5. Sext (noon) - PG-13

[wpgrace]

So this story continues to resonate for me today... and here's why.

I am an historian and once upon a time I worked at an archive and did a recorded history project for them. I interviewed about 100 WWII vets on tape... from every theater and American service and rank... and that included Tuskeegee men and a few WACS and WAVES. I loved the project but it also haunted me (and I had to change my phone number)... some of these folks had NEVER ever told their stories before. Never. They didn't much talk about it when they came home and then later, well, you didn't discuss this kinda crap in front of the wife and kids. (Tho one of the men HAD been interviewed by Stephen Ambrose for Band of Brothers. I also got to meet Dr. Ambrose and we went to dinner and he kissed my hand... ... but I digress .) Some of these men had photo albums... concentration camps they liberated, bombing raids they flew on and took pics of, the flak just bursting all around their airplane... dead people... comrades in arms, some dead in the war, many dead since... and for many of these men, their families had never seen the photos. One man gave me his pics (for the archives, not me personally) as he said he had offered it to his children and they said no. Not interested.

A very lucky few of them had families who HAD heard and kinda got their stories. Or had friends from the time with whom they met and chatted... as well as chatted about beers and football and sending grandkids to college...

For Mick. I bet he's never told his stories to anyone. He would have lost the buddies when he lost Ray and even more so when he was turned. Vampires wouldn'tve been interested in his WWII stories... Lord knows what battles his vampire buds had seen, participated in, or gotten bored of... and he had a new battle to fight, of his own, at that point. So besides all the other crap he was dealing with, he had gone thru this war and his entire experience was negated by the ennui of others. In the mortal world and in his new world. Had to be the loneliest loneliest feeling.

Yet he still remembered it and used the war as a point of reference... witness his comments in Fever. And his dutiful use of his education in LLF. It is a shame we did not get more of Medic Mick... at least he could've told his story to US. But good on you, Red, for hearing his whisper and passing THIS part of his story on...

[redwinter101]

Thank you so much for sharing that, Grace (and Stephen Ambrose kissed your hand ).

I agree about Mick - and it was yet another reason why I was drawn to him. His cross-desert traverse with Leni and the memories of the Ardennes that evoked were incredibly striking to me, especially as there was no attempt made to glamorise or make him a hero. He was in the middle of fighting the latest of his wars - but that didn't do anything to dull the memory of the greatest war of his human life - and all of its consequences.

Red

[wpgrace]

Thank you so much for sharing that, Grace (and Stephen Ambrose kissed your hand ).

I agree about Mick - and it was yet another reason why I was drawn to him. His cross-desert traverse with Leni and the memories of the Ardennes that evoked were incredibly striking to me, especially as there was no attempt made to glamorise or make him a hero. He was in the middle of fighting the latest of his wars - but that didn't do anything to dull the memory of the greatest war of his human life - and all of its consequences.

Red

Oh so true... he was still a member of the Greatest Generation, including FEELING that membership... even as they all die around him. How weird that would be.

Josef musta been thru wars... and Cora had been thru the French Revolution. I get the sense these vamps need to open up a bit more and discuss their formative experiences...

[redwinter101]

Josef musta been thru wars... and Cora had been thru the French Revolution. I get the sense these vamps need to open up a bit more and discuss their formative experiences...

We do try to get them to be a little more forthcoming....

[Shadow]

Oh. I love, love, love this. On every level. I think I was completely taken by surprise by every turn in the first half 0f the story. I really believed Mick was drifting in that boat with Ray at the beginning, and thought for an instant that this was going to be a story about Mick as a kid growing up with Ray ... and then next thing you know you realize they're in the war, and Mick's been wounded ... so already there's another level .... and then there's that harsh, bright light hurting his eyes, and that's so perfect and disturbing, but I was about halfway through the story before I was consciously aware of what else was going on underneath.

