The Spirit of the Corps » Band of Brothers

39: Says Who?

The early evening was as bright as midday as Charlie made her way from the bus stop to where the paratroopers' camp was set up. The sky above her was bright blue, the clouds snow white, and even the birds were chirping as if it was 1100 instead of 1800. As Charlie's heels clicked rhythmically with each step on the cobblestones and the chatter of locals filled the air, she let herself enjoy her peaceful evening walk. At some point in the not so distant future, such walks would seem like the biggest gift anyone had ever been given; Charlie wanted to commit every detail to memory so she could conjure everything up when she needed it most and pretend she was right back here, on a serene summer evening in a British countryside village.

It seemed inconceivable to think that just across the English Channel a war raged on, full of guns and bombs and terrible, terrible bloodshed. Over here, the mark of war was heavy on the air but otherwise easy to forget, now that she'd gotten used to the rationing and the blackout blinds and the soldiers wandering around in every array of uniform.

However, for all the soldiers wandering around now, trying to find one Charlie both recognised and didn't mind asking for help from was not nearly as easy as it had been the last time she'd come over to deliver the blood buddies lists. Last time, all of the company's NCOs had been gathered outside the barracks together, and then Chuck had taken her to find the then first sergeant, First Sergeant Evans, who had been killed along with Meehan in their plane on D-Day.

It still made Charlie feel a little bit sick to think of everyone they'd lost in France, even those she'd not known particularly well, like Evans. It didn't seem at all like they were really gone. Anyone could have come up to Charlie at any time and told her all of them weren't actually dead and that it had all been a big mistake and she would have believed them in a heartbeat. How the idea of death was still so unrealistic to her after experiencing the reality of war casualties first hand, she didn't know. All she knew was that when she thought about those faces they'd left behind in France, they still seemed to her to have too much life left in them to be dead.

In the interest of not sending herself into an existential spiral, Charlie turned her thoughts away.

So many replacements dotted the streets of Aldbourne it seemed to Charlie like near enough the whole company had had to be replaced. A lot of them she'd met at their inoculations the previous week, but even those she'd injected personally she struggled to remember the names of. Besides, after the way they'd acted with her she didn't particularly feel like asking any of them for help anyway.

But where were her friends when she needed them? She'd even have settled for an acquaintance.

Charlie's hands were starting to itch where they'd gotten sweaty and she hadn't wiped them, not wanting to give away her nerves to the replacements, and her stomach was starting to roll. It was such a silly thing to get worked up about that she wanted to punch herself, but she couldn't help it; after all this time and all these interactions, she still didn't much like speaking to boys she didn't know very well.

Just then, Bull Randleman came wandering out of the barn with a group of replacements following behind him like little ducklings, each of them hanging onto his every word and looking at him like he held the secrets to the universe. Bull didn't even seem to be aware of how they stared at him in such open admiration, he just puffed on his cigar and removed it whenever he had something to say to them, then placed it right back in his mouth and went on puffing.

Charlie's shoulders sagged in relief. While it was true that she didn't know Bull all that well, she'd met and spoken to him on a few occasions and wasn't worried about going to him for help; huge as he was, befitting his nickname, he was as gentle as Shifty. Soft spoken and laidback, Charlie knew that if there was any acquaintance she wouldn't have minded going to, it was him.