The Spirit of the Corps » Band of Brothers

13: So Dark It's Almost Black

"Charlie," she said, shaking his hand lightly. It was the first time she'd ever touched a boy's hand - since Greg, her date to prom, had refused to dance with her. "Lancaster," she added her surname a second later. "Lieutenant Charlie Lancaster." She wasn't sure whether she was supposed to be using her rank with the soldiers so she decided it was better to be safe than get a reprimand from Lieutenant Maddox.

"Great to meet ya, Lieutenant," George said again, shooting her a wink after he used her rank. He placed his cigarette back in his mouth and spoke around puffing on it, "You mind if we sit?"

She shook her head and watched silently, bewildered, as the four boys squeezed themselves into the picnic table, three of them sitting opposite her and only George sitting beside her.

"Don Malarkey," introduced the one settling in opposite her. "Happy to meet ya, Charlie." He was ginger and spoke softly, and Charlie smiled back at him.

"You as well."

"Next to Don is Frank Perconte, and the fat oaf on the end there still trying to contort himself to fit into the bench is Joe Toye."

"Shut up, Luz," snarked Joe Toye without missing a beat, as though George joked with him often.

"Hi," was all Charlie said, and quietly, too, though all of the boys nodded at her in response so they must have heard her.

"Hey, whatcha readin'?" the one in the middle, Frank, asked. He pointed over the table at Charlie's lap, even though it was obscured from his view by the table, so Charlie gathered he must have seen the book when he'd been trying to get into the bench.

He had a thick accent which sounded like it was from Brooklyn and thick eyebrows, and though his face was screwed up in concentration she didn't get the sense that he was scrutinising her, just that he was genuinely curious.

Charlie drew the book out from her lap and offered it to him, and he took it readily.

"The War of the Worlds, huh?" he asked, looking down at the cover. He flipped it over and scanned the back. "What's it about?"

Charlie blushed, suddenly feeling silly about her choice of book. "Um, an alien invasion of Victorian England."

"No shit?" Frank answered, turning it around to look at the cover again. "It any good?"

"I'm not very far in," she confessed. "But it's quite good so far."

"Can I borrow it after you finish?" he asked, and her shoulders relaxed. Looking at him and how he looked back at her, she could tell he actually meant it. He wasn't making fun of her, so she let a slow smile spread across her face.

"Even if it's bad?" she asked.

"Yeah," he agreed.

"Then yes," she said.

"Cool." He was nodding to himself as he handed it back to her, satisfied with their little deal.

"So, Charlie," began Don, the ginger sitting across from her, "how are you liking Aldbourne so far?"

Charlie smiled. She was glad they hadn't sat here to try to flirt with her and actually seemed to just want to talk. "It's beautiful," she said truthfully. "What do you think of it?"

"Different from home," he said, nodding thoughtfully. "But, yeah, it's nice. Little quiet but it's been better since you guys got here."

Charlie laughed when he winked at her. "Where is home for you?"

"Astoria," he replied easily. "Oregon. Yourself?"

"Lancaster, New Hampshire."

"Hey, you're not so far from me!" George exclaimed. Charlie got the impression he'd been desperately searching for a way to get back into the conversation. "I'm from Rhode Island."

After Frank and Joe Toye filled in where they were both from, too - Frank from, surprisingly, Joliet, Illinois, and Joe from Hughestown, Pennsylvania - George ribbed Don about being the odd one out in coming from the west.

A thought hit Charlie suddenly.

"Wait," she said, sitting up straighter. "Astoria, Oregon?" she asked, directing the question at Don.

"Yeah," he confirmed with a confused smile, "why?"

"Our CO is from Astoria, too," she said, shaking her head at the coincidence.

"Oh, yeah? Which one's your CO? The blonde, the redhead, or the short brunette?"

Charlie laughed at the fact he had the four of them memorised and yet he didn't even know their names. "None of them. Our CO never comes out with us. But she's brunette too - her hair's so dark it's almost black."

"She pretty?"

"Unfortunately." Charlie smiled at her own joke, though the boys didn't seem to follow.

"What's her name?"

"First Lieutenant Maddox," she said. Her smile failed just slightly at the thought of her strict commanding officer. "I think her first name is Henrietta, but she doesn't let us call her by her first name, so I could be wrong."

Don's jaw fell open. He looked like he'd seen a ghost.

"Hey, Malark," Joe called, leaning over Frank to poke him. "Pick your jaw up off the floor. You're white as a damn sheet."

"Henry Maddox," Don said, shaking his head as he came out of whatever stupor he'd fallen into. "You've gotta be shittin' me."

Charlie's eyebrows furrowed. "You know her?"

He shook his head with an almost bitter laugh. "Pale skin, brown eyes, hair so dark it's almost black? Yeah, I know her all right." He laughed again, though with a little more humour this time. "She's my ex-girlfriend."