The Spirit of the Corps » Band of Brothers

27: Something Beginning With F

Mabs smiled up at Charlie, lifting a hand to shield her eyes from the sunshine behind her. "Just like Aldbourne," she said with a tiny laugh, "if we sit facin' this way."

Charlie wanted to smile. She really tried to force one. But her face didn't want to co-operate. Abandoning the effort, she settled herself in the long grass beside Mabs and leaned back against the wall of the crumbling building behind her. For a little while, the two of them just listened to the breeze.

Eventually, Mabs spoke up out of the silence. "Come on, darlin', let's play 'I Spy'."

Charlie didn't reply. She carried on staring out across the field, watching overgrown grass sway in the light breeze and clouds drag themselves slowly across the sky.

"Charlie," Mabs said, a little sharper. "I weren't askin'." When Charlie finally looked her way, Mabs forced a smile. "I'll start. I spy with my little eye somethin' beginnin' with G."

"Grass."

It was the first word Charlie had uttered since the last patient she'd seen to the previous day. The first word she'd spoken to anyone who wasn't dying since finding herself posted outside of the aid station on Utah Beach.

Mabs slapped her knee where it was propped up against her other leg and sighed. "Damn. You got me."

Charlie knew she'd chosen something easy to let her win. She didn't mind.

"Your turn."

Taking a moment to think, Charlie let her eyes scan the landscape. Behind her, derelict buildings were only barely standing up, some of them worse off than others. Shattered glass lay at the foot of every window, bricks lay scattered across the streets, and dried blood was stained across patches of concrete. All of the destruction hinted at the invasion which had taken place a few days prior, a shadow of the bloodshed.

Charlie wondered if the men from Easy who'd already been taken off the line had looked as bad as the men she'd seen yesterday.

"I spy," she started, then had to clear her throat to rid it of its scratchiness. She tried again. "I spy with my little eye something beginning with C."

"Charlie," Mabs guessed.

Charlie just barely cracked a smile. "No."

"Corporal," Mabs tried again, gesturing to a soldier crossing the street behind Charlie.

"No."

"Clouds?" Mabs asked, hopeful.

Charlie nodded.

Mabs grinned. "Yay! Okay, my turn."

They played a few more rounds. Mabs picked easy things that Charlie guessed immediately, mostly just trying to make her laugh. Charlie tried her best to find more abstract things to challenge Mabs with.

When it was Mabs' turn again she smiled to herself as she came up with her object. "Alright," she began, folding her hands together in her lap, "I spy with my little eye somethin' beginnin' with F."

Charlie rolled her eyes. "Field."

"No."

This surprised her. This was the first one she'd gotten wrong.

"Um..." She thought hard, chewing on her bottom lip as she considered what it could be. "Forest?"

When Charlie gestured to the cluster of trees on the other side of the field, Mabs laughed. "That ain't a forest. So no."

"France?"

"Nice try, but no."

"Flowers?"

"Nope."