The Spirit of the Corps » Band of Brothers

08: Something in Exchange

It was when she was comparing Aldbourne and her current surroundings to how she'd imagined the small English village in Jane Austen's 'Emma' that she came upon the first of the paratroopers, though not the one she was seeking.

"Hello," she greeted, though the boy didn't look up. He was sitting by the open back of a van, his back against the side of a closed shop, counting what appeared to be bandages. "Excuse me?" she tried again.

The boy looked up this time, though the way his eyebrows lifted at the sight of her gave away that he'd looked up not expecting to be the one being spoken to.

"Hello," Charlie said again, suddenly unsure of herself.

The boy got to his feet and offered her a small smile before glancing around, as though expecting someone else to come and explain why this strange girl was talking to him.

"I'm Charlie," she said, then added, "that's irrelevant. I'm looking for the paratroopers' barracks?"

"Yeah, you're headin' the right way," replied the boy in a much deeper voice than she'd expected of him, and much more Southern an accent, too. "It's right ahead," he went on, gesturing further down the road in the direction she'd been going.

"Oh, really?" Charlie asked, feeling stupid for having had to ask. "Sorry to bother you, then!" She felt her palms sweating and tucked them behind her back, fiddling with the back of her uniform.

The boy shook his head. "Nah, it's no trouble." He glanced around once more before smiling that tiny smile of his again, looking like he was afraid to smile too wide in case he scared her off. "I'm Gene."

"Gene," Charlie repeated with a nod, trying the name out for size and testing how it suited him. It didn't, really, she didn't think, but she smiled all the same. "I'm Charlie." Then she grimaced. "Which I already told you." She searched for something else to say to cover her awkwardness then zeroed in on the armband around his left arm, white with the corner of what looked like a red cross peeking out, though mostly hidden from the way he was facing her. "Are you a medic?"

He nodded.

She smiled. "I'm a nurse," she declared.

He laughed lightly. "Yeah, I kinda figured."

They both looked down at her work uniform at the same time, and she was sure her cheeks were positively crimson.

"Right," she acknowledged. "Well, I suppose we might be working together at some point, then." She didn't know why she was still talking, he'd given her directions and now she was supposed to use them, but she kept wanting to hear him speak, kept wanting to prompt him to smile at her just a little wider than he had the time before.

"Yeah," he said. "Prob'ly."

She nodded, gazing back at him until he looked away and rubbed at the back of his neck, looking at anything but her. In his other hand he fiddled with one of the bandages he'd been counting before and she realised very suddenly that she was keeping him from his work and he was just too polite to tell her to go away.

"Well," she said, perhaps a little bit too loudly into the silence that had fallen over them, "this way, right?" She gestured the way he had and laughed awkwardly when he nodded.

"Yeah, just straight ahead."

"Okay, perfect," she said. Her feet seemed to be glued to the spot. "Wonderful," she went on. "Great."

He finally dragged his eyes back to her and shot her a quizzical look. "Did you want me to show ya?"

"Oh!" Charlie shook her head vigorously. As much as the answer to that question was indeed a yes, she had enough social awareness to know that he didn't actually want her to take him up on the offer, and this encounter had already been embarrassing enough. "No, thank you. I'm sure I'll find it."