This is brilliantly written, and I thought even as I was reading how true to life the depictions of the field hospital were; it sounded as if you'd been there. (I think Grace's comment really validates that feeling too.) I too have always had the impression that Mick had never talked about his wartime experiences with anyone before he started to open up with Beth. And though I have no knowledge even close to Grace's (what an amazing experience she had) I always remember my grandfather, who was an ambulance driver in the war but never, ever talked about it to anyone. I ended up reading tons of books about the war, trying to understand what he might have gone through - recently, too, a lot of books by medics have come out, which are about as close as I can get to the experiences of an ambulance driver.) So anyway, this sounded just as authentic as anything I've ever read about the time .....actually even more so, because of the quality of the writing here.

I too loved the fact that Mick was ready and willing to give up his life for Ray - knowing what would happen later, when he took Ray's life instead.

And Mick wondering if Lilah had gotten the knock yet ... shivers ...

I had just been thinking after being by the coffeehouse that I would never be able to come up with even one favorite that didn't change from week to week, but I've changed my mind. This one's a permanent favorite.

[redwinter101]

Oh, Shadow - what an amazing comment.

I love that you thought Mick really was in the boat at the beginning - and that drew you in to the story.

I remember watching a lot of the documentary stuff around Band of Brothers and I'll never forget the image of these aging, proud, brave men, tears in their eyes as they recounted stories that had obviously lost none of their impact over the intervening decades - and who had never shared them with anyone else, except maybe some of their wartime buddies. I think it's easy for people of my generation to romanticise WWII - to somehow believe that because it was a just war (and in so many ways a simpler war than those currently ongoing) that meant there was no impact on those who fought it. But killing is still killing; losing a friend is still losing a friend; the justness of the cause is, I would imagine, a small and bitter comfort.

For Mick that early experience of loss should have been the most traumatic experience of his life - he deserved a happy life after that. And then look what happened...

Red

[wpgrace]

Oh, Shadow - what an amazing comment.

I love that you thought Mick really was in the boat at the beginning - and that drew you in to the story.

I remember watching a lot of the documentary stuff around Band of Brothers and I'll never forget the image of these aging, proud, brave men, tears in their eyes as they recounted stories that had obviously lost none of their impact over the intervening decades - and who had never shared them with anyone else, except maybe some of their wartime buddies. I think it's easy for people of my generation to romanticise WWII - to somehow believe that because it was a just war (and in so many ways a simpler war than those currently ongoing) that meant there was no impact on those who fought it. But killing is still killing; losing a friend is still losing a friend; the justness of the cause is, I would imagine, a small and bitter comfort.

For Mick that early experience of loss should have been the most traumatic experience of his life - he deserved a happy life after that. And then look what happened...

Red

I actually think that the justness of the cause was a comfort for these men. It was often THE thing that they held onto. Tho you are right that for some of them, it was a bitter comfort. I will say, and they were aware of this, that it was a comfort they had, that their elders (what was left of em, anyway) who had fought in WWI did not have... that sucker was just a killing spree for no apparent reason, that war. But you are so right, Mick didn't really get any of that. Yeah, his cause was just too, but he lost the buddies with whom it was a shared experience. And after his turning, he lost contact

Kinda even makes you wonder if his incapacity to be anything at the age of 30 other than a so-so band guitarist, and then his anger and destruction issues after his turning, aren't somehow rooted in here somewhere too.

Your piece is clearly very thought-provoking...
Gotta love that...

[redwinter101]

Kinda even makes you wonder if his incapacity to be anything at the age of 30 other than a so-so band guitarist, and then his anger and destruction issues after his turning, aren't somehow rooted in here somewhere too.

I'm sure that's true. I've previously described Mick as being ready to meet someone like Coraline - talk about an opportunity to change his life. This woman, so exotic, always dangerous, even before he knew what she was, offering him a chance to leave his old life behind. No wonder he jumped.

Red

[francis]

I actually think that the justness of the cause was a comfort for these men. It was often THE thing that they held onto. Tho you are right that for some of them, it was a bitter comfort.

