Thanks NY Gal and Ragni. Here's a new one. More perhaps around mid week.
Chapter 93
"Wanna tell me what that was all about?" BJ asked me as we exited the mess into the brisk night air.
"I wasn't sure you would remain my friend after the hearings etcetera so I figured I could make another friend." I shoved my hands into my pockets. It was getting too cold too fast. The bite in the night air was a far cry from the sunny day I had spent out in the fields.
"Do you intentionally act this crazy?"
"What do you mean by intentionally? And what do you mean by crazy?" I acted as if I suddenly noticed he was calling me crazy.
"You do know what's going on, Hawk?"
"Beej. I know what's going on. The kid's still in our little morgue. You don't think I would forget him so soon, do you?"
"He was sent to Seoul today." BJ informed me and I felt that same depressing disposition descend over me.
"For autopsy?"
"Yeah."
"He would be just as...What good would that do for his parents?"
"Maybe not theirs but yours might benefit!"
He was talking about Dad.
"I hadn't been home since Christmas. With the fellowship and its insanity...Driving up from New York to Maine was just too much. I left for Maine the day I finished my fellowship and a week later, I got my draft notice. He's used to not having me around."
"He still misses you, Hawk! You know how much I miss Erin?"
"But you barely saw her."
"Yeah. And still. He has known you for what...?"
"All my life?" I smiled as I said that.
"Like I've known Erin all her life." He smiled too.
"I always told him kids were ungrateful."
"You cannot stop loving him either!"
"I know." He's all the family I've got.
"So stop bugging Frank. What happened between you and Cate?"
"Nothing happened."
"I thought you did what you do and she balked."
"NO. Jesus, NO. I never made a move on her. It was something else."
"What was it then?" BJ asked semi-interestedly.
"Hell if I know, Beej. It seemed almost like she regretted saying anything like that. Like she mentioned it to Frank and Frank made a huge deal out of it just to get even with mr.. I never once figured her to be that sort."
"Yours powers of deduction when it comes to women being legendary..."
"No. I didn't say that. She seemed like a good kid, Beej."
"Every woman does to you, Hawk!" I could hear BJ smile in the dark.
"Brrrrr. Swamp feels so much warm."
"That's because it is!" BJ commented wryly before landing on his cot which creaked and then gave way. I chortled with laughter at the cracked cot and the heap that was BJ a few seconds ago.
"Will you stop that and help me?" BJ finally got up from the floor.
"Want to swap with Frank? I'm sure he'll be glad to be of help." I deliberately ignored the fourth cot. Inquiries or not, when opportunity presented itself, it was a sin not to make Frank miserable even if I didn't really believe in the whole heaven and hell concept!
"Yeah. I don't think he would mind." BJ conceded, half laughing himself.
"Hunnicut! I always thought you had more sensibility than Trapper. I'm glad I was wrong and gladder to have overestimated you."
"Or underestimated?"
"Would you hurry up? Before he also pins the broke-my-cot charge to the list of charges against me?"
"You're the one who's slow." BJ whined as he gathered the wood splinters that belonged to the broken limb.
"We cannot do anything with this." He helplessly pointed at the now shattered cot leg.
"Hey, gimme this." I grabbed those and put them in the stove and now pretty unsure what to do to make Frank suffer. There was always the easy way out and that was to replace Frank's cot with the fourth whole cot that used to belong to Spearchucker a lifetime ago.
"Beej! I got an idea. Why not swap your cot with the spare one?"
"What's funny about that?"
"This!" I pointed out and BJ and I grinned. It wasn't very smart but knowing Frank, he was bound to suspect foul play even when there was none and that was a better and dare I say, safer plan to ruin his night.
"What did you do?" Frank almost caught us but for his utter lack of subtlety as he hummed his way into the tent with a mini bang.
"Are you talking to me, Frank?" I asked him in my most surprised tone.
