Half Sick of Shadows » Band of Brothers [2]

39: Its Voyage Closed and Done

"The ship is anchor'd safe and sound, its voyage closed and done,
From fearful trip the victor ship comes in with object won;"
- Walt Whitman, O Captain! My Captain!

-

I see in the morning of the seventh of May with sunlight streaming in through the window and warm blankets pulled up to my chin. I can't help but just lay there for a while, listening to the birds chirping outside and feeling the warmth of the morning light on my skin. The war isn't over yet, but it almost kind of feels like it is.

When I come downstairs Will's already there, sitting on the sofa and fiddling with his radio (as always). When he hears me come in he looks up and sends me a small smile before picking up something he'd had sitting on the chair beside him. He holds the stack of paper out to me. My confession.

Taking it from him, I send him a small smile and utter my thanks before making my way into the kitchen and out into the garden, where I sit on the back step and contemplate the stack of paper now sitting in my lap. The events I detail in it seem like a lifetime ago, the time I wrote them not nearly long enough ago. I remember everything so vividly, both what I wrote about and my time in interrogation.

My fingers dance across the first page, my eyes not seeing the words really but unfocussing so I can gaze down at it as though perhaps it's a love letter I hold and not my confession to the Gestapo. A really extensive love letter. Then I smile to myself because perhaps, in a way, it is. I think my confession is more about everyone I know than it is about what I did. I think, above all, my confession is about family, the one I left behind and the one I found. Suddenly, for the very first time, I'm rather inclined to read it.

I'm broken out of my trance, however, when I hear the back door open behind me. I turn to find Tom standing there with a small smile on his face, and he holds out a hand to help me up. "Tab's here," he says. "Apparently he's got news we might like to hear."

I nod and get to my feet quickly; Floyd's the company First Sergeant now, and has been for a while, which means he gets information in advance of the other enlisted. Whatever he has to say that he thinks we might be interested in is something I definitely want to hear.

Tom leads me back through the kitchen, where I set my confession on the kitchen table, and into the living room, where Floyd waits with Will and Martin. When Tom and I come to stand before him to complete our team, he sends us each a smile in turn.

Floyd pauses and inhales a heavy breath. Then, he says simply, "The Germans have surrendered. The war's over."

I feel all of the air leave my body immediately and suddenly everything goes blurry. It's over. Those two words repeat over and over in my head. It's over. It's over. It's over.

I didn't think it would ever end.

Tom grabs me in a hug and that's when I start to cry.

"Jules!" he shouts through a loud laugh and I can't help but laugh too. He picks me up and spins me around and when he sets me back down again I hug him to me once more. "Jules!" he says again.

I laugh. "Tom!"

I'm still crying by the time I'm hugging Will, and even harder when I'm hugging Martin. I don't know where Floyd went but I presume he left us to go and tell the others. I don't think on it too long because I'm quickly pulled into the tightest group hug I've ever experienced.

"We made it!" Will cheers. Like me, he has tears streaming down his cheeks.

"We did it!" I add, my smile so beaming my cheeks are starting to ache.