Posted As Missing

Chapter Sixteen

Maria finished removing the stitches, all but the ones across the rounding of David's lip. She gently cleaned the inside of his mouth and tenderly kissed him. "I've got to get your lips into good working order, I want to enjoy them."

He ran his tongue around the inside of his lower lip, through the gap in his teeth and again up and down the line of toughened tissue, the scar lines inside his mouth. "This is so much better. I hope you don't mind if I practice using them on you as I regain control."

"Oh, please do. Can we go lie in the sun? Would it be safe?"

"There hasn't been a sound from Fritz for a long while now. Not since they lugged Herzog back across the slopes. It seems their camp is on this side of the stream, likely near the top of Feldberg. Much better than it being on our entrance side. How long ago was that? When they left. I've lost track of time. I've been luxuriating in all this caring attention."

"Has to be close to half an hour, now," Rachel said. "We haven't heard a sound, not even above us. They must have done a wide skirt around this place."

"Let's hope they keep doing that," he said as he removed his watch and began unbuttoning his shirt. "Last one out in the sun is a — is a — is the last one in the sun."

He shuffled out of his shirt, kicked off his trousers and stripped off his socks. Maria had already crawled past him, stepping out of her trousers as she ran. He watched in awe as she spread her arms and twirled around, spinning on quick little steps. Rachel soon joined her, and they ad-libbed a pas de deux in the sun.

David stood entranced for a long while before he picked up the top set of bedding, and without taking his eyes off them but fleetingly, he walked to the spot he had calculated the sun would leave last. He spread the blanket and sat enjoying the girls gracefully play.

Such beautiful creatures, this is more like the way people should interact. This is so far from the hatred, the violence, the mayhem of the war.

His mind continued spinning.

War is so stupid, What's this one about? A family feud? A grab for more land? Kaiser Wilhelm is King George's cousin. They are both grandsons of Queen Victoria, yet here is Wilhelm causing the deaths of hundreds of thousands of young men, mostly men, but also many women. Why? Pride, mostly. Too proud to back down from a bad decision last year in —

"You're off in a dream world again, David," Maria said, rubbing her sweat-glistened body against his as she sat beside him on the blanket. Her chest was heaving, juggling her breasts as she puffed to regain her breath from the dancing. "Where have you gone this time?"

He looked at her and shook his head, "I was hypnotised by your graceful movements, the both of you, together, unfettered, free, joyous, beautiful expressions of life, magnificent creatures moving in harmony." He stopped himself short of continuing into the darker thoughts which had followed.

"We had an enchanting dance, so carefree. That's what life is meant to be, carefree, uninhibited, sharing. You should have joined us."

"I'm not a dancer, at least not on the floor, though I've been told by people who've seen me climbing, that it's as if I'm dancing on the rocks. I prefer that type of dancing — it's also free and unfettered — we need to get out of this damnable war."

She gave him a hug and a light kiss, then lay beside him, and patting the blanket, she said, "Come, lie beside me, let's get some sun. It's beneficial to your wounds."

David sat looking at her, then he shifted position, turning to sit beside her knees as he scanned up and down her body, from her face to her thighs, slowly caressing her with his eyes, looking without pausing anywhere to examine as he continued up and down slowly. He watched each time he returned to her face as it grew into an increasingly sublime expression.