Free Kipling's Choice by Geert Spillebeen Page B

announcement."
    John stands ramrod straight. "Thank you, sir," is all he can manage to say.
    His promotion is not unusual. The officers at the front are put through the meat grinder so fast that they are constantly being replaced. One very quickly becomes an
ancien
in a fighting unit.
    "Congratulations, old chap!" a sweaty Rupert Grayson says and pats John on the back after the game. "That old battle-ax has laid down the law, I hear."
    "Oh, yes,
Mister
Grayson!"
    The other young officers burst out laughing.
    "A fine football match, Rupert," John continues, "but think about your fans, and shave your legs in the future!"
    "Hear, hear!" The gentlemen surrounding john shout their approval.
    A fight begins seconds later. As the two friends roll in the grass, the other officers gather round and cheer them on. As if by magic a swarm of soldiers, corporals, and sergeants flock to the scene.
    "Look out,
Second
Lieutenant Grayson," jokes Captain Alexander, who has pushed through the pack. Lieutenant Kipling is now your superior!"
    "I'll show
him
some stars, more than he can pin on his uniform," Grayson shouts.
    The duel turns into a true farce, a grotesque cockfight. John and Rupert put on a show, the audience quickly take sides, but in the end John is pinned on his back amid a cacophony of boos and cheers.
    "What will you do for me?" asks a sneering Grayson.
    "Fine, fine,
you
win!" John calls breathlessly. "I'll buy you a drink."
    Rupert Grayson looks doubtfully at the crowd as he holds down his friend. He knows that the young Kipling is rolling in money.
    "Is that enough, boys?"
    "No!" they shout in unison.
    "And also a drink for the men, a drink for everybody!" John says desperately.
    Rupert lets him go.
    Alex jumps into the circle and takes each fighter by the hand like an official referee. "And the winner is..." To the surprise of everyone, he raises John's arm up high.
    The soldiers laugh, they boo, they whistle and yell, they push and pull one other. New fights break out here and there, and caps and coats go flying into the air. The whole battalion is keyed up.
    "Our men really needed this," Alex says into John's ear. "They needed to let off some steam." He turns to Rupert and says, "Thanks, boys."
    During the past days all the soldiers and junior officers alike have been asking themselves just how far you can push military drilling. Conditions for the Brigade Field Days had to replicate actual life at the front in every respect. The men practiced their new fight techniques endlessly with and against other regiments, as though their very lives depended on it. They dug ditches and trenches, rolled out barbed wire, crawled through mud, lay in waiting for hours at a time, exposed to all the elements, sometimes in the pouring rain. The weather was unpredictable and always seemed to be against them. They were hustled out of bed for nightly reconnaissance patrols. They scraped together their last ounce of strength for hand-to-hand combat, carrying heavy packs and wearing gas masks as they did so. It never stopped. Their nerves were dangerously on edge. They staged mock attacks using real smoke shells. John's battalion even captured a real village for practice and interrogated French citizens, escorted prisoners, slaughtered pigs, and sought shelter for the night. They knew how critical their situation was, and fear was building up inside everyone. The moment of truth was approaching. The next day or the next week they would have the real enemy in view.
    "A bullet in the leg," Rupert proposed to John one evening. "That wouldn't be a problem."
    "Or in the arm." John thought that was reasonable, too. "Maybe a couple of fingers gone, although..." He noticed that Rupert unconsciously put his right hand under his left armpit.
    "Have
you
been worried about it lately, as well?" Rupert asked hesitantly. He could sense John's fright by his silence and by the expression in his eyes.
    Fear was taboo. This was the first time the two friends dared