The Cadet Corporal (12 page)

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“Wake up Cpl Kirk,” Sgt Grenfell called. Through a muzz of sleep Graham heard him. He opened his eyes but everything was dark. Then he realised it was cold, wet plastic he could feel. He groped and shook his head to clear his thoughts. ‘Hutchie must have fallen down,' he thought. As it was deliberately tied up with slip knots he knew that was quite possible. Still half asleep he struggled to push the hutchie away from his face. Next to him Roger also began squirming and groaning.

Suddenly the hutchie was dragged aside. Graham saw it was light and Sgt Grenfell was the person doing it. Then a look of astonishment crossed Sgt Grenfell's face and he shook his head. “You'd better get up and clean up,” he said.

“What? What do you mean?” Graham asked, his mind still groping to wake up. Then he looked at Roger as he sat up and the reason became clear. Roger's face was covered with some sort of black slime. ‘Mongrels!' he thought angrily. ‘We've been greased!'

CHAPTER 12

FRICTION

As Graham rolled over to stand up he saw Roger looking at him from his sleeping bag. Roger's face registered astonishment and then, amusement. “You should see your face,” Roger said.

“You should see your own!” Graham retorted. He could see Sgt Grenfell grinning and that annoyed him. It was just getting light and the rest of the platoon were still in bed. Obviously CSM Cleland had just roused Sgt Grenfell so he could get ready early for check parade and he had seen the hutchie down. “Bloody Pigsy!” Graham added.

“We don't know that for certain,” Roger said, sitting up and wiping his face. He grimaced with disgust at the smear of black slime that came off onto his fingers.

“Oh, who else would it be?” Graham cried as he tugged on his socks.

Sgt Grenfell answered that. “Pigsy isn't the only person who doesn't like you.”

That was a hurtful comment but Graham could not dispute the truth of it. What really burned was the idea that anyone would not like him as he thought he was a good person. Sgt Grenfell said, “Anyway, get cleaned up. Check parade is in five minutes.”

Graham pulled on his boots and stood up to look for the washbasin and jerrycan he had left nearby the night before. Picking up the jerry can he poured water into the washbasin and then moved to dig his soap out of his webbing. As he did Kirsty snuffled and stretched, then moved her head and opened her eyes. She turned to look in his direction. For a moment her eyes met Graham's and he saw puzzlement, then amusement, cross her face.

“What happened?” she asked, sitting up.

“Someone greased us,” Graham replied gruffly. He did not enjoy being humiliated.

Kirsty giggled but then saw his expression and shook her head. “Sorry, but it does look funny.”

“Humpf!” grunted Graham. He splashed water on his face and began to soap it. Roger moved to join him. A couple of minute's vigorous rubbing made some improvement but the mixture was boot polish and toothpaste and would not yield easily. By looking at Roger's face Graham could check on his own. He shook his head angrily, his eyes noting the smears of black on his sleeping bag and clothing. By using his towel he made a better job of it.

By then Sgt Grenfell was calling out for the platoon to get out for check parade. Graham rinsed his face again and began rubbing hard. As soon as he was satisfied he had the worst of the greasing off he turned and strode over to hurry Halyday and Andrews as both were still apparently in bed. Sgt Grenfell's angry shouts then hurried them all to get on parade. Check Parade led to more irritation. As 2 Platoon marched across past 1 Platoon there were snickers and grins and someone distinctly said the word ‘greased'.

‘How do they now?' Graham wondered. He was sure his face was now reasonably clean. Doubts about who might have been the perpetrators began.

The doubts were reinforced at breakfast when Graham was standing at the condiments table spreading lemon spread on his bread. Cpl Brown sidled up beside him and hissed, “Bugger you Kirk, you mongrel! You got me in trouble with Capt Conkey.”

“How did I do that?” Graham asked, genuinely surprised.

“By dobbing about bloody Carnes,” Brown replied.

Then it became clear. Carnes was in Brown's section. “So what happened to him?” Graham asked.

“The useless little turd has been moved to headquarters platoon,” Brown replied, “and bloody good riddance. If you give me any more grief I will snot you, so keep clear!”

The threat annoyed Graham but he thought it was just bluster so he shrugged and went on smoothing the spread on his bread. Brown stalked off and Graham walked back to the platoon eating area feeling aggrieved and upset. ‘I didn't mean to get the bugger in trouble,' he thought with annoyance. ‘Anyway, he should have stopped the bullying.'

