Sending the letter
A brief follow-up to the "Letter home" short I write a while back, and the censored letter that actually had to get sent out. Nothing really of substance here, but just felt like writing a bit today so rather than put it in the abyss of iCloud I figured I'd put it on here as well
A brief follow-up to the "Letter home" short I write a while back, and the censored letter that actually had to get sent out. Nothing really of substance here, but just felt like writing a bit today so rather than put it in the abyss of iCloud I figured I'd put it on here as well
Christopher sighed after he finished signing his name at the bottom of the letter and folded it up on itself and addressed the outside of the paper back home. He couldn't seal it with a bit of whatever adhesive he could find right away until the censors had a chance to go through the letter and image within. There was grave concern the Germans were doing everything they could to find the Gryphon unit and the fact they were always moving around helped them evade this. If somehow, they figured out that certain names were in that unit any letter or photo would be deeply analyzed.
He slid off the plane and made what to his small body was a fairly long, controlled drop to the ground and smiled to his crew chief. "Took care of the paint and walk Rain... should be good to get covered up, it flew great today, whatever they did to fix that throttle lag I couldn't get it to ping no matter what I tried" he said with a smile looking up at the human slightly. Rain nodded and wiped his hands with a shop rag "Good, glad to hear it Chrissy, I'll catch you at mess tonight huh?" he said with a firm pat to the avian's back as he walked off but not before yelling at a couple of his junior aids "Let's get some pep in that step boy!"
The avian walked along the dirt and grass roads in their small encampment waving and greeting people he knew, returning salutes of enlisted that cleared way for him and saluted. This arguably was the best part about this unit, its small size meant that virtually everyone knew each other. For someone with the avian flock instinct it helped greatly at least somewhat cope with being away from his family. He pushed the flap aside of an administration tent where a human male sat sorting small letters into various alphabetical boxes and regarded Chris with a nod "Captain. What can I do for you?" John was an officer, officially charged with the unit's logistics which amongst the myriad of other things included the mail, but it was a best effort approach the Army called it, everything else took priority over the mail "Need this checked Lieutenant" He said setting the letter on the table. John set the letter pile down and took a seat at his desk when he saw Christopher wasn't going to go away until the letter was at least officially 'in the mail'. He picked up a bold black pen and started to read the letter. Almost bringing it to bear on the first sentence "No that's fine..." he muttered under his breath "Sorry bird" he said as he brought the black as night ink down on almost the entirety of the last paragraph. Chris sighed but nodded as John then looked at the picture, bringing the pen to bear on that too, blacking out most of the background around the plane "Sorry but if they get ahold of this, they'll have a whole team figuring out what type of tree that is and where we are.... Just... keep the slide and bring it home with you, it's a nice picture" he said with a nod folding the paper back up and sealing the letter and putting it in the outbound mail "it'll be on DC-3 tonight. That all Captain?" He said clearly making the hint he wanted to get back to his work. "Yes, that's all-thanks John." Chris said as he turned and left the tent, walking down the aisleway.
There was always a dull hustle around camp, people talking, yelling, laughing, trucks starting, driving. Planes taking off or landing. A hammer beating on metal. He'd never forget these sounds, smiling as he'd never have a way to actually capture it well enough to tell some future generation what it was like out here, he walked along thinking to himself why anyone would want to relive this anyway. So many of his friends, winged or not lost their lives out here. The war to end all wars, what a lie that will be but, maybe it'll let him live to see beyond it.