"No! Yes. I'm talking to you, Pierce! What did you do?" Frank was still a little bit out of it. Maybe my antics from mess were to blame?
"Me, Frank?"
"Yes. YOU! What did you do?" Frank touched his cot suspiciously and I barely controlled my laughter as I saw BJ hide behind his journal.
"Nothing, Frank. I didn't do anything to your cot."
"Ah ha! I knew it. If you didn't do anything to my cot, how did you know I was talking about my cot?"
"He has a valid point, Hawk!" BJ spoke with a straight face and I glared at him. Count on him to leave me holding the bag.
"Maybe he saw you crash land on your cot earlier, BJ."
Frank looked at him this time, some form of comprehension dawning on him.
"You can't keep one small secret, can you?" BJ feigned anger this time and I realized how it must have sounded to Frank.
"You switched my cot with his, didn't you?" Frank spoke like a petulant child.
"I know I didn't." I told Frank this time.
"You made my bed!" Frank picked the covers and declared me the culprit. I was genuinely surprised this time. I did make his bed when we switched it with the extra bed. BJ was just as surprised but he was also enjoying this a little too much as he hid his huge grin behind his journal.
"And how do you know that, Frank?" I asked Frank.
"When you make the bed, you let forget to put the side with the label on right side on on top." Frank commented triumphantly and I remembered him picking on this little bit of trivia when that damned stove exploded in my face not so long ago.
"Aren't you a clever little...Major, Frank?" I almost said weasel but decided not to offend him. Not after he was sure his bed would crash soon as he sat on it.
"What happened to the spare cot?" Frank's suspicions knew no bounds tonight and neither of us was doing anything to dispel them.
"It broke." I stated matter of factly while BJ tried to keep a straight face.
"Pierce, with your record, I would be careful if I were you." Frank chastised me this time, and not entirely unsmugly.
"He has a point there, Hawk!"
"You too, Hunnicut. Hanging out with likes of Pierce here, pretty soon, you would be looking at Leavenworth yourself! Not unless you change company. You may have to, you know, with Pierce gone." Frank smiled evilly this time and BJ got out of his cot so fast, I barely had time to get up myself. By the time I separated them, Frank was out of breath and BJ was red in face.
"Beej! One of us is enough!" I whispered in his ear as I bearhugged him, wondering about my earlier musings about him being the voice of reason to rein me in. BJ had surprised me with this flash of anger.
"Let me go Hawk! Let me tell him who goes to Leavenworth and who gets new company..." BJ and his anger were a sight to see especially when not directed towards myself but maybe now wasn't a time to gloat or let Frank die.
"Beej! BEEJ! Stop it, alright. I'm not going anywhere. Even Frank knows that now."
Finally, I restrained BJ and that was only because he had decided not to go with me to Leavenworth, which happened to be in Kansas, of all the places in the world. I knew I didn't hate the place per se but still, there were better ways to go out in a blaze of glory and going via Kansas wasn't one of them. My personal favorite was to be surrounded by my wife and children, their children and their children's children.
Soon as BJ settled on his own cot, Frank muttered something and sauntered out of the tent. It might have been funny had it not been following a very red and mad BJ.
"I don't know how you take it from him day in and day out."
"You learn to ignore him. Takes time. And even with practice, he just knows how to get under your skin."
"I really thought you blow up out of proportion when it comes to him earlier but after today..."
"He said something while I was gone?"
"No." And I knew BJ was lying but decided not to push him about it. It was pretty obvious he was not enjoying his earlier loss of control and I knew better than to try and get on his bad side. I had enough of that off and on the last few weeks.
"Gee Beej. You came to defend my honor. I'm all tingly!" That made BJ grin. I grinned too. It was suddenly looking a lot like the good old days.
It still made me feel tad bit better to see him come defend my honor, so to speak. I wondered once again what he would do to me once he found out about that letter but that could be taken care of when the time came. For now, I had to get ready for a poker game.