He sat down and was even more relieved when Kirsty came and sat beside him, sitting close enough for her knee to touch his. For the next twenty minutes he ate and happily flirted with Kirsty, sending her ‘meaningful' messages with his eyes- until he noted CUO Masters looking thoughtfully at them. ‘Uh oh! I hope he doesn't suspect anything,' Graham thought. ‘I'd better be more careful.'

Later Graham washed up, then made a point of walking back to his hutchie with Roger. The friends then re-erected their hutchie- the work of minutes- and set about cleaning up for morning inspection. When he had as much ready as he could Graham decided to quickly visit the toilet. It then occurred to him that choosing which latrine to use had now become a high stress decision. So which latrine: the one near 3 Platoon or the one near 4 Platoon? The 4 Platoon latrine was closer and it was more open. Berating himself for being a coward he marched over to it.

To his relief there was no-one else there and he saw that Pigsy and Co were standing near their hutchies. But they saw him and Pigsy jeered and called, “Jerk! Hear you got greased. Do you good, you crawler.”

Graham ignored him and strode back towards his own platoon. On the way he went between HQ and 1 Platoon. At HQ he found Peter. Next to him was Carnes. Both were busy putting on camouflage.

“What are you doing?” Graham asked Peter.

“We are setting up an OP down near the highway just in case that mob from Townsville try to send any recon patrols over to spy on us,” Peter replied.

That sounded like a good idea to Graham and he nodded. He then looked at Carnes. “How are you Cadet Carnes?”

Carnes scowled. “Rotten. I just want to go home.”

“Oh well, the camp is half over,” Graham replied. “Keep hanging in there.”

No wanting to become involved in a debate he said he had to get ready for inspection, which was true anyway, and hurried off, wishing Peter good luck as he did. As he walked towards his own platoon Graham was suddenly struck by a stone.

It was so unexpected and hurt so much that he stopped and then spun round. ‘Brown. For sure!' he thought, seeing Brown's face with malicious satisfaction written all over it. Brown was about thirty paces away, standing beside his hutchie, but Graham was positive he had thrown the stone. As anger flared he strode over, to stop two paces from him, clenched fists on hips.

“Don't throw stones at me Brown,” he grated.

Brown glared back. “Or what, big man?”

“Or I'll flatten you,” Graham replied.

“Oh yeah? You ain't good enough. You're all talk, you gutless sniveller,” Brown retorted.

The words really stung. ‘Is that what people think I really am, a coward and a crawler?' Graham wondered. But now his pride was badly hurt and he put up his fists. “Anytime buster,” he challenged.

“Oh yeah!” Brown relied with a sneer. He clenched his fists and began to shape up but Graham sensed he wasn't very keen. By now other cadets had begun to form an audience.

CUO McAlistair's voice cut over the babble. “What the hell is going on here? You two put your fists down!” He shoved in between Graham and Brown.

Graham did so. After a moment Brown did likewise. CUO McAlistair looked from one to the other. “What the devil is this all about?” he demanded.

“Brown hit me with a stone,” Graham said.

“Did not!” Brown replied hotly.

“Did so!” Graham cried angrily.

“Prove it,” Brown snapped.

“That will do!” CUO McAlistair ordered. “Both of you be quiet. Speak when you are asked to. Now, Cpl Kirk, what happened?”

Graham described what had happened. Brown denied it, adding, “He's just trying to get me into trouble sir.”

“Why would he do that?” CUO McAlistair asked.

“Because he's a crawler who wants to be a sergeant and he's jealous,” Brown replied. “He wants to make himself look good by making the rest of us look bad.”

The accusation really stung Graham and he strongly denied it, although he knew he did badly want to be selected to be a sergeant the following year. CUO McAlistair could not decide so told them both to stop their nonsense and then ordered Graham back to his own platoon. Graham went, seething with the apparent injustice.

Only to find he was now late and in trouble with CUO Masters and Sgt Grenfell. The platoon inspection was under way. Roger had the rest of the section lined up but Graham had to try to justify his absence to an irritated CUO and sceptical sergeant. He then stood at attention at the end of his section, his emotions seething. ‘Damn! If I keep getting into trouble I will never get to be a sergeant,' he thought unhappily. Once again the statistics haunted him: half the corporals would miss out. He did not want to be one of the unlucky ones.

As soon as they were fallen out to get ready for company parade. Graham turned to Roger. “Thanks Roger,” he said.

“That's OK,” Roger replied. “Besides, they were all ready on time this morning so it was no problem,” he replied.

