The Spoon

Our company stared at his lifeless corpse on the floor, mouths aghast, Colonel David dead on the floor of the barracks. “I can’t believe this,” Tyler whispers with a tear in his eye “out of all people how is he dead.” I trek over to his body, while still in considerable shock, and notice out of the corner of my eye a bloody spoon in his hand. I start to slowly approach him, but the medic and some of the officers start screaming “Get away from the body,” to me and all the people that try to approach him. They pick him up, but the officers look even more rigid than they have been carrying him away. We are eventually forced to go back to training. During PT, there is an unusual buzz from everyone. “What do you think happened?” “I don’t know man, it all seems so sudden.” I tell Tyler solemnly. “Do you think there could be a spy?” “Probably not, killing him would make no sense, we would eventually find out who it was. In addition, the Colonel was the most tactical and intelligent person in the whole platoon. He was the last person I would suspect to die in this whole war ""The Germans could’ve used this to cause chaos internally ""I doubt that this war in itself causes enough chaos. I think this whole thing is so surprising because of how he died. He didn’t die in some grand way, but he died on the floor. It just feels weird and nothing adds up.” Tyler nods adamantly as I tell him this, but I can tell his brain is working on what it could be.

The rest of the days passed by like a candle in hell, and once all our military duty was done for the day, I decided to do a little detective work of my own. Tyler and I travel over to the medical ward. We hear the screams coming from the ward, after our battle in Britain, and feel a knot in my stomach as we enter the ward. “Doctor Hernando how are you doing” “I am about as good as anyone here” he indicates to us sadly. “Did you get any signs of how Colonel could’ve died?” I ask patiently “I have absolutely no idea, his body is scarred everywhere and he could’ve died many thousands of different ways.” He says rapidly, talking like he has been keeping that on his chest all day. As we thank the Doctor and leave, all the different scenarios go in my head from him dying from a heartache, from him dying from tripping and falling on the floors as he walks to his bed.

We walk to the mess for dinner, and a realization clicks in my head. “Was Colonel with us at dinner last night.” “He was there for a couple minutes, but then he said he had to go to the bathroom.” That was all I needed, sprinted to Doctor Hernando at his table and asked to speak to him privately. “Doctor, I think I know how he died. After leaving dinner I didn’t see him after he said he had to go to the bathroom. He must have gotten food poisoning because the bathrooms smelled horrible today, and he might’ve spit blood and.” Hernando cuts me off. “Tyler you may be right, but the truth is, it doesn’t matter in the slightest how he died. His last moments were probably similar to what you told me, so what, You and I have seen more death than almost all the war. This was not anything different” I’m taken aback “How could you say something like that about Colonel, he was one of the one people that felt like a firm foundation, someone who would never die, someone eternal” I start to tear up, “Hey, don’t put words in my mouth I never said. I cared about David just as much as the rest of you, but sulking will not bring him back. We have a war to fight and we can’t risk even a moment of weakness” I nod, but still feel hurt. I barely touch my dinner and go straight to bed.

The next day, they have a nice, little service for him, but I still feel uneasy. He deserved better. As he goes into the ground I remember all the time we spent together, doing drills, learning different formations, and everything needed to survive on the field. Even though most of those went out the window in the actual fight, Colonel possessed a power that no one else had, a commanding presence that demanded respect. Even though he has this, he was still kind and gentle, and never said anything he didn’t mean with his heart. He was mine and the company's role model. As he gets lowered into the ground, a single tear goes on my face, hitting the ground to be lost eternity. Even though this death stings like a bee, I reflect on what Hernando told me and realize he was right, this can only be a day of weakness because the world is depending on us. Colonel was not the first, and is definitely not going to be that last one to die in this god forsaken war, but I pray that we can find peace and solace in the face of fear and death, like Colonel probably did. When the service is over, we all get back to work, and I train like never before because we have a way to win, and Colonel's sacrifice will not be in vain.