Chapter 39
Uijeongbu Korea; October 31st, 1952
"Will you hurry up with that? Hawkeye said, as B.J. readjusted his comically large tie for the third time. "We gotta get over to Rosie's before the Marines start eating the bar again."
"I've got an idea, Supermouth…" Charles said over his shoulder, looking at Hawkeye's Superman costume, "Why don't you move on from pestering your bozo buddy and try leaping off a tall building in a single bound?"
"I hope these aren't the same Marines as last Halloween, who wound up playing pin the tail on the bar tender." B.J. said, as he put on his red nose.
"The very same, the Pusan Piranhas." Hawkeye confirmed, "But this year they promised to let their hair down."
"You sure you won't reconsider Charles?" B.J. asked, "It sounds like your kind of crowd."
"I mean you're already wearing a mask…." Hawkeye quipped.
"Ha.ha." Charles responded with an eye roll, "thank you, no. I'm on duty tonight. I have no doubt that an evening of illness and human suffering will be infinitely more entertaining."
"Hey guys!" Klinger pulled open the door, "can one of you come and look at—"
"Klinger, do you realize how many zoots had to be killed just to make that one suit?" Hawkeye cut across him with a laugh.
"You like it?" He said with a grin, and he did a spin so they could get a better look, "My Uncle Habib gave it to me. He had some business setbacks and won't be needing it for one to five years."
"What are you supposed to be?" B.J. said win a laugh.
"I'll tell ya I'm…." He struck a pose and tipped his hat, "Maxie Klinger Editor and Chief of the Uijeongbu Tribune. No story too small, no beat too rough! If there's news to be heard, you'll hear it here first!"
"Hey did you get them?" Ellie Marie asked, coming up beside him.
"And I'm guessing…you are….the secretary?" B.J. asked, taking in her pencil skirt, red pumps and horn rimmed glasses.
"Secretary!" Ellie Marie said, "I ain't no secretary! I'm Nellie G, star ace reporter at the Uijeongbu Tribune! Mistah K says I keep going the way I am. He's gonna make me world famous. Ain't that right boss?" She hooked her arm through Klinger's and smiled at him.
"That's right baby….you stick ol' Maxie Klinger and you'll be goin' places!" He replied.
"Is this the kind of stuff you married people do?" Hawkeye said, looking from the two of them to B.J. who grinned.
"Yeah pretty much…." He confirmed, and then he sighed, "Man I sure do miss that….."
"So which one of you is coming?" Ellie Marie asked, she shot a second look at B.J. and raised an eyebrow, "on second thought….not you. She said, "you stay at least ten feet away from me for the remainder of the evening."
"What'd I do?" B.J. asked defensively.
"It's the clown thing." Klinger said.
"Oh yeah… I forgot about that!" said Hawkeye. "Anyway which one of us is coming where?"
"I didn't actually get a chance to tell them yet." Klinger explained to her, "The Piranhas have landed at Rosie's and we've got their first casualty."
"Sorry I don't remove tattoos." B.J. said, as he tied his oversized shoe.
"How about billiard balls?" Ellie Marie asked. B.J. looked up at her in surprise.
"A Marine got one stuck in his mouth." Klinger said.
"That must have been some shot…." Hawkeye muttered.
"Can he breathe?" B.J. asked.
"Oh yeah, he's fine." Klinger said, "You'd need a bazooka to kill those guys."
"He bet someone that he could put a pool ball in his mouth, and then take it out." Ellie Marie explained.
"Well he was half right," Hawkeye said, "Maybe it'll keep him quiet for a while."
"The other guys said he pulls obnoxious stunts like this all the time." Klinger said, "but either way he needs a doctor."
"Well this certainly doesn't seem like a job for Superman." Hawkeye said.
"Certainly would want some clown handling him….Hyuh! hyuh! Hyuh!" B.J. added with a silly dance.
"Nope….. don't like it." Ellie Marie commented, stepping nervously behind Klinger, who chuckled.
"Is there a doctor in the house?" Hawkeye asked pointedly, and Charles glared at him and rolled his eyes.
"I don't believe it.." He grumbled, putting down his book, "A pool ball? In his mouth?"
"Yep." Ellie Marie said, nodding.
"And they say Americans are crude….."
"Aw come on Charles….where's your Halloween spirit? Hyuh! Hyuh!" B.J. teased, doing his clown dance again.
