As the days turned into weeks at Camp Toccoa, Lieutenant Sobel was growing more disgruntled by the second. Not only had his plan to have both Margot and Annie gone from his company in no less than a week failed, but he was also beginning to see a shift in the way his men interacted with the females altogether. Despite his many attempts at turning the men against the women, some of the privates had begun to blur the distinct line he had drawn between the two genders; especially when it came to Private Kessler.
Sobel could pretty much see the wall of indifference slowly crumbling behind the eyes of Annie Winslow every time he yelled at her, told her she would never make it, and revoked her pass for little things like a loose hair in her bun or a wrinkle in her uniform. Margot Kessler, however, was a different story altogether and was slowly proving to be more of a challenge than the Easy Company CO had originally thought.
While little Annie's knees buckled under the pressure, Margot strived because of it. Every time Sobel upped the ante and demanded a faster time for the Currahee run, Margot completed the task with ease, often being one of the first to make it back to camp. When he asked the company to run Curahee in full uniform, rifles in hand, the girl cracked jokes for the full three miles up and three miles down. He even tried to scare her off by convincing the higher-ups she would make a good machine-gunner, hoping the physically demanding assignment would send her packing. No such luck. The determined girl ran at the challenge head-on and actually, to his utter disbelief, seemed to enjoy it.
Sobel wasn't the only one to take note of the tall North Carolinian's raw determination. Lieutenants Winters and Nixon, on more than one occasion, found themselves baffled by the woman's ability to keep up with the men. They promptly passed their thoughts onto Colonel Sink, who was pleased as punch to hear one of his female trainees was exceeding expectations. The things he heard about the second, smaller girl, however, left him feeling less than satisfied.
Every day when Annie woke up, she told herself she would do better; and while it was true that the blonde was slowly improving, the progress just wasn't fast enough for the likes of a paratrooper. While the young woman from New Haven worked her ass off each and every day, she had no clue there were talks of cutting her from the program.
●●●
It was pitch black outside, and even though Margot knew it was late, she wasn't sure of the exact time. For the past hour or so, she and the rest of Easy company had been marching in full gear down a gravel path while the rest of the Toccoa companies enjoyed their Friday night off.
Everyone in the company knew the twelve-mile march was just another way for Sobel to weed out the weak and altogether knock Easy Company down another peg or two, but no one said a word; no one until Bull Randleman had decided enough was enough.
"I'm gonna say something," Bull, who was a row ahead of Margot and two behind Annie, stated in a low whisper.
George Luz, who was much shorter than the tall, large man from Arkansas, scoffed. "To who?"
"Lieutenant Winters," Bull called out loud enough for every member of all three platoons of Easy Company to hear.
Recognizing the voice, Winters didn't even bother to turn around as he continued walking. "What is it?"
"Permission to speak, sir?"
"Permission granted."
Bull paused for a moment, fully aware of the eyes that were watching him like a hawk from all directions. Everyone was waiting to hear what he was going to say. "Sir, we got nine companies, sir."
"That we do."
"Well, how come we're the only company marching every Friday night, twelve miles, full pack, in the pitch dark?"
Winters sighed. He knew the men were being pushed to the limit each and every day, and while he vehemently disagreed with the way Sobel ran the company, he also knew it wasn't his place to question the decisions of his CO. "Why do you think, Private Randleman?" he finally asked.
"Lieutenant Sobel hates us, sir," Bull spoke out loud the words every member of Easy Company had been thinking since day one.
Slowing his pace, Winters shook his head. "Lieutenant Sobel does not hate Easy Company, Private Randleman." Winters pretty much completely lied before deciding to ease the tension with a light-hearted quip. "He just hates you."
"Thank you, sir." Bull took the comment as the friendly ribbing it was as the company broke out into small fits of laughter.
Annie, for the first time in what she thought must have been days, felt a smile creep onto her lips. Hearing the belly laugh from the man next to her, William "Bill" Guarnere, she too let a chuckle escape her mouth.
For the next ten minutes, the men laughed happily here and there as they told one another just how much Lieutenant Sobel hated them. "You know who he hates the most?" Malarkey asked the question before answering it himself. "Margot."
Good-natured laughs escaped Easy Company, Margot herself even joining in. "I swear, I think he glared at her for two minutes straight yesterday," Floyd Talbert, the rather handsome man from Kokomo, Indiana, commented. "He didn't even blink."
"One minute, thirty-seven seconds," Margot announced proudly as if it were an achievement. "I counted."
"No, no, no." Joseph Toye, who marched beside Margot, disagreed with the conclusion. "He definitely hates Annie the most. Every time he sees her he looks like he wants to throw himself off the nearest building."
Before long, what was once friendly teasing back and forth between all of the men, had quickly turned into the entire company, save Margot, recalling and laughing about all the times little Annie had messed up and made Sobel snap.
