The Spirit of the Corps » Band of Brothers

17: A Little Birdie Told Me

The house was frantic by the time Charlie returned to it after work on Saturday. Maddox let her leave at lunch but she had to wait half an hour for the next bus, so it was three o'clock in the afternoon when she finally arrived home. But she wasn't all that worried; the bus didn't leave for Swindon until seven.

"I'm not going!" Violet cried.

Charlie rounded the corner to find her sitting on the couch in the living room, her arms crossed and a pout on her face, a textbook tantrum if Charlie had ever seen one.

"Aw, come on, Vi, don't be a spoilsport," Mabs teased, joining them after jogging down the stairs. Her hair was in rags - the same ones she wore to bed last night, Charlie assumed, from the state of them, though she supposed that meant her curls would hold extra well through all the dancing later that night.

"Look at me, Mabs," Violet complained. Her own hair looked as though someone had thrown a paper bag over it and then pushed her down three flights of stairs, though Charlie knew better than to say so. "My hair is a disaster!"

"Well," began Mabs calmly, "I'd have to agree, but it ain't nothin' we can't fix."

"How?" Violet whined. "How are you possibly going to fix this?"

"Come with me," Mabs ordered, holding out her hand to Violet.

Reluctantly, Violet stood up and took Mabs' hand, and the pair of them walked through to the kitchen to do goodness knows what.

To herself, Charlie mocked, "Hi, Charlie, how was work?" Then turned to the side as though she was talking to herself and answered, "Hi, guys. Work was good, thank you." She turned back once more and added, "Good," before Autumn came bounding down the stairs.

"Did you see Violet's hair?"

Charlie laughed. "What happened to it?"

"She tried to put it in rags but it was too short, so it just kind of went poof." Autumn indicated the size of it by creating an explosive gesture around her head. "I told her not to try anything different but she didn't listen, did she?"

Charlie only shook her head, still chuckling about the entire affair.

She went upstairs a little while later to begin the process of getting ready. Retrieving her shower equipment from her room, Charlie trekked back downstairs and through the kitchen to get to the garden, where their bathroom outhouse was. As she made her way through the kitchen she found Violet with her head in the kitchen sink, Mabs right behind her and rinsing her hair out.

Charlie shrugged and continued on her way without saying anything. She supposed that was one definite way to help with a hair disaster.

When Charlie returned from her shower, her wet hair dripping cold water onto the towel slung over her shoulders, Mabs and Violet were gone from the kitchen and the house was unusually quiet. Upstairs, she found everyone in Mabs' room, each holding two dresses up to themselves and deliberating together on which one to wear.

"Charlie," Mabs declared when she saw her lingering in the doorway, "which one do you think?"

In her hands were three dresses, one red, one black, and the other a rich, dark purple. Charlie couldn't tell what the details of each dress were with how Mabs was holding them but she knew instantly which one she favoured.

"The purple one," she said, pointing to it. "Definitely."

"That's what I said," said Autumn, who was holding an emerald green dress up against herself as she looked in the mirror.

"That's because it's your dress," Mabs replied with a laugh. She placed the other two dresses down on the bed and came to stand beside Autumn, holding the purple dress up against herself and shifting from side to side, trying to get a read on how it looked with her colouring.