The Soldier of Stars [1] - Band of Brothers

23 | the letter

" Our mere anticipations of life outrun its realities."

- Aesop

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The following morning was bright, with the sun out, barely a cloud or two in the sky. it was June 4th, 1944. The company knew that the time was coming close that they would be jumping soon. Into this unknown territory with a gun and a parachute or in some cases a medic satchel or a sniper. 

Hazel was expecting a letter from her dad now any day by this point. Her mother had informed her that he was sending a letter to her soon, and Hazel herself was not planning on writing back anytime soon. The pain she felt, which overwhelmed her entire being with the stress of that situation she tried to whole-heartedly to forget, was too immense to focus on with a jump occurring soon. But she figured he would send one now in case these were her last days on Earth. 

Whenever mail call happened in the past days, her head would whip around when she heard Vest call the names out, but it was never for her. She was waiting so expectantly by this point just to see her father's handwriting after all these years and hear what he had to say after so long.

" Three-day supply of K-rations, chocolate bars, charms candy, powdered coffee, sugar, matches, compass, bayonet, entrenching tool, ammunition, gas mask, musette bag with ammo, my webbing, my .45, canteen, two cartons of smokes, hawkins mine, two grenades, smoke grenade, gamma grenade, TNT, this bullshit," hollered Toye, throwing god-knows-what to the ground, " and a pair of nasty skivvies." Lizzie glanced his way from where she had set out all her medical supplies on a tarp on the tarmac. She smirked.

" What's your point?" Perconte asked the man next to him, as he whipped off his gloves.

" You know, this stuff weighs as much as I do. I've still got my chute, my reserve chut, my Mae West, my M-1." Toye said quickly.

" Where are you keeping your brass knuckles?" Perconte asked the man with a chuckle, standing to teeter off somewhere else.

" I could use some brass knuckles." Toye said with an upturned glance, where he caught Lizzie looking his way with a raised brow, which Joe smirked to. Lizzie slowly stood up and crouched in front of his tarmac again and raised a brow as she glanced down at his stuff.

" Guess I shouldn't be complaining, Doc, with all that stuff, you, yourself have to carry." Joe said as he glanced up at her. She shrugged a bit and glanced back at her own things.

" Eh, what's life without a little weight." Lizzie said, as Joe smiled at her.

" Right," he said.

" You heard about those leg bags though?" Lizzie asked him. Joe glanced up at her.

" Leg bags?" he asked her. She pointed to where George was with the leg bag.