"Stop doing that!" Ellie Marie snapped.
"My Halloween spirit? Hyuh! Hyuh!" Charles replied, sarcastically mocking him, "Any minute a wounded soldier could come through here truly needing my services, and what am I doing? Treating some leather brain who decided to literally have a ball! I'll show him some Halloween spirit.Where is he?" He turned to Ellie Marie and Klinger.
"We put him in pre-op." Ellie Marie said.
"Fine…." Charles said, and he walked past them and up into the main building.
"Now that that's settled. Shall we mozy to Rosie's?" Hawkeye asked.
"Hey you're a poet and you don't know it." Ellie Marie said with a wink.
They all walked out of the Swamp and Hawkeye looked around as if he had forgotten something.
"Gee Beej, I thought you'd have one of those cute little clown cars for us." He said.
"Bozo Jr's using it tonight." B.J. replied.
"I know you're joking but if a kid in a clown car showed up right now, I would actually cry." Ellie Marie said, and Klinger laughed, wrapping his arms around her and kissing her cheek.
"Howdy pardners! Goin' our way?" Colonel Potter said, as he and Major Houlihan walked towards them dressed as a cowboy and a high end geisha girl.
"Well if it isn't Buffalo Bob and Madam Woo!" B.J. said, giving his red nose a honk.
"Now I know why cowboys are bow-legged." The Colonel said with a chuckle, "chaps chafe!"
"My my that's quite a dress you don't have on." Hawkeye said to Margaret, taking in the skin tight silk, "What a waste of my X-ray vision."
"Oh shut your trap." She shot back at him.
"You gotta admit Margaret, that slit is as high as an elephant's thigh." B.J. teased.
"Will you two ever get out of puberty?" She asked flatly.
"He's in puberty, I'm in love." Hawkeye said with a smirk.
"You're a germ." Margaret retorted.
"Hey how come you don't have a dress like that?" Klinger muttered quietly to Ellie Marie and she smiled.
"I was kinda under the impression you weren't the type of guy who was too fussed about the wrapping paper and just wanted to get to the prize." She replied.
"Once again….you make an excellent point, gorgeous." He said with a grin.
Attention all personnel. Some party guests have arrived dressed as wounded soldiers.
"Man, I hate party crashers." B.J. muttered, as they turned around and headed back towards the center of the compound.
"I need a doctor over here! I have a belly wound!" Ginger called a few minutes later. B.J. ran to her side to examine him.
"Pre-op stat!" He said.
"Hey…what's with the toe tag?" Ellie Marie asked, as they brought a body out of the truck, "Battalion Aid sending us their dead now?"
"Commies got a push on. Battalion Aid had to move back. We were the only way to get 'em out." The medic explained.
"Got a bad head wound over here!" Kelly called.
"Ellie we gotta focus on the living." Hawkeye said as he ran past her.
"He's Catholic." She said, noticing the crucifix around his neck, "where's Father Mulcahy?"
"He's at the orphanage having Halloween with the children." Klinger said, "Listen baby, I'll call Grave Registration to come by for the kid and make sure the Father knows about him when he gets back, so he gets his last rights."
"Thanks doll face." She said, giving his hand a quick squeeze before heading towards the scrub room.
—————
"Halloween in Korea…." Hawkeye said, a little while later, "bobbing for shrapnel." He tossed a piece of metal into the pan by his table.
From outside a loud cheer erupted in the direction of Rosie's bar.
"What in the blazes is going on over there?" Colonel Potter asked in annoyance.
"The Piranhas probably found a winner for pin the tail on the bartender." B.J. said.
"If they got returns on their empties, they'd make a fortune off their own heads." The Colonel grumbled. Suddenly the lights flickered and went out.
"Now what?" Margaret sighed in frustration.
"Gotta be the generator." Klinger's voice came from the direction of the office, "I'll go check!"
"Maybe one of the Marines tried to swallow it!" Hawkeye called after him.
"When I was a kid, Halloween wasn't for getting pie eyed. It was for getting the skivvies scared off you!" Colonel Potter said.
"Oh come now Colonel. Hobgoblins are the hobgoblins of little minds." Charles replied.
