Aiguille d’Argentière area, French Alps
‘’HAVE A NICE CHRISTMAS WITH YOUR FAMILY, SAMUEL, AND DON’T DO
ANYTHING THAT I WON’T DO!’
‘’AND WHAT WOULD YOU NOT DO, KIN?’’
Samuel Benchetrit’s retort to Kin triggered a collective round of laughter as the mule handler stepped out of the refuge with the other married men who were returning to Annecy for ten days in order to be able to spend the holiday season with their families.
Master corporal Réjean Fortier, who was now in temporary charge of Mortar Detachment Alpha, then faced back the remaining five men of their sub-unit.
‘’Alright, guys, time to get back to work. I want all our equipment checked and readied, with fresh supplies put in our toboggan for this afternoon, so that we could go relieve Detachment Bravo at the observation outpost before nightfall.’
His subalterns obeyed him at once and returned upstairs to their assigned room, where they finished putting their things in order and cleaned their weapons. Since that firefight with armed smugglers which had cost the life of Charles Jumonville, the situation had been calm along the border, while few tourists had visited the area in this late year season. As Kin was oiling his rifle, one of his good friends, Hunter First Class Maurice Panetton, asked him a question with a mischievous smile.
‘’So, Kin, do you have a girl in your life?’
Kin stopped his cleaning for a moment while thinking how to phrase his answer to that.
‘’I do, but I have not seen her for a few months now, since she lives with my adoptive mother. You saw Ani when she came to watch our graduation parade, right?’
‘’Yes, but I thought that she was your sister.’
‘’She was adopted at the same time as me by my mother but she is not my biological sister, Maurice. In fact, she doesn’t have any family parentage with me, so
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dating her would not constitute what you could call ‘incest’, even though we now wear the same family name. I must say that I miss her quite a lot lately.’
‘’You could always use one of the street girls in Annecy to relieve yourself until you could see her again, Kin.’ suggested Panetton, still smiling.
‘’And burn the equivalent of a month’s salary in one night, on top of risking to catch a disease? No thank you! Besides, I am not a sex addict…like you!’
Panetton and the other soldiers around them laughed briefly at that, then returned to their cleaning duties.
17:09 (Paris Time)
Tuesday, January 10, 1956 ‘B’