All Things Nice » Band of Brothers

77: Trouble

Evening wasn't coming quietly today. There was nothing calm or beautiful in the dying of the light. Something lay on the air that didn't quite sit right, something that didn't bode well.

It was Posey's turn in the OP today, watching the line, and she was accompanied by Bill. The pair of them hadn't spoken much, for it was the kind of day where everyone seemed to share a universal feeling of lethargy, of being weighed into the ground, but even just having him there made her feel better.

She shifted in place, drawing her knees up to her chest and grinding her boots further into the frozen dirt in the process. She adjusted her gun where it was leaning beside her and kept her eyes on the line, her gaze sinking into the trees that surrounded the Germans, seeking out any activity. There was something unsettling about the knowledge that, over there, there were probably two people sat in their own OP staring right back at them. Posey tried to ignore it. If they moved she'd see them, and if they fired she'd fire back. The OP, under a makeshift tarpaulin roof, was one of the safest places to be on this side of no man's land.

Still, it was cold. Colder than cold. Posey wanted to laugh thinking of how she'd complained of the cold in Mourmelon - that wasn't cold, that was chilly. This was cold.

She shifted again, getting closer to Bill to share his body heat, and watched as her breath plumed out in front of her, a white cloud that looked a little bit like smoke. As a child she'd been fascinated by her breath in the cold, had held two fingers up to her lips and pretended to drag on a cigarette as she breathed. Now she had the opportunity to do it for real, if she wanted to - Bill was smoking beside her and she knew he would gladly give her a cigarette if she wanted one - but she didn't. Instead, she sat shivering, keeping her eyes on the line and trying to ignore the chattering of her teeth, the shaking of her hands, the aching in her ears.

Bill must have felt her draw closer for he lifted his arm for her without saying a word or even sparing a glance away from the line, and Posey smiled as she tucked herself under it. He was like a furnace, somehow, even in the freezing cold. She didn't know that he benefited even half of what she did from their sharing of body heat but he didn't seem to mind. He rubbed at her shoulder when she was snuggled up beside him, an attempt to generate warmth.

"I wonder if there are any other girls on the front lines of the war right now," Posey commented idly, still staring at where she knew the Germans were dug in. "I know the Russians have some but I mean girls disguised as boys. I wonder if anyone else snuck in."

Bill cackled, giving a shake of his head. "You gotta be outta your mind if you think there's a single other broad on the planet as batshit fuckin' crazy as you."

Posey grinned. "I'll take that as a compliment," she said, knowing it hadn't been intended as one.

"Yeah, do whatever you want with it," Bill replied, his shoulders still shaking with the impact of his quiet laughter.

Another silence fell upon them as they continued to watch the line. It was like watching paint dry but the stillness was infinitely preferable to having it be interesting. So, trying to be grateful and not resentful of how boring the job was, Posey kept her eyes forwards and watched the minutes tick by. Their watch would be over soon and then they could go back to their foxhole and stay there, see the night through tucked up under their blanket, as warm as they were going to get out here.

After a while of quiet, Bill spoke up suddenly. "Posey."

Her eyebrows furrowed at his abruptness. "Yes?"

"How'd you get 'Posey' from 'Josephine'?"

Internally, she cringed at the use of her Christian name. Externally, she retorted, "How do you get 'Bill' from 'William'? You should be a 'Will', really."