"Let me put this next to your arm, Mama," David said as he brought a piece of freshly-peeled sapling into the tent. "I need to measure your size."

As he laid the forked end alongside her shoulder, Rachel said in a whisper, "Seems a lot of discussion on size lately. Confusion also. Maria seems confused. Told her size in the least important thing. Told her it's the man who matters."

"Thanks, Mama, I appreciate the reinforcement," he whispered as he notched the wood with his knife beside the bottom of her heel, at her wrist and at her armpit. "We'll have the first crutch shortly."

He had cut two slender saplings about two feet below the crotches where they had split into twinned trunks reaching upward toward the light. The idea had come to him up on the ridge above O'Hara as he fumbled to assemble a workable crutch from the simple pieces he had brought up from the slide.

After cutting shallow, but effective mortise and tenon joints for the two cross pieces at the wrist marks and half an inch below the tops of the tall Y, he bound the pieces tightly together with sisal line. Then padding the top with a piece of cotton towelling, he bound it with more sisal.

"Mama, crawl out of the tent and try this," he said after about twenty minutes of work. "Let me give you a hand."

David helped Rachel to stand on her good foot as she came out, then handed her the crutch. "Give this a try, see how it works. Have you used crutches before?"

"Many years ago, when I was still in school. I broke my lower leg and ankle when I fell off a velocipede. It took a long time to mend, and I got pretty good at using crutches. I'm sure my body still remembers the process."

Rachel took a few trial steps with her left foot off the ground, then took another with it lightly taking some weight. "There is no additional pain when I step lightly. This is an excellent crutch."

"Any adjustments? Any changes you'd suggest?"

She took several more steps, moved her hand around, shifted the top cushion under her arm, looked up and down the crutch, and said, "I can see nothing to change."

"Good, I'll start on the second one. I'll need this as a pattern, and you need to get your foot elevated again. How's the swelling?"

"It seems to be good now," Rachel said as she hobbled over toward where Maria was preparing dinner. She lay on her back on the moss and placed her taped foot up the trunk of a tree.

David took the crutch and headed back toward his workplace, asking, "How long before dinner is ready?"

"Another twenty-five or thirty minutes; I'm about to add the carrots and turnips."

"The second crutch should take about the same. We'll eat when it's done."

Maria stood. "I'll go wet some towels for your foot."

"That would be nice, Sweetheart. It eases the ache, but more, we need to make sure the swelling doesn't come back. We need to get this thing working again."

David came back a little over twenty-five minutes later with the second crutch. "I lashed a stout stick between a pair of small trees down there." He turned and pointed. "That's our new latrine. It's not fancy, simply something to sit on. Squatting would be awkward with your ankle."

"The turnip is still a bit hard, maybe five more minutes. It'll start getting get dark shortly. Is it still safe to use the stove?"

"I think it's safe. When I was looking for crutch wood, I took a look from the edge of this stand of trees, out across the fields and down the slopes. I could see the church dome and the roofs of buildings in the village. There don't appear to be any roads over on that side, nor any buildings above the village."

"It's the same on the other side," Rachel said. "Up both sides of this rocky spur are steep grazing pastures. We never saw any roads or trails in them, I can't even remember grazing cattle there. I can't imagine anyone coming up in the dark."

Rachel lay on her front, propped up on an elbow with her left knee bent and her taped foot in the air with a wet towel wound around it as she spooned the thick stew to her mouth. "This is delicious, well worth waiting for. It's much better than any hospital food I can remember."

They lay around for a long while after the last of the stew was gone, quietly talking as the last of the light faded. David lit the candle in his unfolded lantern and watched it light the tall trees around them. Then he lit Maria's cylindrical lamp. "I'm taking my lantern for a walk to find out how far the light from yours extends through the trees."

He walked about forty yards until he lost sight of the last of the illuminated trees around their camp, then sitting on a log, he snuffed the candle and waited for his eyes to adjust to the dark. He was surprised by the faint glow of light above him. The few bits of light which had made it up through the trees were illuminating the base of the low clouds.

Looking back across the slope, he strained to see light from their camp, and as his eyes gradually became accustomed to the black night, a faint loom of light appeared. He lit the candle again and carefully picked his way another thirty yards toward the edge of the pasture, snuffed the candle and waited again for his eyes to accustom.

After he confirmed there was no hint of light through the screen of trees, he lit the candle again and continued to the edge of the wood, snuffing the light as he arrived. He stepped out into the pasture and saw the lamps of the town lighting the valley bottom.

Those will impair the night vision of people down there. They won't see our faint glow on the cloud bottoms.

