The Spirit of the Corps » Band of Brothers

116: Have to Go Home

"I made cookies!" Floyd's mother declared before Charlie had even had a chance to close the front door. Out in the street behind her, her driver was pulling away, heading to the train station upon Charlie's request to get her a train ticket back to New Hampshire. It had started to snow and Charlie was doing her best to ignore it, brushing snowflakes off of her sleeves and out of her hair.

Charlie made quick work of taking off her shoes and placing them in the same spot as before, beside the scuffed shoes she now knew belonged to Floyd, for he placed them there a second before she did. She removed her coat, hat, and gloves as she followed Floyd into the house, Rosie scampering along in front of them with her leash still dragging behind her.

"Rosie, stop," Floyd attempted to halt her. "You've still got your leash on!"

But Rosie was not to be deterred from her quest of discovering where the smell of the cookies was coming from.

"Floyd told me that you like chocolate chip cookies. Is that right, Charlie?" Mrs. Talbert asked as they came into the kitchen.

Charlie darted a surprised glance at Floyd, whose face was hidden from her view while he took Rosie's leash off. After a startled beat, she replied, "Oh, um, yes. That's right. But you really didn't have to -"

"Shh," one of Floyd's brothers cut across her, the same one who had laughed in the living room before. He was sitting at the kitchen table beside a woman who might have been his wife, who looked at him with furrowed eyebrows as she waited for him to explain himself. "If you being here is gonna make the woman make cookies then I think you should stay for a good long time."

His wife, a pretty woman with blonde hair of around thirty years old, swatted at him. "John!"

"What?"

Charlie laughed as Floyd returned to his full height and came to stand beside her. "This is my brother, John, and his wife, Alice," he introduced them.

"It's a pleasure to meet you both," Charlie greeted them with a polite smile.

"You as well, Charlie," Alice replied warmly. John just grinned at her.

Rosie dashed around the legs of the table, weaving around various sets of legs and feet, and Charlie remembered what she'd said to Floyd about Trigger. "Oh, I've just realised I left my bag in the car and now I've sent my driver off," she told him. "I'll have to show you the pictures of Trigger when he returns."

Floyd nodded. "Sure," he agreed.

"Who's Trigger?" John asked curiously, though his eyes were on the plate of cookies Mrs. Talbert was bringing to the table.

"He's a dog me and Charlie looked after in Holland," Floyd explained. He looked around the small kitchen. "Where's everyone else?"

"Your father and Robert went out to buy the last of the food for tomorrow, Julia is in the bathroom, and Harry's upstairs with Louise," replied Mrs. Talbert.

So many names. Charlie's head was spinning.

"Don't call them down," John warned, reaching for a cookie before Mrs. Talbert had even set the plate down. "That's what they get for spending the whole day upstairs having -"

"John!" Alice scolded.

Mrs. Talbert batted her away with a jovial roll of her eyes. "John, must you be so crude when we have a guest here?"

"If Charlie here really did serve in the war then I'm pretty sure she's heard worse than that, Mom," John replied with a wink in Charlie's direction. "If she's Floyd's old flame then she's probably -"