"I don't know about that…." The Colonel replied, "I've seen some pretty odd things in my day. One night back in '39 Mildred had a dream that her brother Calvin came into the room, sat down at the foot of her bed, and shook his head at her kind of sadly. It was so real she felt she could reach out and touch him. In the morning we got a phone call that Calvin had died of a heart attack. Mildred got on the phone to her sister Louise. Before she could even get a word out Louise said, 'it's bad news isn't it?" She'd had the exact same dream about Calvin."
"Well it's a sad tale Colonel, but surely coincidence explains it." Charles said.
"Not to me it doesn't…." The Colonel muttered back.
"So I've got bad news….and bad news." Klinger said walking back into the room, "The generator's at half power but the bullets are at full strength. There's more wounded in the compound."
"Alright Klinger, you see to it that every unnecessary light in this camp is doused pronto!" The Colonel said, as the corpsman took his patient to Post Op, "I'm free. Who's coming with me?" He asked.
"Awww Colonel it's dark out there….." B.J. complained.
"Don't worry son….I'll hold your hand." The Colonel said, as they headed back outside.
"So my uncle is way out to sea." Hawkeye said from the other end of the room, "His compass is broken, there's no radio and there's this storm coming up. Through the fog he sees this old fishing boat, The Luck of the Irish, chugging along like it knows where it's going, so he follows it. And what do you know? it leads him safely back to port. As he's tying up, the boat turns around and goes back out into the fog."
"Oh…I'm all aquiver." Charles said dryly.
"I'm not finished yet." Hawkeye said, "The next day when my uncle told the Coast guard how he found his way back they told him The Luck of the Irish had broken up and sunk 20 years before."
"Oh come on Pierce….we're all adults here." Charles said, "clamp." He said to Ellie Marie.
"Wow…20 years." She said.
"No, not in 20 years, now." Charles replied.
"I don't know about you Charles…but that definitely made my skin crawl." Margaret said.
"Good! Have it crawl over to my place tonight." Hawkeye quipped.
"You haven't got a prayer, even with the luck of the Irish," She shot back, handing him a scalpel.
"Ugh….you know it doesn't matter how long I do this, this is the kind of thing I'll never get used to." Hawkeye muttered, as he looked down at his patient.
"What is it?" Margaret asked.
"This protruding bone…it can be completely removed, and he'll be better off without it."
"I don't understand…"
"It's not his. Probably belonged to the guy in front of him, and the mine explosion drove it into this guy's leg like a spear."
"Oh my God….." Margaret whispered.
"More wounded in the compound! They're litter to litter!" Klinger said.
"This kid would rather I didn't leave right now." Hawkeye said pointedly.
"B.J. and the Colonel have triage covered but we also got injuries from Rosie's starting to trickle in." Klinger explained.
"Oh lovely….a side of idiocy with our infantry." Hawkeye mumbled.
"Captain Klinger, Colonel said that if they can spare you he'd like you to go to pre-op and take care of superficial drunks." Klinger said to Ellie Marie.
"Captain Klinger….that's still strange." Margaret commented, with a slight shake of her head.
"I know, half the time I expect to look up and see our original Klinger wearing Captain's bars…." Hawkeye agreed.
Ellie Marie took off her gloves and tossed them in the disposal bin, and then untied her surgical gown.
"Baker, the Major is about to close. Come take over for me." She said, and she walked to the end of the room and into the pre op. There were several Marines sitting against the wall. She went to the one who seemed to be bleeding from his head. As she did she noticed the dead soldier who'd been brought in laying in the far corner of the room.
"Collins!" She called to one of the corpsmen who was just leaving the room, he turned back quickly.
"Yeah Cap?"
"Go find a sheet to put over that poor kid would ya?" She nodded to the body, "let's give him a little dignity."
"You got it." Collins said, as he walked out the door. She turned back to the injured marine.
"Hey there soldier. I'm Captain Klinger and I'm gonna be taking care of you. How ya doing?" She said, tilting his head back to look at it.
"I guess I bumped my head, Doc." He said.
"Whew." She wrinkled her nose, "Smells like you had a few dozen drinks to kill the pain."
"Well…us Marines were just having a little party." He explained.
"Yeah, I know I caught the beginning of your little party." She said, dabbing iodine on the gash on his forehead.
"Oh yeah! you were down at the bar weren't ya? I remember, you were hanging out with the squirrely company clerk that works here. What's his name again?"
"Corporal Max Klinger." She said, as she prepared the anesthetic injection.
