2

ACT II

Scene 7: INT MORNING, the recovery room. Hawkeye, Kathy, Danny, nurses, wounded.

Hawkeye enters the recovery room, cheerful again. It is as though, over night, he got a new coat of reflecting paint, that blinds everyone else and doesn't allow them to see his shape. At least it should be like that, and it works with almost everyone.

Kathy is sitting at her brother's side again. Or did she spend the night there? The boy seems

awake, but he looks very exhausted. Hawkeye takes the clipboard that is hanging at the bottom end of the bed, sits down next to the girl and looks at the report.

HAWKEYE
Pity Frank's not here anymore, he would've enjoyed himself!
It is his speciality to arrest soldiers who have been shot in the foot.

KATHY
(heatedly)
If your Frank would spend only one day at the front,
he would probably be the first one to shoot himself in the foot!

Hawkeye looks at her for a moment, and a quiet smile overcomes his surprise -- surprise about what she said as well as about her appearance; She is really pretty, when clean and with brushed hair, and a little less exhaustion in her face. And in her face around the unreadable eyes showed a firm will to survive this day just as any other.

DANNY
(weakly)
Hey! I didn't...injure myself. A nice...
(a sarcastic grin becomes a pained grimace)
Chinese soldier did that for me.

HAWKEYE
Would ya look at that!
(he feels the boy's pulse, touches his forehead and stands up)
It's as if those guys had nothing better to do!
(He puts the clipboard back in its spot.)
You'll be alright, Danny. But you're still feverish and
need to rest. So, hush, hush, and quickly. I'll send you a
few dreams of nice,well-built blondes.

DANNY
(smiling)
Thanks, Doc.

Danny he turned his tired face to his sister. Hawkeye turns away and looks at the clipboard of the next bed (though its inhabitant is sound asleep), but from the corner of his eye he watches Danny's bed.

DANNY
Hey.

KATHY
Hey!

She holds his hand in both hands. And for the first time since the two had arrived, there is a smile softening her features, too. She pushes the wet hair from her brother's forehead and touches his cheek with her hand. Finally she bends forward, kisses him softly.

KATHY
You have to sleep now.

Danny's eyes close, and Kathy stands up. But to Hawkeye's surprise she doesn't head for the door, but for him.

KATHY
Doctor Pierce, excuse me.

He turns around and holds the clipboard he had held in his hand the whole time behind his back. She hesitates because of the hurry in this movement, and looks at him suspiciously.

HAWKEYE
Oh, please, why don't you call me Hawkeye, like everyone else!

KATHY
Okay, Hawkeye, I was wondering if I could do something
useful here. As long as my brother is here, I'll be here too.
And I would like to be of use, if I can.

He looks down at her face, amazed. She returns his look, and her dark green eyes are even and deep, like a lake.

HAWKEYE
You have to ask the Colonel, too.

KATHY
Okay. Thank you, Hawkeye.

Hawkeye watches her until the door has fallen shut behind her. Then he returns to his clipboard, pauses, and finally puts it back in its place.

Scene 8: INT AFTERNOON, THE MESS TENT; Hawkeye, B.J., Klinger, Kathy, others.

Laughter wafts from the mess tent, as Hawkeye and B.J. open the door and step inside. Loud greetings welcome them, and they call back. It is nice in the mess tent, though quite warm, as it usually is in tents in the summer.

KLINGER
Hey, B.J.! Hawkeye!

Klinger jumps up in his red dress with the little flowers on it, and waves them to his table. They sit down at the table, which is covered with playing cards, glasses, money and a pair of silk stockings that obviously belong to Klinger, who excitedly waves his cards around.

KLINGER
Can you believe it, I'm losing again! That is my best pair of stockings!
Oh,Horror,do you all want me to walk around naked?

HAWKEYE
For Heaven's sake NO!

B.J.
Who are you losing to,Klinger?

Klinger and the other players, like one man, point to Kathy, who only raises her eyebrows behind her cards.

B.J
So, so. What are you playing?

KLINGER
Poker.

B.J and HAWKEYE
Poker!

The two men's heads jerk around to Kathy. She lowers her cards and flashes a dashing smile.

HAWKEYE
I think the moral fabric of the American youth is starting to tear.

Everyone laughs, and the game continues. Sometime during the evening the suggestion was made that Father Mulcahy should play something at the piano, and he follows the request.

FATHER MULCAHY
(stretching his fingers)
So, what should it be, then?

SOLDIER
Gershwin!

NURSE
Yeah - Someone to watch over me!

Mulcahy hits the chords, starts the song, and everyone merrily joins in.

EVERYBODY
(singing)
...so I'm going to seek a certain lad...

