Posted As Missing

Chapter Thirty-Five

"So this explains the fourth tent, the missing section. We've learned some valuable information here this morning. We've done much more observing than Fritz has. Let's keep it this way. Let's continue to observe, try to confirm what we're thinking. Some landjäger will help me see more clearly. And some water, it's become rather warm here in the sun."

They sat and savoured the sausage, each looking down at all four posts two or three times a minute to watch for any change.

"The Platoon Lieutenant down there seems a weak leader," David mused as he nibbled. "He appears to be making it an easy job for his troops to keep them happy, perhaps to keep them from grumbling and complaining or he could be doing it so they'll like him. Whatever the reason, instead of having them perform the task properly and effectively, he's compromising their position, reducing the country's security and denying his troops the satisfaction they'd have from a duty well done."

After a few more bites he paused and mused aloud, "Leadership is an interesting thing. Some think it is bossing people around. But some who are placed in positions of authority are afraid to lead and they do nothing but watch the chaos happen around them as they blame everyone but themselves. Leaders should inspire people to work with them to find ways to best accomplish the task."

"That's you, David. That last one's exactly you." Maria said.

David smiled, then pointed. "Here comes another train, three locomotives again at its head. I'll count the cars as it goes by." They watched the train descend the low grade along the river.

"Forty-three cars, plus the three engines," he said, as the last car hove into view. "That's a lot of war supplies. I can't imagine the cost involved in this stupidity. People are starving, and instead of feeding them, they're spending fortunes throwing metal across a line to kill and maim others."

Maria put her fingers on David's scars and looked at them through his two-week beard. "I hadn't thought of your wounds until now. Guess we've been too busy with Mama's ankle."

"I've also forgotten about them, reminded only by the missing teeth when I eat."

"The jaw? Is it still sore?"

"It's background now. I don't notice the pain unless I think about it, so I choose to push it from my mind."

"That's the thing, isn't it? I've just finished four and a half days of abdominal cramping, pangs and discomfort. I chose to accept it and push it into the background..."

"Cramping? Pangs? Discomfort? What's going on with you? Are you alright?"

"Perfectly normal. Some women are near incapacitated with their monthly bleeding. Fortunately, Mama and I can work through ours. I push the pain and the strange emotions into the background. Now with my new school and book learning, I wonder if some of the pain might be our deeper nature suffering the loss of another egg which didn't make it."

"I hadn't thought of it that way, Maria, but that makes sense. There is a grieving — I often sense a loss when I bleed. I've been through it near three hundred times. Each time is strange."

"I'm a tyro at it." Maria paused to calculate. "Barely sixty times, but each time is so different. Sometimes I gush, sometimes I dribble. Sometimes I feel rather bland, other times I'm very low. I guess it has to do with what else is going on. This time, I was amazed at how high my spirit remained. I've never seen it like that through a bleeding."

"Emotions, feelings of security, feelings of being loved, a sense of being protected," Rachel said. "These all have a big impact on your level of comfort with the dramatic changes which are happening inside you. Inside you both physically and emotionally. There's a lot of change in such a short time. The end of one cycle of life, the start of the possibility of another."