The Spirit of the Corps » Band of Brothers

16: I Guessed Ten

All anyone seemed to be talking about for the next few days was the dance. Whenever Charlie walked past any local girls in the village on her way to and from the bus stop she heard excited discussions about things like dates and dresses and different ways to style hair, and whenever she and the other nurses ran into any of the paratroopers it seemed to be all that was on their minds, too. Her only reprieve, surprisingly enough, was when she was at home, for the nurses had very quickly exhausted all possible talking points about the event; living together and working together would have that effect, they'd all discovered shortly after first moving in together.

It was a Tuesday afternoon, three days before the dance on Saturday, and all four of the nurses were on shift together. Though usually they steered clear of the subject, bored of it by now, they found themselves discussing the social event on Saturday, if only because the jobs they were being given of late were mind-numbingly dull.

"How many date proposals have you had so far, Mabs?" Autumn asked a ways into their mindless chatter about how long the dance itself might last. She was taking inventory of each of the cupboards in the ward, even though no one had actually needed anything from any of them in the entire time they'd been working there, and shot a grin over at Mabel before turning back to her work.

Mabel laughed. "A few."

"How many?" Charlie prompted. As she changed the sheets on each of the beds - again, even though no one had actually occupied them in the past few weeks - she laughed quietly to herself, making mental guesses about the number Mabs would give. Her best guess was ten, give or take a couple.

"And we want names!" Violet added while she washed the floors.

No matter how seemingly inconsequential the jobs they were doing were, Lieutenant Maddox had insisted they do them, for they were jobs they'd be expected to do when they were eventually deployed overseas. Charlie supposed making the beds, as she was doing, taking inventory, as Autumn was doing, and cleaning medical equipment, as Mabs was doing, seemed plausible enough as chores they'd have to do in a field hospital, but she couldn't for the life of her work out why Violet had been tasked with mopping the floors. They'd be setting up hospitals in tents!

Violet seemed happy enough with her task, though, so Charlie kept her thoughts to herself and continued to put fresh pillowcases on the pillows of the bed she currently sat on.

"Let me think," Mabs said, in answer to Charlie's question and Violet's request. She laid down the scalpel she'd been cleaning in order to count on her fingers which made Charlie laugh, if not because that meant a fair few boys must have asked her then because of the fact that, even though Mabs was a certified mathematical genius, she still needed to use her fingers to count.

"Eleven," came Mabs' eventual reply.

Charlie cheered. "I guessed ten!"

Mabel mock frowned. "You think so little of me, Charlie."

Charlie laughed and rolled her eyes before turning to fluff the pillow she'd finally put the case on.

"Who are they?" Violet wondered.

Charlie glanced up at the sound of her voice, closer than it had been when she'd last spoken, and found Violet beginning to mop the walkway at the foot of the bed she was sitting on. When the two of them locked eyes, Violet widened hers comically large and pulled a face that showed the full magnitude of her disbelief that Mabs had been asked out that many times. Charlie giggled but she didn't honestly know why Violet was so surprised; if the paratroopers had one thing in common, other than the fact that they were all paratroopers, of course, then it was that they all loved Mabs.