The men continued to chuckle at the expense of the small, blonde girl for the remaining duration of the march, only stopping when they finally made it back to camp. Annie felt her cheeks flush and tears well up in her brown eyes every time another one of her infractions or mistakes was brought up. If it weren't for the complete lack of light outside that hid her face away in the shadows, she was sure they would have also made fun of her for being so emotional.
Annie wasn't exactly sure why the men treated her so much worse than Margot, but what she did know was that she and the raven-haired woman were no longer a team. It wasn't the men versus the women anymore, it was everyone versus her.
Another thing Annie didn't know was that the woman three rows behind did, in fact, feel guilt and sympathy for her. Margot wanted to tell Annie that everything would be okay and that she would find her footing eventually, but she worried that it would jeopardize her growing friendships with the men. She had worked hard to get into their good graces and wasn't sure if she was ready to start from scratch all over again.
With the march completed, Easy Company lined up in even rows and awaited Sobel's unavoidable rant. "Lieutenant Winters, I want canteens out of belts with the caps unscrewed," the CO told Winters, who in turn relayed the instructions to the men and women.
"On my command, they will pour the contents onto the ground," Sobel continued as every member of the company grabbed their canteens from their belts and unscrewed the caps. "Now, Lieutenant."
On the command, the rows of Easy Company trainees upended their canteens, letting the water spill out and splash onto the ground around their feet. Eyes peeled for infractions, Lieutenant Sobel caught what he was watching for and jumped at the opportunity to yell at yet another private.
"Who is this?" Sobel barked as he stomped through the rows toward a man at the back whose canteen had been only half full. "Christenson." Sobel read the man's nametag, proving he still didn't give enough of a damn to learn the names of half of his company. "Why is there no water in your canteen? You drank from your canteen, didn't you?"
"Sir, I-" the Private began to explain.
"Lieutenant Winters," Sobel called.
Winters stood stiff as a board. "Yes, sir."
"Was this man ordered to not drink from his canteen during the Friday night march?"
"He was, sir."
Sobel's eyes didn't leave the man in front of him for a second. "Private Christenson, you have disobeyed a direct order. You will fill your canteen and repeat all twelve miles of the march immediately."
"Yes, sir." Private Christenson's somewhat confident facade hid the feeling of pure defeat as he turned and walked off to start the twelve-mile march all over again.
Stalking back to the front of the company, Sobel motioned for Winters to follow him and the two men moved a few feet away from the rest of the men. "What in the name of God are you doing with my company?" Sobel asked, his voice still loud enough for Margot to hear what he was saying clear as day. "You're late and you allow troopers to disobey direct orders?"
"No excuse, sir." Winters retained a composed demeanor.
"You're making me look bad, Lieutenant. This is not Dog Company. This is not Fox Company. This, this is Easy Company. And under my command, this will be the first and finest company in this regiment," Sobel declared before finally lowering his voice and saying something that only Winters could hear.
With the order to find six infractions and assign the guilty parties disciplinary actions, Lieutenant Winters watched as Sobel walked off and disappeared into the night.
●●●
The next morning, while Winters listed off to Nixon the names of the six men he assigned latrine duty to—for no other reason than it was their turns—Annie had just walked into the mess hall to grab some breakfast. The physically and mentally exhausted girl didn't even attempt to identify what was on her plate, and once she had her food, her eyes scanned the hall. She hoped to see Margot sitting alone somewhere so she could eat her breakfast with some company without fear of being ridiculed, but no such luck.
Margot was sitting at a table full of men, deep in conversation with Walter "Smokey" Gordon, who had been assigned her machine-gunner teammate. At first, the man with the chewing tobacco habit—hence the nickname 'Smokey'—was anything but pleased to find out his war partner was a woman. After the two had actually worked together a few times though, he slowly began to realize that maybe the green-eyed woman wasn't as incapable as he had originally thought.
Annie, who was once again subjected to eating alone, sat down at an empty table at the back of the room and lazily pushed her breakfast around with her fork. Not only had she not been welcomed as easily as Margot had, but she was also still one of the only few who hadn't received an assigned position yet. Margot and Smokey were machine-gunners. Eugene Roe, a quiet and kind half Cajun man from Louisianna, had been made a medic. George Luz was a radioman, and the likes of Guarnere, Malarkey, and Muck were mortarmen.
Annie had even gone to Colonel Sink personally to ask about a placement, but she was simply turned away and told that when they knew where to put her, she would be among the first to find out.
With her self-confidence diminishing rapidly and her determination being chipped away at day by day, the small girl really didn't know how much longer she could take being treated as if she didn't even exist. Maybe her performance at Camp Mirage had been nothing more than a fluke; a bout of good luck. Maybe Sobel was right. Maybe she didn't have what it took to be a paratrooper.