He sat in the grass, which was now rather wet from the evening dew, and closed his eyes to allow his pupils to dilate again. After two minutes he looked back into the trees trying to catch a hint of light. There was none. The bottoms of the clouds had a faint glow from camp.

Much diminished by the glow the lights of the town puts on them. They won't see ours, let alone their own.

Satisfied, he picked his way back into the trees a few yards, lit the candle and made his way back toward camp and explained his observations when he arrived. "We're invisible from the meadow and from below, but from about fifty or sixty yards into the trees from there, our light becomes increasingly visible."

"So does that mean we can keep a candle burning in here?" Rachel asked.

"We light up the cloud base above us, but the lights from the town below mask that. I feel it's safe to use the lanterns to find our way around, but we should still be careful and put them out unless needed."

<><><>

It was raining lightly on Tuesday morning when he woke. He heard big splats above him as accumulated drops fell from the trees onto the oiled canvas. He was alone in the tent, but the spaces in front of him and behind were still warm, so he knew the girls had just left.

Probably disturbed my sleep as they got up.

David checked the interior of the tent and was pleased to find everything dry.

The canvas cover is doing its job well, he thought as he looked at his watch and wound it. It's almost seven thirty, we've slept well again.

Voices sounded in the distance, men's voices. Many voices shouting incoherently and mixed with loud whistling. He reached for the pistol case, confirmed it was there, then quickly pulled on his trousers. He thrust his feet into his shoes sockless, laced and tied them, grabbed his jacket and ducked out through the entrance of the tent as he took the pistol from its the case.

He stood still under the edge of the canvas, just out of the light drizzle, as he looked through the screen of trees, but he saw nothing moving, nothing unusual. He paused his breathing to focus on listening, but he heard no more voices. There had been none since the first long outburst a minute or so before.

As he stepped out into the light drizzle, he sensed it was probably a thick mist. The clouds had come back down overnight and had settled into the trees. With the pistol safety lever off, he moved down the slope toward the source of the voices, taking cover behind each large tree as he descended. He heard the sharp crack of a gunshot. Then there was silence.

The snapping and cracking of twigs quite close down the slope broke the silence. He peeked around the tree toward the sound and spotted Maria and Rachel, each standing bottomless in their jackets next to large tree trunks a short distance above the latrine.

Then from down the slope beyond them came a shout: "Großer Schuss, Heinrich, gerade durch den Kopf"

David watched as several old men converged, appearing and disappearing through the screen of trees and mist. He listened to the rounds of congratulations as he slowly made his way down to the girls and stood with Maria behind her tree. She was shivering.

"Wildschwein, they were cornering a Wildschwein," she whispered. "We were on our way to pee when we heard voices below making noise and whistling, then on our right, we watched a line of men sweeping across the slope only twenty metres below us. I still need to pee. Even more, now I'm cold."

"Do it here. We're hidden from their view behind this tree. They're too focused on their boar to spot us up here anyway," he said as she squatted. He turned and unbuttoned his trouser front, "I have to go myself." Off to his right, he watched Rachel standing with an arched back and letting go a long yellow arc.

Strange... I've not before thought of women standing to pee. Actually, never thought about the details of their peeing.

After relieving themselves, David and Maria looked at the hunting party, then scooted across to Rachel's tree. "Now that we're all more relaxed, let's sort out what to do," he whispered. "Will they dress their kill there, or carry it intact to the valley?"

"Probably carry it down. Dress it there," Rachel whispered. "Feed the entrails to their livestock. Everybody's desperate for food now with the war. But before they go, they'll pass around a flask of schnapps, most likely kirsch to celebrate. Edom was..."

She hadn't quite finished her sentence when they heard the beginnings of toasts and laughter from down the slope.

"Edom was on several boar hunts, and he told us about the strict control. Organised noise-making from one line of men while another line advances from the other side of the slope, sweeping diagonally upward. They form a wedge and corner their prey, spooking it in the process. Only one person with a gun. Usually only one shot... Well, except for the many shots of schnapps."

They waited several more minutes, then watched four men shoulder a thick pole with the boar suspended by its lashed feet. The group slowly moved across the slope to the right, toward the pasture, the men talking excitedly as they went.

"They all look old — I guess the young ones are caught up in the war," Rachel said as they watched the hunting party retreat. "I'm sure those men want this war as little as we do."

"We were told in our training that neither side wants the killing and the destruction," David said as he ran his fingers through his hair. "I keep thinking how hard this must be for the families back home, reading newspaper reports, but not knowing what's happening with us. I wish I could let them know I'm safe."