"Klinger yeah….hey wait, didn't you say your name's Klinger too?" He winced as she gave him the injection.
"Yes I did…." She replied.
"So are you like his sister or somethin?"
She paused in threading the needle for his stitches and looked at him with a raised eyebrow.
"Do I look like his sister?" She asked.
"Well…no not really…but it's just a weird coincidence, you having the same last name and all."
Ellie Marie sighed and shook her head as she began stitching the gash shut.
"There are other reasons for two people to have the same last name Sergeant." She said.
"Oh yeah, like what?"
"Like marriage…I'm his wife." She said pointedly.
"Oh! Yeah I guess that'd do it huh?" He said with a sheepish grin, and she chuckled.
"So you wanna tell me how you got this little trophy?" She asked, as she continued stitching.
"Well me and this Corporal decided to have a little jeep race, backwards."
"Of course you did." Ellie Marie muttered.
"Boy oh boy…..don't ever race a jeep backwards Doc."
"I'll try to remember that."
"It was going great! I was ahead….or maybe it was behind? Either way, this dumb chicken got in the way! So I swerved to miss it, and I did! Unfortunately, I ran over the whole chicken coop."
"That's rotten luck." Ellie Marie said, as she tied off the last stitch and reached for a bandage.
"It's ok…I won anyway. Just got a few shell fragments." He winked at her and she couldn't help but laugh.
Ellie Marie took care of the other three Marines quickly, none of them were serious. There was a concussion, a dislocated shoulder, and a case of severe alcohol poisoning. Once she'd given them each medication and gotten them comfortable she walked around the building to scrub in once again and headed back into the operating room.
"Alright I'm back." She said, "all mutton headed Marines have been placated for the time being. Bigalow how long since you had a break?"
"A few hours." Bigalow answered.
"Alright I'll work with the Colonel when they bring in his next patient. You go take a half hour and get some food."
"Thanks Captain." She said, and she took off her gloves and headed for the doors.
"The way I see it, the army owes us all so many coffee breaks, we should get 1953 off." The Colonel said as she came to stand beside him. "What have we got here?" He asked, as they brought in the next patient.
"Shoulder wound Doctor." The corpsman said.
"How do you feel?" Ellie Marie asked the patient gently.
"I'll live." He replied.
"You sure will," Colonel Potter said, "don't you worry. I've never lost a patient."
"I never lose anything." Hawkeye said from behind them, "Hey has anyone seen my stethoscope?"
"You just hang in there son…" Colonel Potter said, as they put the soldier under.
"Do we have X-rays on him?" He asked.
"Affirmative." Klinger said, "coming right up sir." He walked back out of the O.R.
"He's so thin they probably just held him up to the light." Ellie Marie said quietly, looking down at the soldier's emaciated frame.
"Anyway as I was saying…." Margaret said, "After her husband's funeral. She decided to take a picture of the car wreck, for insurance purposes. When the photo came back from the drugstore, standing in front of the car was her husband…wearing the suit she'd bought to bury him in."
There were appreciative ooooos from all around the room.
"You know what's frightening? That so many idiots could be in one room at the same time." Charles said.
"Doctor, his pulse is irregular," Ellie Marie said quietly to the Colonel.
"What were his electrolytes like?" He asked.
"They said he didn't get any in pre-op."
"Everything ok Colonel?" B.J. asked.
"It's this skinny boy they just brought in." He said, "We put him under and now he's got an arrhythmia."
"If he had any dysthymia, he shouldn't have passed his army physical." Ellie Marie pointed out.
"Well there's no time to call his draft board. We gotta get him stabilized. Better draw some blood and get a set of electrolytes. Take him back out to pre op and have them monitor him, and let me know if he improves."
"Yes, Doctor." Ellie Marie said.
"Hey guys….it's your friendly neighborhood broken record…" Klinger said, trudging back into the O.R., "we've got more wounded."
"Dammit." Colonel Potter said, as he took off his gloves and headed back for the compound.
———
"How's the kid?" Colonel Potter asked, a little while later as Ellie Marie was doing a pre-op check.
"He's a little better." She said, "we got his test results back. His electrolytes are lousy, and his potassium's really low."
"That doesn't surprise me…" The Colonel said with a sigh, "The kids about 20 pounds underweight."
"Malnutrition?"
"That's all I can figure…we gotta get some food in this kid."
