Hi All,
Sorry for the late update.
As always, thank you for your messages, reviews, new readers and followers. *big hug for you ^_^*
As usual, this chapter is un-beta-ed and since English is not my first language, if you see any mistakes, please poke. I'll really appreciate it.
Okay…lessons learned: (1) jealousy can make you did stupid thing, like 'harrumph now, ask later, embarrassed in the end' kind of stupid; (2) don't forget to praise the Lord when your witness of the aforementioned stupidity was just Frank Perconte.
I followed the Two Stooges to the house where their billeted which was also occupied by Joe, Davey, Eugene and Babe. When we arrived, the boys were already showered and they gathered in the living room.
"Becca…oh thank God…would you mind to cook us breakfast?" Joe asked.
"Why? Because I'm the only woman here?"
"Yeah…that…and because I don't want to get another food poisoning." He glared at Babe.
"That was one time!" Babe squeaked.
"Only Babe can make one squad got food poisoning because of simple omelet." George snickered.
"Hmh…yeah…that made me runs out my supply of antibiotics and rehydration solution." Gene said flatly without stopping stuffing his medicine bag with supplies.
"Et tu, Brute?" Babe said, throwing a 'you betrayed me' glare at Gene. Gene shrugged.
I chuckled "All right…all right…I'll cook. Babe, you can help me. I'll teach you how to make a proper and salmonella-free omelet."
Thirty minutes and obscene amount of omelets later, we walked out the house to meet the other Easy men in the town square, except for Frank who will guard the OP with O'Keefe, in which he looked not so peachy about it.
"Why do I have to guard it with O'Brian?" he whined.
"It's O'Keefe." I corrected.
"I don't fucking care. It's like babysitting." He snapped and stomped off to O'Keefe's billet.
"Is he alright?" I asked worriedly to George when Frank was out of earshot. "He looked just fine this morning. He even managed to properly insult you."
"He's fine. He only missed home like the rest of us. And for your information, I only let him to insult me because my brain wasn't wake enough. That's what happened if you woke up in ass o'clock in the morning and didn't have time for coffee before stealing some eggs for these blockheads." George ranted
George got a collective smack on his head from the boys for that.
"What are you guys gonna do today?" I asked the boys.
Gene answered "I'll be in the aid station. Babe and Web got some patrol to do. Joe and George will…honestly…I don't have any idea about what they're doing most of days…they always find some crazy things to do."
"Hey, Doc! That 'they' are right over here." Joe protested. "And I assure you, George and I will not cause any disturbances even though we're the conquering hero. We're not nefarious like the Japs."
"I beg to differ." I mumbled but Davey blurted "Wow…Joe…you got some SAT words."
"I fucking know fancy words, college boy!" Joe spat.
The other boys glared at Davey who's biting his thumb nail in embarrassment. I sighed and pinched the bridge of my nose "Oh..Davey"
"Even though it's very entertaining to witness another epic case of foot-in-mouth from you, Web….I have important news for you guys. We saw Captain Nixon this morning. Still in his harness. Right, Princess?" George said.
I smiled thankfully to George for another deflection from Davey's inability to hold his mouth and then said "Yeah…but he looked upset. Maybe the jump was not success? One thing that I know, Colonel Sink demoted him to battalion because of his drinking problem. Major Winters planned to tell him about this after the jump. But apparently Captain Nixon will find out sooner than later."
"Well that won't help his drinking problem." Gene said.
We nodded our agreement. Captain Nixon's drinking problem was another Easy Company's legend, even though he always performed his job effectively.
A gruff voice startled us from behind "Gossiping again, Gents? And Becca?"
"Jesus, Captain!" George said. "Could you not sneak around like that?"
"Where's the fun of that?" Captain Speirs smirked. In which the boys, except George of course, cowered in fear, because Captain Speirs' smirk was downright creepy.
"We're not gossiping, Sir. I just informed the boys that we saw Captain Nixon this morning, still in his harness and that the Colonel just demoted him to battalion." I explained.
"Hmm...yeah. I saw him too. His jeep was almost hit me. He's lucky my silver tray was not dented or else…" He said.
The boys and I exchanged glances. Not really sure the relation between nearly hit by a jeep, a dented silver tray and a very possible bodily harm threat.
"Anyway" the Captain continued. "Who helped Janovec hooked up with a German girl?"
From Davey's red face, I think the Captain found the answer.
"Next time if a soldier asked you as a translator for a hook up, make sure said horny soldier do his dirty thing after his guard duty. Understand?"
