All In

part 15

ill·ness
ˈilnəs/
noun

a disease or period of sickness affecting the body or mind.

•••

the stew got worse, mold forming on the supplies, quality going rancid, and men began to fall sick with the horrible diet they had created of not eating, or eating large amounts of pourly created meals. every man in the army was well aquainted to poor diets and limited supplies due to crops failing all over their lands, so some were better off then others. those men were small, weak looking and bed ridden, letters sent on gold stamped paper to their families as soon as their systems failed.

harry lost almost all of his tent mates, filtering in more men as replacements and giving up his spot almost every time, so if anyone wanted him injured, they would have to search. he didn't know why he started the system, but he felt completed with himself when he made it to every bed in his tent, even if that meant people were dying from indirect effects of war.

there had been no airplanes for five days overhead, the men listening well, so three dedicated tents kept their lights on so men could write letters home before the mail was sent out for three weeks, no responses for two after. harry's was tent two, men huddled on bunks, on the floor, or just outside, using the light while harry's tent mates spent the night in the officer's mess for an hour, all the time they gave before kicking them out.

in the tents, some men wrote in journals they brought, some on pictures they brought, others on stolen newspapers or the mess hall napkins.

harry wrote on a napkin, saving his journal for himself and his thoughts, only planning on saving one page for his mother when he moved to the front lines and one page for the officers to write home about his death. he wasn't ready for it, but he knew there was a chance.

he did, however, write with a pen, which some men wished to borrow dearly when writing to sweethearts or home, but harry had only one bottle of ink, and he planned to use it all through the war, so he did not share. men used charcoal, or blood, or lead on their notes, and one even a pencil, which was passed around until it was a nub, and then the young man took it back.

harry told his mother of everything he could remember, and how much he missed her, and what war was like.

on the last lines, he wrote;

"mother, i love you, and i want to come home so badly my feet itch to run away. tell gemma i miss her, and robin. i wish to come home so terribly. i believe i am set to fail."