Twentieth Century: 2 (Mud)

Night turned imperceptibly to day, changing nothing. The rain remained as steady in the pallid light as it had been in darkness, the mud just as rank and sticky. Alex swiped a grubby hand ineffectually across his face; tugged his helmet a quarter-inch lower; huddled under the sodden greatcoat. Which he did every few minutes, never making any kind of difference to the cold, the wet, the filth.

Once in awhile there was some distant machine-gun fire to break the monotony, but mostly there was just rain.

"Got a light, Hickory?"

"Thought you were out of ciggies?"

"Pinched 'em from Rayville. He don't need 'em no more. Want one?"

"No ta, trying to give up."

"Suit yerself. That light?"

"Course, hold your horses. Here."

The match flared briefly, then its flame was sucked into the damp tobacco, vanished in an exhalation of smoke.

"My God, that's the ticket. All it takes to make life worth living, sometimes."

"Worth living? In this place?"

"Here most of all. Puts things into perspective."

"Mmm."

"You appreciate the pleasures, if you take my meaning. Gives you a sense of what we're fighting for."

"This whole business is for a cigarette?"

"That'd be more or less it, yes."

"The cold and wet and rain and shooting and killing and gas and wire and fucking mud is all for a cigarette?"

"Can you think of a better reason?"

"Jerry has cigarettes too."

"We'll get them off him."

Alex couldn't think of anything to say and several minutes of awkward silence followed; until the Doctor appeared.

"We're going over the top, lads. Nine o'clock sharp, on my signal. Wear your masks."

Terror had been Alex's bedfellow for so long he could barely muster an extra frisson now. He tugged Lucy's last letter out of his pocket, ran his fingers over the wet, smudgy photograph. She looked so surprised he couldn't resist a lingering kiss. Then he grasped his rifle and waited. He was used to waiting. He'd been waiting a long time.

Green clouds rolled over the rutted earth, and the rain fell down and down.
Posted by matt at September 2, 2004 12:28 AM