in school. All I remember is, you need it for something important."

"Yeah. For living! Hence the name. And you need it to neutralize that to make it to the next day!" I pointed towards the gin machine.

"When did you turn it off?" And so it began.

"Thought you were watching me when I did it yesterday." There was no point deflecting.

"Yes. And when I was here late yesterday, it was working again."

"Hmmm." I just mumbled, trying to remember when that happened. I did not notice it when I came back. BJ must have done it.

"Why?" He implored again.

"Why what?" Maybe playing dumb would get him off my case.

"Why did you turn it off? I thought we had a little talk yesterday." He knew alright why I did it.

"You know why I did it! I'm a bad patient, Sidney. I don't listen to my shrink when I don't agree with him."

"Cummon Hawkeye!" He urged me again.

"Sidney! Are you trying to psychoanalyze me?" Maybe he had misjudged my irritability threshold. I knew I had.

"It was a simple question." I snorted at that.

"Nothing you ask is ever simple." He chuckled at my somewhat heated response.

"Humor me, Hawkeye!" He gave me a tiny smile.

"BJ!" I gave a two-lettered answer that said it all.

"I figured that much. They did not gimme these for nothing, Hawkeye!" He pointed at his clusters with a hint of admonishment in his tone.

"Isn't it enough humoring? You asked me why and I told you."

"I see you don't want to talk."

"Hallelujah!" I retorted sarcastically, hoping he wouldn't bother me any further. I couldn't not talk to him when he talked. Damned shrink. I lost all inhibition when it came to him and everything just flowed freely and right now, free flow of what I was thinking was not exactly one of my priorities. I wasn't very lucky.

"Tell me to shut up and leave and I will do that!" I winced at this, knowing full well that he was reading my mind a few seconds earlier.

"OK."

"OK?"

"Yeah. OK!"

"What is that supposed to mean?" Somebody have mercy on me, I silently thought.

"I'm not sure I know."

"You don't wanna talk?"

"No."

"Should I leave?"

"No."

"Why do I feel I am talking to an 11 year old brat?"

"That wasn't very professional, Counselor!" I let sarcasm creep in my voice.

"Who said I was being professional?" Sidney just couldn't help it, could he?

"Nobody. Just the way you talk kinda lets the big secret out."

He did not say anything for a few seconds and the Swamp was filled with only the gurgling of still.

"Why don't you wanna talk?" Here we go again.

"Good Lord, Sidney. You just don't let up, do you?" I was exasperated and knew that one more push from him and I would spill it all and right now, I wanted to make sense of it myself before spilling it in front of a shrink.

"Not really. Persistence is next to Godliness!" He chuckled at his own mutilation of something so out of place in this tent, even I grinned.

"Clever, Sidney! Very clever!" I sarcastically replied.

"Hey! I had to prove I learned something from you now, didn't I?"

"From me? I feel insulted. Violated. My robe is funnier than you." I picked my robe to emphasize my point.

"But you laughed!" He pointed out.

"That was because of your goofy chuckle, which was funnier than your not-so-wisecrack."

"When will BJ return?" He asked me after a few seconds pause.

"Dunno. I was sleeping when he left." I told him, feeling the same tiredness descending over me again.

"OK."

"Sidney!"

"Yeah?"

"What are you doing here anyway?"

"Talking to you."

"That's not what I meant."

"I'm here to enjoy Thanksgiving."

"And you couldn't do that in Tokyo?" I looked at him this time.

"No. I was invited."

"Potter?"

"Yeah."

"Figures!"

"Huh?"

"Unit morale. He is worried."

"Oh no! I asked him if I could come."

"To have a Thanksgiving three miles behind the lines?" I asked him incredulously.

"Uh huh."

"And what exactly were you thanking, whoever you thank on that day, for? Spam turkey?"

"That too!"

"Maybe its time we switch places, Major Freedman. I think you have lost it and will fit very well in this unit. They need somebody like you around here anyway."

"Is that what its all about?" He asked me fairly offhandedly.

"Huh?" I asked somehwat surprised by his interpretation if that was what he meant.

"Feeling needed?" What the hell was he talking about?

"What?" I was a little perplexed. Surely he was not talking about me needing the feeling to be needed again?

"I came here because I like this unit." He said that somewhat evasively.

"Sidney Freedman, you are crazier than I originally gave you credit for!" I decided not to pursue his earlier train of thought. Did not mean I had dropped it completely.

"I have been all over the theater, especially the frontlines. I have yet to find a better place to be when it comes to downtime." I looked at him, pretty sure he had lost it, spending so much time with those who had lost it already.

"You come here for vacation?" I was still incredulous. I knew we were a fun bunch and I knew he liked it here but still...Three miles behind the lines?

"Yeah."

"I have died and gone to...Korea? Nowhere else will I ever encounter this kind of insanity where a bonafide shrink comes behind frontlines to have fun? Either you are one morbid fellow or rest of the war is far worse than what we have here!"

"Cummon Hawkeye! Even psychiatrists are allowed to be crazy sometimes. This is my RnR."

"Here?" I pointed to the floor incredulously.

"Not exactly here," He pointed towards the floor as well before telling me what he meant by here, "The unit, Hawkeye. Its a great place to be." I just stared at him. Did he like it because the unit was overflowing with all sorts of insanity? Was this his idea of observing insanity at its absolutely insane? I shook my head and smiled. No wonder I could talk to him anytime. He WAS crazy!