Only a Paper Moon [ Band of Brothers ] 3

Chapter Six

January 21, 1946

Alice could not stop laughing. Her lungs heaved as she stood in Harry's kitchen. At her feet, half a dozen blackened cookies speckled the floor, crumbs all around. Kitty stood with her hands on her hips, hair a bit of a mess. But she smiled, trying and failing to stop her own laughter.

"I did exactly what you said!" Alice protested. "I swear. Kitty!"

"Clearly not!" She tried to sound stern, but it failed miserably. While Alice struggled desperately to keep it together, she just found her own resolve fading. Her laughter bubbled out before she could stop it. "Alice!"

With another cackle, Alice just sank to the ground against the cabinets. "I'm so sorry!" 

She was sorry. Kitty had given her very specific instructions for keeping an eye on the chocolate chip cookies. And in her defense, Alice had tried very hard to stick to them. Unfortunately, she'd then found herself wrapped up in a book that she'd found in Harry's house. And, then she'd forgotten the timer. By the time she'd scrambled over to the oven, the time they'd been cooking had doubled.

"If you hadn't scared me, they'd not be on the floor," Alice finally countered. But she couldn't stop the tears through the giggling. "Kitty-"

"Burnt cookies are no better on a plate than on the floor!"

Alice nodded, forcing herself not to smile. She nodded. "Right, right. Of course. I'm sorry."

Silence fell. Then Alice snorted, unable to hold back her giggles, and Kitty followed suit. After a sigh amidst her laughing, she bent down and she and Alice got to work picking up the shattered crispy cookies. 

"For heavens' sakes," sighed Kitty. But she smiled as they dumped the crumbs into the trash. "Now we'll have to start from scratch!"

A knock on the front door made them pause. Harry, Nix, and Blanche had gone out somewhere, Alice wasn't quite sure where. As Kitty went down the hall to see who it was, Alice stayed behind and tried to get the counters cleaned up a bit more. The cherry-red and white apron that Kitty had lent her already had stains of all sorts on it from their cooking but that didn't mean the kitchen had to stay that way.

Even as she heard Kitty at opening the door, she tried to stop the giggling fit that returned. The absurdity of it all, the completely black cookie crisps that had spilled over the floor, her own racing heart when Kitty had bounded into the kitchen, the way the tray had catapulted into the air. At first, she'd been scared to death at the loud band that Kitty had made with a couple of pots, but upon realizing it was not a grenade, she'd sheepishly stared at the failed cookies. And then she couldn't stop the laughter.

"Let me guess. Mr. Dick-"

Winters. Alice froze. As soon as he answered Kitty, she dropped the cloth she'd been using and scuttled into the hall. Dick Winters, dressed to the nines, hair neatly done and clean-shaven as he'd been all war, stood in the foyer with Kitty. "Dick!"

He glanced past Kitty and grinned. Wasting no time, Alice hurried down the hall and grabbed him in a hug. Her bright laughter subsided, replaced more by chuckles of disbelief. It'd only been a few months, but it felt like a lifetime since she'd seen him. 

"Alice. How are you?" He looked her up and down. Then he turned back to Kitty, also standing in her dirtied apron and her hair tousled. "Baking?"

"I've been baking quite well. Alice on the other hand? She needs some help."

"Hey!" She turned to Kitty. "Don't leave me with a book if you don't want me to read the book!"

Kitty just chuckled. "Read the book between taking the cookies out."