A Soldier of No Importance [ Band of Brothers ] 1

TWENTY SIX

Alice had spent the day reading letters written by her Company. She'd not had time to read many of the ones she'd been given on her birthday, and decided it was about time. Most of them were full of inside jokes, a bit of trash talk, and in the end well wishes. Most of them also came from her platoon. A few surprised her though. 

Several of the guys from Third Platoon had written one together: Shifty, Skinny, Grant, and Tab. She could immediately tell who was who even without their names. Talbert could give Guarnere a run for his money in flirting when he wanted to. Shifty stood on formalities. Both Grant and Skinny had kind words for her, though Skinny had more questions than the other.

After finishing up the letters, Alice disappeared from her barracks. She took some paper, several pencils, and her book. Several picnic tables on the far side of Fort Benning were rarely used, so she set up shop there. She had letters to write.

Several of the letters came easily for her. Despite the chilly air, she scratched her plain script across the page for each one. Mostly she wrote them heartfelt thank yous, and well wishes for the coming year. She tried to tie in anything they'd mentioned in the letter to her, so they knew she'd read it and appreciated it.

She found herself smiling over Skinny's note more than she expected. Every interaction she'd had with him had been pleasant, but those hadn't been all too common. Her Second Platoon boys overwhelmed pretty much all interaction she had around the enlisted men. But in his portion of the Third Platoon letter, Skinny had sounded genuinely interested in getting to know her more. "I'd love to grab breakfast with you, Skinny. Then maybe I can answer some of your questions in person!"

It surprised her how easily Ron Speirs' letter flowed. She just sort of poured out her thoughts, mostly cohesively. Alice told him about how she appreciated his friendship, his presence, his intelligence. He was calm unless provoked, unbothered by most things, at least on the surface. That stuck out to her a lot, and she told him so. She admired him for it. "I know this is probably a bit hypocritical coming from me. But, don't forget to have fun. Throw a few more snowballs in 1943."

But for some, words didn't come right away. George Luz's name scrawled across the page and stayed there, untouched, for several minutes. How in six months she had come to care for the man like she did, Alice honestly didn't know. After staring at the page, heart pounding, she set the pencil to it again. "When I arrived in America, I lost two brothers. But I gained a new one."

Lewis Nixon's also had her staring at a blank page for a while. Of all the officers, she considered him her closest friend. George had become a brother. Nix had become… what exactly, she wasn't sure: a confidant, an advocate, a smoking buddy, a source of morale, a partner in crime, someone who forced her to sharpen her mind? 

Alice sighed. She looked at the paper, what she'd written so far. She'd put in a few jokes about Yale, a few about Vat 69. She'd thanked him for the New York trip. She'd expressed a desire to meet Blanche. With a nod to herself, she continued on. Alice did her best to express how she felt, how grateful she felt for his friendship. With a smirk, she decided how to end the letter. "Last time I went out, I only gave the enlisted dances. You looked a bit miffed. Save me some of your secret Vat 69 stash and you've earned yourself a dance to start 1943."

By the time she'd finished her New Year's gifts, Alice almost couldn't feel her hands. The temperature had climbed into the upper fifties fahrenheit, but with the sun starting to go down, it had dipped. She looked down at the letters. Flipping through them, she looked at the names.

Alex Penkala. Skip Muck. Don Malarkey. Carwood Lipton. Floyd Talbert. Chuck Grant. Bill Guarnere. Joe Toye. Joe Liebgott. Skinny Sisk. Shifty Powers. Gene Roe. Johnny Martin. Bull Randleman. Pat Christenson. Frank Perconte. George Luz. Dick Winters. Ron Speirs. Lewis Nixon.