And now I think about what my grandfathers went through. They had fought too, got into captivity, got back home in the 50s, into a land that was destroyed and lacked healthy young men. And then the guilt - having fought for a regime that wasn't worth it, a dictatorship and worse, and waking up after a time of just accepting it or being intimidated by it, and knowing that it was the wrong cause you fought for. That all the talk about the other nations being the aggressors weren't true, that all the propaganda had worked with you. The shame. I guess working their asses off to build their country up again, better than it was before, was their way of dealing with it. They had something to prove.
My one grandfather never got over it and moved to Canada. He became even more of a nazi then because he just couldn't deal with it all being for nothing. We had heated discussions whenever he visited because I just didn't buy his bs about history that he had rewritten for himself.

[redwinter101]

I can't even imagine what that must have been like, francis - I can't remember who said "History is written by the victors" (I'm sure Grace will know) but this is such a true illustration of that.

Red

[Moonlightsonata]

Redwinter - A great story. So many wonderful comments - everything I would have wanted to say has already been said. Thank you.

[wpgrace]

I can't even imagine what that must have been like, francis - I can't remember who said "History is written by the victors" (I'm sure Grace will know) but this is such a true illustration of that.

Red

Most people attribute it to Churchill, tho I think the final word is "conquerors" rather than victors, but I could be wrong about that. However, the concept, if not the very exact words, predate the ever quotable Winston. It's just one of those facts of humanity that has been celebrated and mourned thruout history.

And how difficult that war MUST have been for the German soldiers... they had all the horror and none of the justification thru victory. Being a Southern American, I do have a sense of that, francis. We lost our Civil War... and Lord knows our cause had not been just... but my elders ( some of whom had known a few survivors from the 19th century in their own youths) had to wrestle with how to honor the courage of the fighting men and yet honor the greater good that had been achieved in our country thru their loss. It really played hell with the South for generations after the Civil War... and the remnants of the extremists from that era still abide in dark holes down South here and there.

Would be interesting to have Mick engage in conversation with war survivors from different wars and from different countries and eras... all vamps of course. THAT would be an interesting poker night.

[rijane]

My eyes snapped open at a clatter of metal from the far end of the ward. Realisation hit - this place wasn't white and clean and serene; it was grimy, humid, filled with the stench of death and the moans of the dying. Harassed medics battled to keep on top of the tide, men, numbers, bodies, while a flock of nuns rolled up their incongruously white sleeves and delved into the filthy aftermath.

Solid description here- sets the scene of where Mick is waking up to and the near-hopelessness of where he is, both literally and figuratively.

If I'm alive, Ray's alive - he was underneath me when the mortar hit. If I'm alive, he's alive. Trust me. He must be wandering around here somewhere and just hasn't made his way in yet - or they've taken him to another-"

This is really great dialogue here- the repetition, Mick trying to convince the priest and himself. The confusion. Works really really well and I could *hear* Mick in it.

Maybe, just maybe, if I wished hard enough, I'd be back in that little boat, drifting gently on the ocean, side by side with Ray.

I'm such a whore for great endings and this is one of the best. Bookends with the opening so brilliantly and pulls together Mick's longing for Ray with the loss of innocence and the loss of that dream in the bitter realities of war.

Amazing work, Red. You're doing a beautiful job hitting all the signposts of Mick's life and filling in the details of the man and the vampire. Wonderful!

[redwinter101]

Moonlightsonata, thank you.

Grace, I knew you'd know.

Would be interesting to have Mick engage in conversation with war survivors from different wars and from different countries and eras... all vamps of course. THAT would be an interesting poker night.

Oh!!! Wouldn't it just.

rijane, thanks for stopping by, honey - love that you loved the ending.

Red

[redwinter101]

I wanted my 13,000th post to be here, in my office, so my most recent story seemed the obvious place.

Ignore the banner (check your calendars...) because I am still, all these months and posts later, ALL. ABOUT. MICK. Medic Mick, musician Mick, dark Mick, vampy Mick, funny Mick, romantic Mick, kickass Mick, brave Mick, soulful Mick, tortured Mick, loving Mick and all points in between.

And I'm still incredibly happy to have you all to share my little obsession.

Red