Them Bones

THE BOX IV

Smith’s Diary

I came out of my tent to go on Officer of the Guard duty just after sundown.

The bluff was already dark behind us. Somebody had been fishing and was coming back with some catfish from the bayou.

We had all turned into pretty decent fishermen in the last two weeks. The smell of cooking meat came from the cook shack. Tomorrow’s breakfast and lunch. We weren’t tired of venison yet.

The loudspeaker was on. A lull was settling over the camp. People were sitting around talking. The sentries were in their bunkers toward the bayou and up on the bluff. There was a light on in Spaulding’s tent, the only light not made by fires. There was laughter and low talk from the soldiers. I went up on the bluff and said hello to the guards.

The moon was coming up like a pumpkin over the water. The camp was settling toward a night of sleep. The bayou turned into a flat tree-lined sheet of glass with an orange strip of moonlight in it. Bats flew across the face of the moon.

Moonlight Serenade came on the loudspeaker.

It was real neat.