Hawkeye falls silent. Secretly, he had looked for Kathy, and finds her standing at the door, with a very earnest and sad expression on her face, as if all the carefully surpressed emotions were threatening to make her burst. She pulls herself together again, looks away, opens the door and walks outside. Hawkeye gets up, shortly lays his hand on B.J.'s arm, and follows her out.

Scene 9: EXT. LATE EVENING, the camp. Hawkeye, Kathy.

Outside it had grown dark, and, compared to the hot mess tent, quite cool. Hawkeye shudders for a moment. It is a clear, starry night. Kathy, hands in her pockets, is walking slowly away from the tent. Hawkeye catches up with her.

HAWKEYE
I know not everybody likes Gershwin, but he's not that bad...

KATHY
(struggles to smile)

HAWKEYE
Now, come on. Whatever it is, you can tell dear uncle Hawkeye!

KATHY
It's just... it's stupid. I'm ashamed of myself that
I'm freaking out like this.

Freaking out? He remembered times when he was freaking out. A little worse than this.

KATHY
It's... just the music. The singing. I want to be a singer –
at least I did, before this here happened.
(she gives the night, the camp and the war an angry look)
And now I don't know if I'll ever get that far. I just don't know.

She kicks a little stone aside.

HAWKEYE
Why are you here?

KATHY
My brother is here. We don't have any other relatives
anymore, just us. I didn't want to stay with any
dubious acquaintances.

That sounded so obvious, as if it was the most normal thing in the world, to just like that transfer your life to the front lines of an international war.

HAWKEYE
What happened?

KATHY
Are you the psychological trash can around here?

She squints her eyes at him, but then she looks away in shame over her outburst. Hawkeye looks at her silently. He feels small and helpless all of a sudden. How ridiculous! He shakes

his head. He wants to take the bitterness from this girl, he wants her to trust him. Suddenly that is so important to him that he can hardly admit it to himself.

HAWKEYE
No. It's honestly interesting to me.

KATHY
(without looking up)
We used to live in London. Our father was a soldier, just like
our grandfather; and now Danny is a soldier too. Grandfather
died in World War 1. Danny and I lived in London with my
mother and my father's mother, and during World War 2 my
Father was in Germany. There were bomb attacks on London,
and my mother sent Danny and me to America, to her parents.
She wanted to follow, as soon as my father came home.
They never came.

It seems she is about to get lost in thoughts, but while she is talking, she regains control. She probably has perfected that over the years. Suddenly Hawkeye thinks of Henry Blake, the memory just comes up before his inner eye, he isn't able to stop it. Maybe he doesn't want to stop it. How old might she have been back then? How old were Henry's kids, when they received the message?

HAWKEYE
I'm sorry.

KATHY
My grandfather died soon after Danny and I moved in with them.
And three years ago my grandmother. We got by on our own
though. Danny wanted to be a soldier, like our father. He had just
finished the Academy, when he was ordered here.
(she grimaces)
He was lucky to have the training, most of the guys at the
Academy who were drafted too, hadn't even finished half of it!

HAWKEYE
How did you manage to go with your brother?

KATHY
I sneaked through.

Another harmless remark. Although he knew better, Hawkeye has to smile.

HAWKEYE
You make me speechless. There are few who have managed that.

KATHY
I believe that.

She lets her eyes wander around as they slowly walk on.

KATHY
This place doesn't make you speechless.

HAWKEYE
Sometimes it does, actually.

She nods and looks up at the sky. The night is black and clear, thousands of stars are shining down on them.

KATHY
Damn, it's beautiful.

Hawkeye looks at her in surprise. For the first time he heard something like anger in her voice, but when he looks closer, he realizes, that it is more than just anger. It is rage, a rage he can understand only too well. But now, as he sees his emotions on her face, he doesn't want to be angry. He wants to comfort her, just like he wanted someone to comfort him every time he was angry. But he doesn't know how to do it, and he feels that feeling of helplessness creeping up again.

HAWKEYE
Yes, I know what you mean. Sometimes you ask
yourself, if you are allowed at all to find something
beautiful in a place like this.

She nods, without looking at him.

HAWKEYE
But I think,that even here you have the right
to find something beautiful.

He is amazed, because he actually believes it. He didn't know that. For the first time in a long time, he is sure of something again, without the usual conflicting feelings torturing him. She finally looks at him, her eyes reflecting his own feelings.

KATHY
I believe you.
(her voice hardens again)
A few miles away these stars are shining too. And
no one sees them, although they're all awake. The guys
out there don't sleep, maybe a few minutes per night,
and with their weapons in their arms.

Her voice begins to tremble slightly. Hawkeye stops.

HAWKEYE
Don't think of it anymore! Or you will never
be able to stop thinking about it.

She looks at his face. After a while she looks down.

KATHY
Should we go back?

Hawkeye nods, and silently they return to the mess tent, where the card games had been picked up again.