Graham looked at the others, noting Halyday's cheeky grin. “Thanks gang,” Graham mumbled. He then had to explain to Roger what the incident at 1 Platoon had been about. By the time he had done this it was time for parade. As the platoon marched across to parade Graham noted the Hutchie Men, again dressed in their Yowie Suits. They were heading off from the officer's fire in the direction of the army camp. Obviously they were going to keep an eye on the rival units again. ‘Good old Capt Conkey,' Graham thought.

After the company parade the unit was organised for training. The whole day was devoted to individual fieldcraft training for the junior platoons. HQ had three tasks: signals and medical training, plus maintaining the OP to warn of any other unit trying to send patrols across the highway. 4 Platoon were to act as ‘enemy' for the juniors while the Hutchie Men were to do recons of the other cadet units.

For 2 Platoon the morning was taken up by two observation activities, rotating with 1 Platoon. The first activity was a moving observation. This was set up by the officers along the small dry creek that ran down from 1 Platoon's area to the highway. Along about 500 metres of the creek were placed 25 items such as pieces of webbing, tins, trip wires, pretend land mines, clothing and small objects. Cadets were sent along this one at a time, 3 minutes apart. They had to try to locate all the objects and note their sequence.

CUO Masters went along first and Sgt Grenfell went last. He timed the cadets. In each section the corporal went first and the 2ic last. While they waited for their turn the cadets sat under the trees near 1 Platoon. 4 Section went first so Graham led the way. He had done several similar exercises and knew what to do. He enjoyed this one and only missed one item along the way.

At the other end Graham was sent across to the second small creek and sat in the shade of a Burdekin Plum tree while waiting for the remainder of his section. Kirsty was next to arrive so he then had a few minutes to sit and talk to her alone. The first thing he did was test how she felt about him.

“You are really nice,” he said. “I'm glad you were with me during the lantern stalk last night.”

Kirsty shook her head and smiled. “It was good fun,” she replied.

Graham hesitated over saying what was on his mind, knowing in his heart that it was wrong. But he was now driven by the urgent desire of lust and badly wanted to be with Kirsty (Or, he was honest enough to admit to himself, with any girl who would let him). So he moistened suddenly dry lips and asked, “Would you mind if I kissed you?”

She smiled. “I'd like that.”

Graham felt a surge of joy that was almost immediately replaced by worry about things going too far so he again hinted that they behave. He also did not want to incur her wrath on the old ‘Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned' principle so he said, “I want getting to know you to be really special, so I would like to wait till we are home after camp.”

She went all doe-ey eyed at that and said, “You are really sweet.”

He wasn't sure if she accepted this but they had no further chance to talk because Pat finished the course and joined them. Pat and Kirsty struck up a conversation so Graham lay back and tried to sleep. The ants and the heat made this ambition difficult to achieve and he was only drowsy when Roger arrived and CUO Masters told Graham to take his section up to Lt McEwen at the flat rocks near the head of the valley.

This was only 500metres and the rocks were visible so they just walked up the shallow valley beside the second creek. Lt McEwen told them to sit in the shade near the members of 1 Platoon who still had to complete that activity. Mostly these were 1 and 2 Sections. Graham had no particular friends in either section but Roger struck up a conversation with LCpl Lofty Ward. Once again Graham thought it would be a good opportunity to catch up on his sleep so he lay back and pulled his hat over his eyes.

As he lay there he thought hard about Kirsty and whether she really liked him. ‘What if she is just having a bit of fun?' he worried. ‘I don't mind getting into trouble for true love,' he thought. But to go down over some silly crush did not appeal at all. ‘But how do I tell?' he wondered. It was a whole new realm of uncertainty and he looked at Kirsty with new eyes. ‘Does she like me, or is she just playing with me?'

By her manner she really liked him. She smiled and flirted and Graham was moved to flirt back. There was a lot of eye contact and frequent secret smiles and once he was moved to hand her a tiny flower he plucked from the dry grass. As he did she went all coy and lowered her eyelids but smiled. Graham then realised that Lt McEwen was standing watching and he felt a rush of anxiety. Blushing with guilt he looked away and began talking to Pat. ‘I hope Lt McEwen didn't notice,' he thought.

The activity Lt McEwen was running was a static observation. Cadets were moved one at a time to the other side of the rocks where they stood and looked. 25 items were placed within 25 metres and they had 3 minutes to spot them all and point them out to the OOC or CUO. Graham got 24 of them, failing to notice a shiny brass cartridge case right near his feet. He then went up the gully to another tree to sit in another waiting area. Here he lay down again and this time, heat and ants notwithstanding, he did go to sleep.