Ad Astra Per Aspera [2] - Band of Brothers

9 | edelweiss

" Tears are words that need to be written."

- Paulo Coelho

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It was to be, the 8th would be the AWOL date. Frank managed to snag a bed beside Hazel's, and the happy trio turned to four and Frank made quite the impression on Amelia when she had to change the bandage on his butt. It was quite funny, but Amelia had seen it all before and had laughed it off. It was the least of her worries with Mr. Frank Perconte.

Frank integrated in with Hazel and Jem perfectly and Amelia knew she could always find the group together doing something around the hospital. The group talked on and on about everything under the sun, and they were the group that attracted other wounded soldiers over to get in on conversations. It brought a bit of light to everyone's dark days in the hospital.

Jem always wound sing along to the tune of the songs on the radio, but his favorite was I Don't Want to Set The World On Fire by The Ink Spots.

And he was good, really good.

He had that soulful, rasp to his voice, like Joe Toye's and Jem always had the goofiest smile spread across his face as he sang the little tune. But it warmed Hazel's heart, and it made everything at the hospital seem less depressing as it normally was, with the amount of wounded and death that walked like ghosts through the halls.

That night, the 4th, 4 days before the AWOL date, Hazel, Jem and Frank were sat on their beds, doing their own thing for the evening. Hazel had finally sat down to write a letter to her mother, to finally tell her what happened and to let her know she was okay, that she was alive and well and healing.

Most importantly, happy. She was closer to God, her faith and she felt better, better than she had in the beginning of being in the hospital.

Mom,

I hope this letter sees you well. I'm writing from a hospital near Epinal, France. If that second sentence scared you, don't be, I promise you. I am well. I was wounded in Bastogne, by one of the shellings that we received daily, but I am okay. I've been healing up better than they thought I would and I've been eating and drinking water and sleeping the best I can, and I've been warm. My nurse, Amelia Beckett has taken the best care of me that I feel I could've ever gotten and she's become my friend while I've been here. We've talked for hours before and she's just like one of the girls.

Being here has made me respect the medics even more than I already did, seeing what they deal with, what they have to go through, all of it. I honestly can't imagine having to do their job, they're all so brave and absolutely fearless, I admire them all so much. Over the time I've been here the past few weeks, I've gotten to know a man by the name Jem Rossi, from Pennsylvania. He got wounded just like I did but he's in the 82nd and we've really bonded over so many things. He struggled in the beginning, just like me, but we helped each other out a lot, trying to get ourselves back on our feet and moving even if it took a bit, and we're already seeing huge differences, good differences. It's a nice feeling to have a friend to go through things like this with you. And then guess who showed up, Frank Perconte!! He took a bullet in the butt in Foy supposedly and ended up in the hospital before being transported here. I had never been happier to see an Easy Company man walking down the hall with a bullet wound in his butt. I swear you'd love to talk to the man, you'd get along well.