Little April Showers

"Who the heck is Bambi?" Carter said, his face screwed up in confusion.

He stared down at the letter in his hands. News of home had been few and far between lately, and he had been devouring every word of this letter from his sister. His grandparents had finally moved in with his older brother's wife. The old tree in their front yard where they used to have their tire swing had finally given in to gravity and fallen. His niece had just turned 6 and was learning to read and write with a fury.

"What're you on about Carter?" asked Newkirk distractedly from his seat next to Carter at the barracks table, barely looking up from his own letter.

"Who is this Bambi?" asked LeBeau who stood at the stove making coffee, already finished with his own mail.

"Well…" said Carter slowly, reading the letter in his hands again to confirm, "I think I am."

"How's that?" Newkirk leaned over to see what Carter was looking at, and Carter turned the pages toward him. LeBeau and Kinch, who had been seated on the other side of the table, came around to join. The writing on the page in question was large and clumsily written, like that of a child who had just learned to form their letters.

Dear Bambi,

Momma says to say hello and good wishes. But I want to know how is Flower and Thumper and Owl and the Prince of the Forest.

Please will you write back and send me a picture if you can.

Love,

Dewdrops on Fallen Leaf

"Is that… supposed to make any sense to you Carter?" Newkirk frowned.

"It's from my niece," Carter said, and he flipped the page over to show the one beneath, "My sister included it with her letter. She had a note here to say that the kids in her class are supposed to be learning about their family, and her teacher wanted them to write letters to servicemen."

He skimmed until he found the paragraph, and pointed it out for the others to read.

Sally and her class have been learning about their family history in school, and so I've been telling her about her Sioux heritage and all of our Sioux names. She was very excited to learn that you were Little Deer Who Runs Swift and Sure Through Forest, as you may notice from the note she has included for you.

"Alright," said Newkirk in a controlled, thoughtful tone as the memory of Carter's Sioux name threatened a laugh, "So this is something to do with Little Deer. Anyone heard of a deer called Bambi?"

"What's that about Bambi?" Colonel Hogan asked as he walked out of his office, stuffing his own mail in his pocket as he did so.

"I have a letter from my niece Colonel," said Carter, handing it to the Colonel, "And I think she's calling me Bambi, but I have no idea what that is."

Hogan accepted the letter and, as he read, a slow grin spread over his face that quickly changed to outright laughter.

"Sir, what is it?" asked Newkirk.

Still chuckling, Hogan pulled his letter back out of his pocket.

"My sister-in-law sent me a letter, with a picture of my niece. They had went to see a new film, and Charlotte loved it so much she wanted a picture with the poster outside."

He pulled the photograph out from better the pages and handed it to Carter. The rest of the team looked down at the picture of the tiny girl attempting to throw her small arms around the neck of a tiny cartoon deer, with the big, round, puppy dog eyes and its mouth hanging open in a permanently shocked expression. Below the deer on the poster was one word.

"This is Bambi?" Carter raised an eyebrow, still confused. His confusion turned to indignation as the other three men looked at the photo, looked up at Carter's face and began to howl with laughter.

"I like your niece mate," said Newkirk when he could catch his breath, "A regular comedian she is."

"I don't get it."

"Carter," wheezed LeBeau, "It is you. You are Bambi. Little Deer Who Runs Swift and Sure Through Forest."

Carter looked at the deer in the photograph again, and noticed that in addition to the deer there was also a small rabbit, a skunk and an owl surrounding the little deer. Behind them all was a tall, majestic buck watching the young animals play.

"Huh," he said, "So which one of you three is Thumper then?"

Several months later…

A little girl sat in her living room, toys scattered around her. In her right hand was a small deer, whittled out of old wood, and in her left, a slightly bigger deer with a full set of antlers. Tucked one under each arm were two handsewn little animals, a grey rabbit and a black skunk. In front of her was a patchy brown owl, and it was he that the other animals addressed as one by one she had them dance around her, singing along to the record her mother had put on for her moments ago.

"Drip drip drop little April showers, daduhduhduh, dadada, dadada…"

Her mother glanced at the girl from the kitchen as she neatly folded the note that the little girl had discarded so haphazardly after she had ripped open the mysterious parcel left on their doorstep earlier that day to find her five little toys.

With the note came a photograph as well, and with care she placed both in pride of place on the mantelpiece. In the photograph were 5 men, her brother, a man in a blue uniform, one in a red beret, a tall black man in an American uniform, and a grinning dark haired man that she guessed was an officer. She tucked the note in behind it, gave her daughter another soft smile, and went back to fixing lunch with a slightly lighter step.

Dear Dewdrops,

Thank you for your letter, we are all doing fine here in the forest. Please find enclosed the picture you requested.

All our love,

Bambi, Thumper, Flower, Owl, and the Prince of the Forest