"It'll be the first time the mess tent saved a life." Ellie Marie commented, and they both chuckled.
"Well come on, we'd better get back in there." He said, and they walked back through the O.R. doors just as Klinger walked in from the other end.
"I don't wanna hear it, Klinger." Colonel Potter grumbled.
"I don't wanna say it sir…" Klinger replied sympathetically, "we got another Marine out here, but this one looks like he might need a Doctor."
"Oh goodie…." said Charles, who'd just finished with a patient, "another Haloweenie. Elllie Marie why don't you come with me, I'll examine him and if it's simple enough you can take over."
"Yes, Doctor." She said, following him to Klinger's office where a Marine sat with his hand wrapped in a bloody towel.
"Guess I had a little accident sir." He said.
"Of course…you were dropped on your head as a child. But what happened recently?" Charles replied, as he unwrapped the towel.
"I sure made a mess of my hand…." The man said, wincing as Charles examined it.
"I hope you got the license number of the jaw that jumped in front of this."
"It wasn't a jaw. It was a fan." The man replied, and both Charles and Ellie Marie looked up at him.
"A fan?" She repeated.
"As in a rabid admirer?" Charles asked.
"Nope, an electric fan." The man said, "I bet this guy at Rosie's I could stick my hand in it, and pull it out before it got all sliced up."
"Congratulations." Charles said, "You've just answered the question, 'what is the lowest form of Marine life?' Well….you're lucky. there doesn't seem to be any tendon damage. Nurse Klinger here is gonna take you through those doors over there and fix your boo boo."
"Hey wait….I thought he was Klinger." He pointed to Klinger sitting at his desk, Ellie Marie sighed.
"Not this again…." She muttered, "yes soldier…..He's Klinger, and I'm also a Klinger…..there's this thing that happens when boys and girls love each other. I'll tell you all about it while I fix your hand." She spun him around and they walked towards Post Op.
"Ellie, just for the hell of it, why don't you have his head X-rayed when you're done." Charles said, "see if anything shows up…."
A few hours later Ellie Marie made her way back into the Post Op carrying a small plate, and took a seat next to the man she'd worked on with Colonel Potter, she now knew his name was Corporal Scalla.
"Hey, I brought you something." She said with a smile, holding the plate out, "Voila, the last piece of pumpkin pie! I almost took enemy fire myself trying to get it for you!"
"Take it away…." Scalla said gruffly, not looking at her.
"Tony, you're suffering from malnutrition. You really need to eat something." She said gently, "go on, it's actually really good." She held it out towards him.
"I don't want it!" He snapped, and he shoved the plate out of her hand, sending it tumbling to the floor and shattering.
"Hey! What gives?" She asked sharply.
"Nothing." He grunted, crossing his arms.
"Look, I know the food here stinks. But nobody does something like that without having a reason." She said calmly, "So how 'bout you talk to me, ok? Whatever's bothering you isn't gonna go away unless you get it out in the open."
The man closed his eyes and took a deep shuddering breath, before nodding.
"A couple weeks ago." He began quietly, "we were in heavy fighting near Heartbreak Ridge. We held off the Chinese assault for days. They threw everything they had at us, even hand to hand combat, but we stood our ground. When they finally withdrew, our C.O. was real proud of us. He thought we deserved an early Thanksgiving so…" He took another deep breath and shook his head, "we got some turkey sent down special" he gave a small brittle laugh, "even had stuffing. So Bertleson, Wooster, Greenwade and me, found ourselves an empty foxhole, and started to chow down. It was the first real laugh we'd had in weeks. I ate real fast you know? I didn't want to miss out on seconds. I was standing in the chow line….getting my tray loaded up again….when all of a sudden there was this artillery burst…." He took another deep breath and squeezed his eyes shut, "J-just for a second….you know?" His voice began to tremble, and Ellie Marie reached down and slipped her hand in his, letting him squeeze it as he continued, "When I ran back to the fox hole….my buddies were dead! Every one of 'em." A strangled sob escaped his throat, "They all looked so surprised….I'd be dead too. If I hadn't been such a pig." He began to sob and Ellie Marie pulled him into a hug so he cried on her shoulder.
"And you haven't eaten since, have you?" She asked quietly.
"I can't even look at food." He sobbed. She held him there for a minute or so, and when he finally calmed, she pulled back so she could look at him.
