Anamnesis [Lacuna #2] {Completed}

Chapter Three

"Udal Cuain (adj.) To be tossed around by the ocean."

June 1943

"Ugh, I'm going to throw up."

"I'm not cleaning up anything that comes out of your mouth, McCall." Bucky responded without sympathy.

Bucky and Matthew were sitting at a table in an abandoned recreation room bellow deck, each lost in their own book. Bucky was still reading Great Expectations but Matt, or Matty as Buck had taken to calling him, had moved on to another book about some science topic Bucky had no knowledge over.

It had been three days since they set sail for England and the soldiers of the 107th didn't have a lot of down time. Breakfast was at 08:00, lunch at 13:00, and dinner at 18:00. In between meal times, their days were filled with training and doing various chores above and bellow deck. The first few days were so tiring Bucky was often asleep before his head hit the pillow.

The time they did have to socialize was during meals. Bucky quickly realized that Matt wasn't a man of many words. Surprisingly, it was a welcome change from his friends Tim "Dum Dum" Dugan and Gabe Jones whom Bucky had spent some time with at his training camp.

In the days that past on their journey to Europe, Bucky learned more about his bunkmate. Though he didn't talk as much as all the other men, Matty would often ask Bucky a lot of questions about his life in Brooklyn, his family, and the other things he liked to do and Bucky always asked him the same.

Matt's father, Jacob Frazier McCall, emigrated from Scotland to the United States with his mother and older siblings before Matt was born in 1923. Bucky thought Matt was younger when he had first seen him, but when Matt told him his age, Bucky could hardly believe it. He didn't think he was that young.

Matty's father was a master cobbler and owned a small shoe shop in Boston that had been lucky enough to survive when the recession hit in 1929, but it had cost them things Matt didn't want to discuss.

He had an older brother, Jacob Jr. who was his father's apprentice and would someday take over the shop. He also had an older sister, Libby, who was married to a banker in Boston. She had just had her first child shortly after Matt had returned from training.

Matt was also as fond of books as he was at swimming. He had been the star swimmer on their high school team.

He didn't have the patience to be a cobbler, so Matt worked for a mechanic close to his father's store. He had been working his way through his first year of college until he was drafted just like Bucky.

They had only known each other for three days, yet Bucky already started to consider Matt a life long friend... If they both survived this. Though Bucky missed home, his family, and Steve, Matt seemed to fill that void just a tiny bit. It was nice to know he could sit with a friend and not be alone on this huge boat.

Tonight was their first night off, and unfortunately, a storm decided to confine them all inside the halls of the ship, tossing and turning them like a child shaking a giant snow globe.

This was when Bucky discovered another thing his bunkmate. Matt got very, very seasick.

"Come on Matty, it's just a little storm. The rocking should stop soon." Bucky didn't believe his own words. The storm had started late last night after they had all gone to bed and continued through most of today without any signs of letting up.

The only reply Bucky received was a groan.

Bucky watched Matty put his head back in the chair and close his eyes. "Talk to me about something," Matt suddenly asked. "Anything."