Aha ha…yeah right…'guard duty' for the Captain's 'discovered-shiny-things of the day', most likely.
Davey nodded frantically.
"Good. Now excuse me, Gentlemen…and Becca… I have to burn the image of Janovec's dingaling from my brain. That moment was definitely not the highlight of my day." He said flatly.
And with that, the Captain left us with a disturbing mental image of Janovec's Mr. Happy in action. We all cringed in unison.
"Our Captain is a sadist." Babe mumbled.
We nodded solemnly.
Le Tour d'Allemagne was proofed to be a first-class tour in every way (paratrooperly speaking, of course) for Easy Company. Our trip through Germany was more a grand tour than a fighting maneuver. We're in a reserve position, never threatened. Comfortable homes each night, great food and wine, free to take almost whatever we wanted, being driven along an autobahn reserved for us, riding at a leisurely pace on big rubber tires, with wondrous sights to see: the dramatic Alps on one side and the dramatic disintegration of what had been the most feared army in the world on the other.
Yes. The Germans began to retreating. En masse. It felt like a victory, but somehow…it felt….hollow. It's felt like our accomplishment of defeating Nazi was shadowed by the great loss of men we've endured since the beginning of the war until now. The cost (physically and psychologically) has been so great, that most of us felt like there was no way to back away from all that happened to us. We're sure that we'd be haunted with this war for the rest of our live. Some of the men started to question whether all of this was worth it.
And actually, we're afraid to adjust our live post-war. Believe me…It's more difficult to transition from being ready to war to being ready for peace. Especially, when we're still in the place where we are at war. In the meantime, so many things had changed in home front. In America, things were already looking like peacetime and not all people know the price paid by soldiers in terror, agony and bloodshed. Exhibit A: Captain Nixon's wife's letter that said she's divorcing him, and she's taking everything, including the kid and the dog. After all the terrors of war, near death experience with the 17th Division and his demotion to battalion, the letter was his breaking point. He snapped. He's getting more bitter and cynical (and more indulged in Vat 69); even Major Winter's pep talk didn't help.
Even so, the men started to talk about what they would do after the war. Joe with his plan to looking for a balloon-chested Jewish girl who's willing enough ("or stupid enough?" George corrected that followed with he's receiving a healthy smack on his head from the offended Jew) to give him some little Liebgotts, Davey and his plan to continue college and write a book about his experience as infantry soldier ("Do you think anybody will read your book, college boy?" "I hope so, Joe" "Any backup plan?" "I don't know. Maybe…I'll write a book about shark?" "Who the fuck will read a book about shark?!" "I hate you, Joe" "Ditto, Web"), and George with his plan (with my encouragement) to become a maintenance consultant ("But I truly want to be a clown, Princess. Why I can't be a clown?" "You'll spook the children to death, George" "Thanks for the loving support, honey" "Anytime, Frog" "That's sarcasm" "I'm aware").
I also noticed that Davey grew more and more resentful with the Germans. Every time we passed on retreating German soldiers, he would snap and ranted "If it's not because of your silly-mustached, overly-compensating so-called Führer, I would have finished my education right now!", or something in line with that. Joe and he were sometimes bonded by their mutual hatred to the Germans, but then arguing again when they're discussing about the rumors of German's cruelty. Joe believed the rumors wholeheartedly, while Davey still thought that it's just propaganda that was common in both waring side.
Until finally, in a forest near the city of Kaufering in Landsberg, we saw the gruesome evidence with our own eyes.
"They are my people, Becca." Joe sobbed in front of me, later that day. "My people. If my parent didn't leave Austria, I would be one of them."
Davey and George sat beside him. Davey said gravely "The rumors apparently right. You won't believe if you're not seeing them for yourself, Becca. The Colonel was right not to bring you there. They're beyond miserable. The Krauts had taken these people from their homes and sentenced them to slave work. Just because they're Jews or Poles or Gypsies or not conform to Hitler's perfect-human-being checklist. Babies and old women, innocent people condemned to live in barracks behind barbed wire, to slave twelve hours a day, to be stamped with numbers on their hands like cattle, to eat moldy potatoes, and black bread. The Third Reich means 'Work till you died' for these people. Nazi had deliberately enslaved the populace of Europe. The German people were guilty, every one of them."
"And I have to tell them that we have to lock them all back up in the camp." Joe said brokenly.
My throat was dry. I couldn't keep my tears anymore.
"It's for their best, Joe." George said soothingly "We have to make them concentrated for rehabilitation. Doc said that to me."
Gene himself hasn't back from the camp. He refused to take rest and concentrated to help Doctor Kent, the regimental surgeon, as much as he can.
