Continuing the Letters exchanged between Beach and Aunt Beth. Sorry for the delay, this would be from before Beachhead leaves Benning.

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Dear Aunt Beth,

Well I'm writing this from another Benning hospital bed. I'm supposed to be resting but I'm dead bored and I just don't quite feel up to walking out yet. That and the doctor put locking restraints on me so I can't go more than arm's length anyway. Courtney just went to go find some dinner for herself. I sure don't feel like eating yet. My head is still killing me.

Oh, I guess I should tell you why I'm here. Well, there's not a really delicate way to say it, but I guess there was this bullet. And it wanted to occupy the space my head was in, so we had a bit of a conflict. I still couldn't say which of us won, but from the size of my headache, it might have come out on top. I can't tell you how it happened, it was a 'accidental shooting'. But I'm going to be just fine, as soon as they let me out, I'm headed back to base, just a bit dented.

To tell you the truth, and don't you repeat this, but I'm glad to have the excuse to lie here. So far I got half run down by a truck, had a C4 satchel charge go off within a couple feet of me, and you know about the parachute thing. Then Courtney kept me out all night at a bar dancing. I think the bar took more out of me than all the rest of the incidents AND the competitions put together. Heck, just getting knocked out by Squiggy is enough to make most folks want to go to bed for a day or so.

I think that Courtney and I will do okay. This week has kind of been hard as heck on me, but I guess it's some of that 'growing' stuff. I mean, I do trust her more than most anyone else ever. Some stuff that's happened kind of made me want to rethink that. Getting betrayed by a old friend just kind of throws everything out of kilter. But I had to think about whether to let that mess up the stuff we've already worked through together, or put it aside and go on with life. I guess I'll find out if I made the wrong choice or not.

Anyhow, I didn't want you to hear about me getting shot from some other source and get all kinds of mad that I hadn't told you. Plus this was a good excuse to get a pen from the nurses. Now I have something to pick the lock on this restraint with, instead of just dragging the whole bed out into the hall. Like I said, it's not that I want to really leave, but I do have a reputation to uphold.

Best wishes,

Wayne.

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Dear Wayne,

You were shot in the head? I'm going to assume that is some sort of a joke or means something other than what I would think. I wish that if you were hurt in some way again, you would have called me. I wouldn't have been all that far away and I would have driven down. You know that.

Seth is here as well today and he said you were probably really shot but shrugged and "walked it off". He's probably correct, you're just hard headed enough to try to do that.

It was wonderful to see you again and Courtney is as lovely as ever. The parachute jump was every bit as exciting as I anticipated, even if it had such a terrifying outcome. I hope that you are still fine and were not too sore and bruised up afterwards.

Once we made it home, I found Sissy was out again so it took us all night to find her almost a mile away in someone's back yard. They were quite surprised when a cow walked up into their yard! So not knowing what to do they put her into the back yard with some bread and called the police. Once everyone got onto the same page, it worked out fine.

I hope that the rest of the week went smoothly and that you placed highly in all your contests. I'm certain you did, as I know what a high standard you set for yourself. I hate to make this such a short letter, but I have to get out to the milk room and turn all the butters and check on all the cheeses. With any luck some more cheese will finish curing soon and I can send some out for you to try.

All my love,

Aunt Beth

P.S. You weren't really shot in the head, were you? It was someone threw a bullet at your head, right?