The first letter to Pint worked like a charm. The night fire was still two days away, so the flame needed to be stoked. During the following nights I waited patiently in my bunk for Shipman to take a shower. When he departed his locker, I searched his belongings for the latest note from West. Shipman, like Pint, had accepted the offer to meet West behind the windscreen.
Over the next two days, Pint became increasingly eager as I brought the letters to him, lost in the fantasy. Having him under my thumb made me realize that, in gamer terms, I had just leveled-up. The fourth note to Pint must have tipped over a glass of tears inside the man. His loose-string incident was a blemish, but this - this was a full autopsy. The exterior of the Drill Sergeant hid a dire state within.
He sat down slowly into his chair and covered his face with his brown round until he collected himself. If only I had a camera, I could have sent the picture to National Geographic. Seeing a Drill Sergeant cry as rare as the Loch Ness Monster or the Yellow-tailed Woolly Monkey.
I asked, "What's wrong, Drill Sergeant?"
From behind the brown round, a hand came out, motioning for me to go away, but I stayed.
"Gosh," I said, "anything I can do?"
"No, no. I owe you already."
"I don't understand."
He lowered his face into his hat. "Sprungli, I can hardly explain it to you."
"I'm not good at much, but I'm a good listener," I said.
For a minute he said nothing, but stuffed his face into his hat, and when he finally cleared his mechanism and wiped his eyes, he looked up at me and spoke.
On his desk, the cup of coffee steamed away. He lowered his hat to the desk and then swirled the coffee around, looking down at the liquid like it was his Magic 8-ball, as if an answer would float up to the top.
"You better keep your mouth quiet."
"I will, Drill Sergeant."
"Or I'll recycle you."
"I know, Drill Sergeant. I'm trying to do better."
"I know you are."
A compliment. This caught me off guard.
"You're doing good, Sprungli. Much better. I mean, your boots shine, you're doing the exercises, even after the spider thing. I didn't want to tell you, but you did good during Drill and Ceremony, except for that spasm in your arm. But I don't want you to fall backward now and rest on your laurels, all because I told you that."
"No, Drill Sergeant. I'll keep trying." This complicated things terribly. Now that I had set him up, ballooning his hope, I needed to pop him. But how, unless West wrote a note cancelling the meeting?
"A guy like me," he said, lifting his red eyes to meet mine, "opportunity doesn't knock often. A guy like me only gets a few chances to find someone like West. And if she's in love with me, then that's all I need in this world."
My mouth started to form an apology, but his happiness and my fear of being recycled stopped me.