Page 3 of For This We Are Soldiers
She knew it would be the adjutant even before she turned around. Emma pulled back the flap and stepped outside. “You can’t have it, Lieutenant.”
He shook his head and smiled this time. “Oh, no, ma’am. I wasn’t going to bump you again.” He held out a large square of green fabric.
She took it. “What’s this for?”
“Ma’am, I used to serve in Arizona Territory, and most folks down there line tent ceilings with green. Easier on the eyes.”
He smiled again, and Emma began to see that the lot of an adjutant was not to be envied. She smiled back.
“Thank you, Lieutenant. I appreciate it.” He helped her fasten up the green baize, and it did make a difference inside the tent. Before he left, he pulled her cot away from the tent wall. “So the tent won’t leak when it rains,” he explained and then laughed. “But it never rains here anyway.”
Since she couldn’t cook in the tent, she messed with the officers in Old Bedlam that night. There were only three. The adjutant was a bachelor, Captain Endicott was an orphan who had left his family back in the States, and the other lieutenant was casually at post on his way from Fort Robinson to Fort D.A. Russell.
The salt pork looked more at home on a tin plate, and she discovered that plum duff was edible. The coffee burned its way down, but she knew she could get used to it.
She excused herself, ran back to her tent, and returned with the tin of peaches she had bought at the post trader’s store for the exorbitant sum of $2.25. The adjutant pried open the lid, and the four of them speared slices out of the can and laughed and talked until Tattoo.
Captain Endicott walked her back to her tent before last call. He shook his head when he saw the tent. “Women ought to stay in the States. Good schools there, doctors, sociability. Much better.”
“Don’t you miss your family?” she asked.
“Oh, mercy, if you only knew … ,” he began and then stopped. “Beg pardon, Mrs. Sanders.” He said good night to her and walked off alone to his room in Old Bedlam.
Emma undressed, did up her hair, and got into bed. She lay still, listening to the bugler blow Extinguish Lights. She heard horses snuffling in the officers’ stables behind Old Bedlam. When the coyotes started tuning up on the slopes rimming the fort, she pulled the blanket over her head and closed her eyes.
She knew she was not alone when she woke up before Reveille next morning. She sat up and gasped. A snake was curled at the foot of her blanket. She carefully pulled her feet up until she sat in a ball on her pillow. She was afraid to scream because she didn’t know what the snake would do, and, besides, she didn’t want the sergeant at arms to rush in and catch her with her hair done up in rags.
As she watched and held her breath, the snake unwound itself and moved off the cot. She couldn’t see any rattles on its tail, and she slowly let out her breath. The snake undulated across the grass, and she stared at it, fascinated. She hadn’t known a reptile could be so graceful. “How do they do that?” she asked herself, as the snake slithered through the grass at the edge of the tent. “I must remember to ask Hart.”
She took the rag twists from her hair, pulled on her wrapper, and poked her head out of the tent. The sun was just coming up, and the buildings were tinted with the most delicious shade of pink. She marveled that she could ever have thought the old place ugly.
Her first letter from Hart was handed to her three days later at mail call. She ripped open the envelope and drew out a long, narrow sheet. She read as she walked along the edge of the parade ground.
Dearest Emma,
Pardon this stationery, but I forgot to take any along, and this works better for letters than in the sink (um, that would be a privy to you). Good news. We’re going to be garrisoned here permanently, so you’ll be moving quite soon, perhaps within the next few days. Or it could be a month. That’s the Army. Bad news. Brace yourself. There aren’t any quarters available, so we’ll have to make do in a tent.
Emma stood still and laughed out loud. A soldier with a large “P” painted on the back of his shirt stopped spearing trash and looked at her, but she didn’t acknowledge him. She read on.
It won’t be that bad. The commanding officer swears there will be quarters ready by winter. Am looking forward to seeing you soon. I can’t express how much I miss you.
Love, Hart
She was almost back to her tent when the adjutant caught up with her.
“Mrs. Sanders,” he began. His Adam’s apple bobbed, and he put up his hand to rub his head, she was sure.
“It’s all right, Lieutenant,” she broke in before he could continue. “I’ve already heard. When am I leaving?”
“In the morning, ma’am.”
“I’ll be ready.”
As she was repacking her trunks that evening, she remembered something her mother had said to her when she left on the train to join Hart in Cheyenne. Mother had dabbed at her eyes and said over and over, “Such brave men, Emma, such brave men!”
Emma smiled.
Break a Leg
