All Things Nice » Band of Brothers

19: Cookies

"I come bearing gifts!" Posey declared as she stepped back into the barracks of Second Platoon. Her four days of Christmas break had sped by, and whilst she had been immensely sad to say goodbye to Mrs. Daniels and her lovely, cosy home, she had to admit she'd missed her friends too much to be too down about having to return to Fort Benning.

"You do?" Malarkey asked, hopping to his feet immediately.

Posey nodded, a grin on her face as she placed her bag on her bunk and dug through it for a moment before pulling out a large round tin which was supposed to contain sewing materials. Instead, when she removed the lid and held the container out for everyone to see with a flourish, the men of Second Platoon found something that suited them a lot better.

"Cookies!" they seemed to all cry simultaneously.

"My mom made them," she explained as she took two and set the tin on the floor, leaving the rest to the vultures. She'd had her fair share back at the house and on the train but they were simply too good to resist.

Her mum had, obviously, not actually made them, but Mrs. Daniels had insisted she take them back to camp and hand them out like a mother sending her child off to school on their birthday with sweets. She smiled as she sat on her bunk and listened to the chaos of men fighting over biscuits, recalling fondly how adamantly the elderly woman had pushed the tin into her hands.

"No, I can't take these!" Posey had protested, holding out two hands in an attempt to push the tin away.

"Why not?" Mrs. Daniels had challenged.

"I don't know - if they saw me carrying them they'd probably take them from me at the door!"

"So put them in your bag."

"Mrs. Daniels, how much money..." Posey trailed off, eyes gazing at the tin dreamily even though its navy blue lid was firmly shut.

When she glanced back up again, she found Mrs. Daniels' eyes had softened. "The rationing isn't so bad here as it is at home, dear. They didn't cost me nearly as much as you think, I promise. Flour and sugar and eggs are all still easy to come by."

"Even still..." She was an elderly woman who lived alone when Posey wasn't there and didn't have a job. Posey's mind was now less concerned with bringing the cookies with her than what it had costed the woman to make them.

"They give me extra money to look after you, dear, don't forget," Mrs. Daniels replied with a sudden edge of emotion to her voice. She took a short pause and managed to push back whatever sadness had overcome her. "Since I'm not actually looking after you very often anymore I get a whole lot more money than I'd have otherwise. I promise, you don't have to worry."

Posey nodded, finally relenting. "Okay."

"Share them with those two best friends of yours," Mrs. Daniels went on, smiling now, "as a thank you for looking after you. What were their names? Joseph and -"

"No, I'm Joseph," Posey cut the woman off, laughing. "Their names are Johnny and Eugene."

"Right. Well then share them with Johnny and Eugene."

As soon as the latter of them was through the door to the barracks, Posey did.

"Roe!" she called out to him.

He turned to look at her with the same furrowed eyebrows and pursed lips as he always did when someone called out to him, seemingly ever-surprised people noticed him at all.

Posey grinned and waved him over, digging through her bag all the while. "My mom made cookies," she explained, and shot him a look to impart that it hadn't actually been her mother. "I knew the others would have destroyed them in minutes so I kept a couple back for you." She finally found the smaller tin Mrs. Daniels had given her for the occasion and held it out to him with a smile. "Merry Christmas!"