"Tony…." She said gently, "I'm not going to pretend I know how you're feeling. I can't even imagine it. But there are a few things I do know. One is that it wasn't your fault. It could have just as easily been one of your buddies that got up for more food. War is full of horrible things that feel absolutely pointless and random, and sooner or later they catch up with everybody. The second thing, is that if you let yourself waste away and die because of this guilt, you're just adding another horrible and pointless thing onto the growing pile. Do you really think that's what your buddies would have wanted?" He sighed deeply and shook his head.
"No, they'd probably kick my butt and tell me what a dumb ass I'm being if they saw me right now." He said with a small smile.
"I know it's not as easy as just eating again. But I know a pretty amazing guy, his name is Dr. Sidney Freedman. He helps people work through stuff like this. Do you think maybe you could talk with him for a while, see if he can help you?"
"I don't see how anybody could make me forget what happened."
"Nobody forgets Tony." She said, putting a hand on his shoulder, "The secret is learning how to live with it." He nodded to her and she gave his hand one more squeeze before heading back up the ward. As she did, Father Mulcahy walked in from the direction of the office.
"Hey Father. You look beat." She said.
"Boy those children ran me ragged." He said with a smile, "I heard things got a bit hectic around here too. Casualties?"
" A lot." She confirmed.
"Any deaths?"
"Just one, and he came in dead." She said, "Actually, he was Catholic."
"Is he still here? He should get last rights." The Father said.
"Last time I saw him, he was on the bed at the end of pre-op. He's probably still there unless Grave Registration got here already."
"Thank you Ellie." Father Mulcahy said, patting her shoulder and heading back through the office.
Ellie Marie sat down at the desk to finish filling out her paperwork, but was interrupted just a few minutes later when several voices started yelling all at once in the compound. She ran through the office doors just in time to see Hawkeye and Margaret charging past with a man on a stretcher.
"What's going on?" She asked, as they rushed past into the O.R., Father Mulcahy was right on their heels looking as pale as a ghost.
"The young man!" He said, "I stopped the truck so I could perform last rights, as I was, he took a breath!!"
"What??" Ellie Marie said in disbelief.
————
"What a night…." She said tiredly, as she filled two mugs with tea and brought them over to her bed, handing one to Klinger and keeping one for herself, "I can honestly say that was one of the wildest O.R. sessions I've ever had here."
"Me too." He said, "and I've been here way longer than you." He set his mug down on the side table and began to massage her neck and shoulders.
"Ugh…thanks love." She sighed.
"Anytime." He replied, kissing her shoulder, "you know this is actually an important milestone for us. The first O.R. shift from hell that we get to come home from together."
"Hey you're right…." She said, "too bad it also happened on our first Halloween together."
"I dunno….blood, guts, ghost stories…..the living dead. Seems pretty Halloweenie to me."
She laughed in appreciation.
"How crazy was that whole thing with the not dead guy though?" He said, "I can't believe Battalion aid declared him."
"I mean if you think about it, they're trying to do triage in the middle of literal hell up there, if a guy comes through with no pulse, no heartbeat, and looking like Swiss cheese, they're not gonna stop to double check."
"That's fair, but how come no one here checked him out?" Klinger asked.
"When we see a toe tag, we kinda assume that means they're done." She said, "Thank God for Father Mulcahy."
"Well I mean…..he's kinda his right hand man." Klinger said, and she chuckled and leaned back to kiss him.
"So what do you think we'll be doing for Halloween next year?" She asked, leaning back against him as he slipped an arm around her.
"Hopefully not this again." He replied.
"Nope….we're thinking positive thoughts only." She said, "We'll definitely be in Toledo."
"Then….probably hanging out on my folks front porch handing out candy and trying to make sure the little neighborhood punks don't egg the house." He said.
"You say that like you weren't 100% one of those little neighborhood punks growing up." She teased, "how many egged houses did you average on any given Halloween Maxwell?"
"I didn't know I was supposed to be keepin' count." He said with a smirk. She ran a hand over her stomach.
"Maybe we'll even be cooking up little Max Jr by that point." She said, and he leaned slightly to the side to look at her.
"Oh yeah?" He said, with a quizzical eyebrow, "Max Jr. huh?"
"I'm thinking M.J. for short. You like it?"
"Nah….I love it." He said with a grin.