The Spirit of the Corps » Band of Brothers

35: Like Laughter After Tears

Before she'd gone to Normandy, Charlie knew there was no way Alton More and Don Malarkey would have convinced her to get on a stolen military motorcycle to go on a joyride through the countryside around Aldbourne. Before she'd gone to Normandy, even the idea of it would have made her want to hide in her room for days on end just to pretend she didn't live in a world where people, boys no less, asked that of her.

Now, she closed her eyes against the wind and smiled as her hair whipped behind her like a banner. She had no helmet to protect her and nothing to stop her from falling off besides her arms in a vice-like grip around Alton's waist, and yet she hadn't felt so content in a very long time. The sun was warm on her face, the men's cheering loud in her ears, and all she could think was that it was a shame previous-Charlie would have let herself miss out on all of this. Whilst so much of her innocence had died when she'd gone to France, so much of her inhibition had, too. And that wasn't a bad thing at all.

Charlie opened her eyes to the beauty of the countryside passing by her. Field upon rolling field went by in a blur of greenery, the road ahead of them getting thinner and thinner the further out they drove before they'd inevitably have to turn back. The journey was bumpy and Alton kept accidentally veering off of the road into the grass on either side of it, but Charlie laughed instead of worrying, feeling properly carefree for the first time she could remember.

In the sidecar beside them, Malarkey sat drinking from a bottle of beer, raising it in cheers to anyone they passed - generally farmers working in the fields. Every now and again he'd call something over to Charlie and Alton, pitching his voice loud to be heard over the whistling of the wind and the engine, and all three of them would laugh joyously at whatever stupid joke or exclamation of happiness he'd shared.

For the first time in so long, Charlie felt alive. Not simply a machine whose settings had been switched to saving men's lives, but a real life human girl who had so much left to enjoy of her life, so much left to experience in the world.

She was reminded starkly of how much there still was for her to love in the world.

She could hardly believe she'd ever forgotten.

Alton made a harsh U-turn as he drove them back towards Aldbourne. Charlie giggled wildly into the wind as the three of them were thrown sideways along with the motorcycle.

"You alright back there, Charlie?" Alton shouted to her.

She called back her reply in the affirmative and squeezed her arms tighter around his waist to assure him she was in perfectly good spirits. Her happiness was echoed back to her first by Malarkey, as he let out a cheerful hoot in the direction of the world laid out beside them, and then by Alton's whoop of joy to the road ahead.

When they started to make it back to civilisation, none of them toned down their cheering one bit. Malarkey continued to raise his bottle to the soldiers and civilians he passed and Charlie shouted with glee whenever she felt like it, just because she wanted to. Alton didn't slow down just because the roads were speckled with pedestrians and none of them cared that people grumbled their annoyance as they were forced to jump out of the way.

Turning a corner, the only warning they got about the big military truck headed straight for them was the honking of its horn. Alton veered out of the way at the very last second. They went careening down a small hill into the outskirts of Easy's military camp to the sound of the angry honking of the horn of the truck driver behind them.

Charlie threw her head back and laughed while Alton and Malarkey looked at each other and laughed in disbelief at their lucky near-miss.

"It's good to be alive!" Malarkey yelled as they went, his bottle extended high in the air.