All Things Nice » Band of Brothers

68: Nostalgia

As it turned out, a forty-eight hour pass in Paris was not on the cards. Nixon had informed Posey as such after dinner one evening. All he could offer her in consolation, he'd said, was a twenty-four hour pass in Reims, which Posey accepted more to show him her gratitude at even having tried than out of actually wanting to go.

Still, when the date on her pass arrived off Posey went to Reims. If nothing else, at least it would get her as far away from Dike as possible for a day; that man was quickly getting more on her nerves than anyone else ever had, which was saying something, because Posey knew that she was no perfect saint where her temper was concerned.

Reims, she found, was actually rather beautiful, in a quaint as opposed to romantic way like Paris was. Stepping out of the train station and into the morning sunlight, Posey regretted that her friends weren't with her to appreciate it, too, but apparently they hadn't been able to spare that many men at once. For what reason, Posey had no idea, but the others would be taking their passes individually and on different days.

It was rather lonely being happy by herself.

Her first stop was the first café she came upon, a small but lively little place just around the corner from the train station. The coffee was delightful, so much better than the ersatz stuff the army gave them, but there was little to choose from in the way of food even now that most of France had been liberated, what with how extreme the rationing had been during the occupation.

Sitting by herself in that café, Posey was stuck wondering what she was going to do with herself all day. Her return train ticket wasn't until 2200 and the sun wasn't even all the way up yet. Biding her time as the city began to wake up, she drank cup after cup of coffee until she was buzzing with energy and decided she would find her way as she went along. That, after all, seemed to be something she had become quite good at.

The streets were just beginning to get busy once she finally departed the café and the world was now more awake. Posey set off on her way with a new purpose to simply enjoy what was around her. She was suddenly reminded that there was a great deal left to love in the world that had perhaps just been a little bit more difficult to find lately, but she was reassured that it was still there. Couples were still in love and children were still experiencing all the exhilarating firsts of childhood. The sun was still pouring an ethereal glow over the world and the birds still had things to sing about.

For all of this, however, the cold was still biting. Having had enough of walking against the harsh wind, she ducked into the first shop she found and exhaled a smile when she realised it was a bookshop. It felt like a lifetime since she'd been in one of these. All of a sudden she was transported back to her days in boarding school, recalling how grand the library had been and how much fun she'd had running down its aisles with her friends.

Boarding school felt like centuries ago, now. She had been a different person entirely back then, so much a girl where she was now so much a woman. Or a man, depending on which window you were looking through.

Posey let her fingers graze the titles on the shelf to her left lightly, unaware of the soft smile on her lips as she admired the way the gold lettering seemed to dance in the sunshine. It was an incredibly happy accident she ended up here, she reflected briefly as she searched the titles for something that caught her fancy, for she had read Twelfth Night so many times by now she was certain she could recite it from start to finish in her sleep.

The vast majority of the books were in French, which was a tad unfortunate, for despite the fact that Posey had had to learn French and study French literature at school she wasn't certain she was still at that level of fluency. Tucked away in a corner at the back of the shop, however, she happened upon a small section of English titles and all but beamed as she crouched to see them better.