"How do you know our method of rehab will succeed?" Joe asked weakly "We're not prepared for these."
"Have faith." Web said.
Joe scoffed. "Kind of difficult right now, college boy."
"I understand. Only time will show whether this plan would ultimately successful or not. If it does, the prisoners will tell their stories and live their lives as reminders of all that we must not forget." Web said assuredly.
"The Colonel told me" I added "That both Americans and Russians found camps like this all over the place. The Russians even liberated one a lot worse."
"Worse?" George frowned.
"Ten times bigger, with execution chambers and ovens to burn the…the bodies."
"Fuck…" the boys muttered in disbelief. I threw up myself when I first heard it.
"How come the locals didn't do anything? Didn't they ever smell the fucking stench?" Web said in disgust.
George scoffed "The locals said we're exaggerating. They claim they never even knew the camp existed. Like hell, they don't! How the fuck they can explain that the camp guard left this morning after they burned some of the huts with the prisoners still fucking alive in them and killed as many prisoners as their fucking ammo allowed before locked the gates and left the prisoners to death. Someone in the town must have told the guards we're coming."
"General Taylor declared martial law…about two hours ago. Every able-bodied German in town aged 14 to 80 to start burying the bodies. They'll start tomorrow." I explained
George nodded "Serves them right. And finally General Taylor made a sensible order."
"You guys should take some rest. We head out to Thalem tomorrow, at 1200 hours." I hugged Joe and kiss him on the cheek "They will be alright, Joe. We've done anything we could for them. Have faith, okay?"
Joe nodded and then headed to his room with Davey.
"I'll escort you to your billet, Becca." George said and led me outside.
Once we're outside, he said "I still can't believe the Nazis could do this to fellow human beings. This…this is genocide, Becca…with execution chambers and ovens like you've said."
I nodded gravely "Yeah…Concentration camp was not a new concept in war, actually. We do have a concentration camp for the Japanese in America after the Pearl Harbor. But these camps? These camps were not just concentration camp. They were extermination camps. It's like the Nazis have created a nearly mechanistic attempt to eradicate 'racially undesirable elements' of their society from the face of the world. They did it in clockwork precision."
George shook his head in disbelief "And to think that the Nazis came from the same society that produced composers like Mozart and Beethoven. It just didn't make sense how they can be so evil."
"There's a phrase in German. Lebensunwertes Leben. It means: life unworthy of life. It's a Nazi designation for people who had no right to live. Those individuals were targeted to be euthanized. When it first socialized in 1938, The Nazi targeted people with serious medical problems, because they think this disabled people will costs the community during his or her lifetime. But apparently…it grew in extent and scope to those considered grossly inferior according to the racial policy of Nazi Germany." I explained.
"Jesus…It's like they're playing god. You should write about this for your thesis when you're back to Harvard, Becca. And then publish it so the world will now what happened here."
"Yeah…I think I will, George."
"You'll be the best historian ever."
I smiled "Thank you." And I curled my hand on his.
We walked together in silence before he talked again. "I met this kid...in the camp. His name is Muchik. He's possibly the youngest prisoner there. He's so thin but relatively healthy compared with the other prisoners. It's because his father gave the kid his rations…until the father died, just yesterday. His mother and sister were in women's camp and most likely have died months ago. I smuggled him out of camp. Doc helped me and gave me instructions about his food and medication intake. He's resting in my room right now with Babe and Frank. I lent him my spare uniform and I managed to steal a pair of boots. I need your help, Becca. I need extra uniforms for him so I can bring him along with Easy."
"Are you sure, George? What if Captain Speirs know? There are strict orders that no Displaced Persons were to be taken along."
"I've talked to him. He's fine with it as long as I'll be responsible for the kid. I can be persuasive, you know."
"You mean you bribe him with something shiny."
George grinned and scratched the back of his head "Aha ha…yeah…that too. But he even promised to talk about this with Major Winters. I didn't ask him for that. He said that Muchik can be our errand boy. You know…doing chores and the likes. And I will be Muchik's…um… adoptive father? That's what he said."
I smiled at him. Captain Speirs and George Luz's heart were in the right place. "I'll do everything I can to help Muchik. I'll talk to the Colonel too."
He beamed and kissed my cheek "Thank you, Becca. I know I love you for the right reason."
"Yeah…I got the brain, the beauty and a big heart. But I don't know I should feel glad or sorry for Muchik to have you as his adoptive father" I teased.
He winked. "Don't worry, Princess. I'll teach him the fundamentals of army profanity as we ride along."
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