And what had Gabe done? Walked off. Pretended like the conversation hadn’t happened. But at the time, his goal had been to normalize, so when he’d seen Blaze looking at the retractable skewers for roasting marshmallows with abject distaste, Gabe had understood how he felt and offered Blaze his pocketknife.
“Did you need me to wrap your arm again?” he asked. “You didn’t come by last night, or did someone else help you?”
“Oh,” said Blaze with a quick shrug as he licked his fork. “I didn’t want to bother anyone, so I skipped the shower.”
“That’s not right,” said Gabe aloud, even though the thought felt very private. “That cut should be wrapped.” He pushed his empty dessert plate away from him, shaking his head. “After dinner, I can wrap that for you, then you can take a shower, and then I’ll put on a new bandage.”
“That sounds like a lot of hassle,” said Blaze, looking around the table at his team mates as if daring any one of them to disagree with him.
“It’s not a hassle,” said Gabe. He stood up and bussed his dishes, being purposeful in each motion he made to demonstrate that he wasn’t going to budge on this. “That wound needs care, especially in the first few days. You want it to heal properly, right?”
Blaze had stood up and again, he was looking at Gabe like he was trying to figure him out. Then he blinked as if he was trying a different path in his mind, and was looking to Gabe to point him in the right direction.
“I wouldn’t steer you wrong, Blaze,” said Gabe. “C’mon. Let me wrap that, and you can take a nice, hot shower. Get a new bandage on that.”
“Are we going to have a bonfire again?” asked Wayne, almost tripping on Tom’s heels as they bussed their places.
“I thought we’d watch a movie,” said Gabe. “Something different? We’ve got a big projector screen, and I’ve got Netflix and a projector for my laptop, so what’ll it be?” Then, to everyone, he said, “Your teammates will wait till after you’ve had your shower, right guys?”
Wayne and Tom nodded in unison.
“Can we have popcorn, too?” asked Wayne.
“Anything you like,” said Gabe. “We’ll meet back here in half an hour.”
Gabe went to the kitchen to grab the plastic wrap, and when he came out, only Blaze was waiting for him. In the after-dinner quiet, he pushed up the sleeve of Blaze’s t-shirt, gentlytsk tskingat the back of Blaze’s arm, where the scab over the cut, which was around three inches long, looked a little ragged.
“This is the new rule,” he said as he wrapped Blaze’s arm. “Every night after dinner, we’re doing this until the cut heals. You don’t want an infection and you don’t want a huge scar, do you?”
“No,” said Blaze. “I guess not.”
“And you don’t want to go without a shower just because it’s a bit of a hassle, right?”
This question made Blaze smile for some reason, his mouth quirking up at one corner.
“Well?” asked Gabe as he traced the edge of the plastic wrap and tucked in a bit of it to keep it tight.
“I love showers,” said Blaze with a huff of a laugh, as if he was admitting a closely guarded secret he was sure Gabe would make fun of. “It’s what I missed most in prison.”
“Really?” Concentrating on his hands, Gabe tucked the box for the plastic wrap closed, then realized what had just happened: Blaze had shared something personal about himself with Gabe, which deserved more than an absentminded acknowledgement. So he looked up, his attention only on Blaze. “Really?” he asked again. “I guess I’ve not taken the time to imagine what it must have been like. What it would feel like to long for something like a shower, which I have always taken for granted.”
“That’s—” Blaze paused, blinking, swallowing hard. “That’s how it is for a lot of guys,” he said as he curled his fingers around his arm as if to test the tightness of the plastic. “Some guys miss good food. Other guys miss seeing a blue sky without razor wire getting in the way. Me.” He shrugged, dropping his hands at his sides. “I missed hot showers. Long, hot showers.”
“I get that,” said Gabe. “I think I’d miss that, too.” With a small laugh, he shooed Blaze away. “Go take your nice, long, hot shower, and we’ll wait to start the movie until you get here.”
Blaze smiled at him, then, an amazing smile that made something in Gabe’s chest do odd, squirrely things.
“That’s the first time I’ve seen you smile,” he said, even though, once again, he should not have said his private thoughts aloud. Searching for a way to cover this over with something more practical and not so personal, he added, “But I guess it takes a few days to adjust to being out of prison. Which they taught us in training, but I completely forgot.”
Why was he babbling on like this? Except it wasn’t like he’d given away some great, huge trade secret, just a little bit of information about what was going on in his head, same as what Blaze had done.
“A few days,” said Blaze, and his smile widened. “And I guess I’d forgotten what it was like tobeout of prison, to tell you the truth.”
Luckily, before Gabe could utter any more heartfelt comments, with a wave, Blaze went to his shower, leaving Gabe a moment to catch his breath. After which, he went to his tent to grab his laptop, which he set up in the mess tent, along with the projector and the screen, which he checked out from the supply hut.
Tom and Wayne showed up shortly before Blaze did, and together, as a team, they picked out a movie they all would enjoy, which turned out to beGalaxy Quest. Then, in the kitchen, Gabe made popcorn while Tom got everyone their favorite ice cold soda.
They watched the movie together, laughing at the same moments, eating popcorn in lazy handfuls. All of which made Gabe very proud of his team’s progress. Only a few days before, they’d been standing in a row, fearful of what might happen to them. And though, perhaps their trust levels weren’t as high as he’d like them to be, he knew they were off to a good start.
