Evelyn's Tale

-Twenty Four-

22nd December, 1944

The first shelling of the day came early, awakening Evelyn from a fairly fitful slumber filled with upset and uncertainty about the future and her feelings. Ironically, it seemed that Liebgott occupied her thoughts more now than he did even when they were together, if that was at all possible. If anyone could hear the inner dialogue in her head she was sure that they would be absolutely exasperated with her. She was exasperated with herself for crying out loud. As a teenager she remembered her sister, Gina, moping about constantly whenever she would break up with one of her numerous boyfriends. Gina would talk about it all hours of the day and night, and heaven forbid anyone should mention anything that brought up a painful memory of the person she was grieving for. Once, Evelyn remembered a particular occasion when Gina had broken up with some guy whose parents owned the local laundrette, and when their father had spilt something on the tablecloth Gina had sobbed for over an hour because she would never be able to use the laundrette again. Not that Evelyn ever recalled her using the laundrette in the first place. Why would she when they washed everything by hand at home? Evelyn had rolled her eyes and decided her sister was ridiculously dramatic, but now she completely understood. Here she was doing a similar thing. The only difference here was that she didn't have the luxury of avoiding the places that Liebgott was in because she was stuck in the middle of war torn Europe with him. Plus, she was having to hold it all inside and pretend that nothing was amiss unless she wanted to get herself kicked out of the airborne. That was why when the shelling had started, it had given her a welcome reprieve from her thoughts. Not that she wanted anyone to be wounded, but by treating and tending the men she was distracted for the time being.

Miraculously, the only major wounding of the morning so far was Skinny, who had taken a huge chunk of shrapnel to the leg. Eugene had taken him into Bastogne to seek further treatment, with the promise of returning with more supplies. The meagre ones that Evelyn had managed to scrounge from Dog Company were fast disappearing. Everyone else had gotten away with tiny splinters of wood that just needed tweezing out. It was actually a task that Evelyn found bizarrely relaxing. Although the men having them pulled out weren't quite as keen. Lucky for them they didn't have to tweeze their eyebrows. They really would have something to whinge about then.

"Sure you don't want a drag?" Babe held the cigarette out towards her. She and Babe had been sitting in comfortable silence for the last half an hour listening to Bill's soft snoring as he tried to catch a quick forty winks. "It'll warm you up."

"No she don't," Bill answered for her as he opened an eye. So much for being asleep. Evelyn rolled her eyes at Babe who smirked. Bill's over protectiveness was actually something of a joke between Evelyn and Babe.

"Actually Babe, go on I'll try one," Evelyn decided, her eyes twinkling with mirth.

"Try one and I'll put you over my knee just like dad would if we were back home," Bill warned.

"Dad would do no such thing," Evelyn scoffed, thinking fondly of her father who had never raised a finger to her or any of her sisters growing up. He didn't believe in hitting females, even the unruly child variety. "And neither would you. Remember that time you caught Gina sneaking out with Sarah O'Malley to go late night dancing and you said you'd tan her hide if you caught her doing it again? You caught her literally the next day and when she actually gave you permission to hit her rather than have you tell mom and dad, you couldn't bring yourself to do it. Nor did you rat her out to them."

"Yeah well I'm a hardened soldier these days," Bill snorted, knowing full well that when it came to his sisters he was as soft as a fluffy pillow, even though he liked to pretend otherwise.

Evelyn motioned for Babe to pass his cigarette over to her. He glanced warily at Bill first, unsure of what he should do.

"Oh for crying out loud," Evelyn sighed, snatching it from his hands. "You don't need to check with him every time I wanna do something. He aint my frigging keeper."