Blood Lily Company - Afghanistan - Year 2

XXXII

Working on the holotable just made us find the three routes that our absent comrades could take to get home. And with the news of sudden unrest on the Dotard's side and news of Durrani who had finished licking his wounds after the R&R attack in the nameless village wiped off the map, Lin did not want to disperse her meager troops on the border with the Dotard, less dangerous than Durrani. Nothing specific from the Pashtun yet, apart from troop movements around his alcazar.

She had decided that, again this year, we would all be at the base for Christmas. Well, all of us, if Tito and Erk returned in time.

Kris was becoming difficult to manage, and unpredictable. A feat for a prescient. He and Mustard apparently spent a night together and he was a little calmer. And when I asked her how she did it, her answer made me blush like a virgin and she made fun of me.

- Don't ask if you don't want to know, Archer.

It had been over a fortnight since that fucking ambush so I decided to give our base some normalcy. We were entitled to a little softness, damn!

I took out the creche, after collecting the box from Fatso. While placing each santon in its place, Bear next to Tito the knife sharpener, the brothers side by side right next to Lin, the Admiral, Wilha, Kim and Song, etc., I felt a bit of the blues which had hit last year and I remembered how Erk had cured it.

I went to see Cook to get a little flour in a tea strainer and I made it snow on the small scene, delicately, and I was very focused. So, when Kris came up behind me and asked me what I was doing, I jumped, and a big bunch of snow fell on Lin... Oh well...

I straightened and faced the little brother. He was angry.

- Setting up the crèche, little one.

- Don't! I forbid it!

- Why?

- He's not back, you have no right to... to celebrate...

- I'm not. This is a prayer. This is hope.

- How can it be? We know nothing of where they are, how they are?

- I know. But I'm not losing hope. I refuse to abandon them.

- Are you implying I am?

- No, silly. Of course not. This crèche is a me thing, not... I want us to be as normal as possible. And you know why?

- Actually, I do. Erik would not want us to not enjoy life when he's not there. That's what Mauricio told me in Milan.

- Exactly. And... Mauricio... Rizzi?

- Yes.

And he told me he had been the lover of the Rizzi pair, Mauricio and Sofia, that he had enjoyed being the center of attention of the pair while Erk was recovering.

- I bet Erk was happy to see you happy.

- Yeah, he was.

- Good. So, same story. OK?

- Yeah.

- Good. Now, I was going to ask Cook to let me make some hot cocoa, would you like to join me? That's about the only thing I can make on my own.

We served the chocolate to the patrol and the others, with Cook's gingerbread and, even if it couldn't compensate for the absence of Erk and Tito, it was a fairly calm moment, which we all appreciated, especially poor Dio who was taking a beating from the freezing temperatures – not freezing for the Icelanders.

What I enjoyed most was Kris' smile over the rim of his mug.

Obviously, this calm did not last. The next day, Kris was tense again, although he made a visible effort not to yell at us.