Training by Kate

Kate was a gentle soul. A gracious soul. Gracious in her movements, gracious in her manners. She had a knack of knowing something about you, before you even talked about it. She was very tuned to the people around her. To each of us. But she was also shy. Well, she wasn’t shy about how to fish, how to make a fire. She would correct our mistakes very quickly, but it was done politely, without a single harsh word, without a single joke. If Kylie made a joke, at our expense, she would step in. But then again, she would retaliate to Kylie with inuendo we had no idea what is was about. It would make Kylie apologize to us and return to the training. Sometimes I wondered if Kate and Kylie were more than just friends. They fit each other like a hand and a glove.

What she was shy about was talking about the commander, or Alex as she always called him. Like he wasn’t her commanding officer. Whenever we called him the commander, a redness would creep up on her cheeks. She was clearly prone to blushing, we all noticed at once.

Kate made us clear we would operate as an unformal section. We would need to learn to act as one single unit. Trust on each other. Respect each other. Care for each other. Alex was at the moment the interim-leader of this section or squad as she referred to our group, to make a distinction with Alex’ section. It was inevitable we asked who amongst us would lead us. The answer was simple: Alex would decide on the training reports of the officers, his own observations, after-action reports and above all, his own intuition. He would also evaluate our progress, make corrections about our individual training, guide us in training missions single-handedly.

While some of us flinched at that prospect, Sophia and Clara didn’t. Perhaps under the guise of asking an innocent question, Clara asked about the aspect of seeking comfort in each other. Kate replied that the army in their first week of training had told them it was indeed very important to seek comfort in each other, but also to give comfort when you noticed one of your group was very stressed, as Alex sometimes was. She probably meant it as trying to console each other, listening to other people, trying to ease the **** emotions. However, when she said it, we all saw her blushing when she mentioned Alex, a bit more than usual.

Given her fondness for Kylie, Kylie being with the commander and Kate clearly dreaming about the commander at times, the puzzles pieces started to make a bit more sense. I sensed there was a love triangle going on their section, which I told the others, but Sophia and Clara were barely surprised. If anything it caused them to wonder about possibilities with the man, they were rapidly falling for. I couldn’t exactly understand why he had that effect, perhaps they were idolizing him in their own mind. Seeing things in him, that weren’t there at all. The man had no sense of humor at all, frowned constantly at us, even angry, ordering us like we were small children. Perhaps we were in his mind. It was better than being dust in his eyes, but still.

I had no idea how Kara fitted into their section dynamics. She adored the man. When we returned from another house stripping, she hugged him very lovingly. And he reacted very gentle. Intrigued I asked Kara about it. Why isn’t Kylie mad about her giving the commander a hug? She responded that Kylie didn’t mind about her giving Alex some attention. Which in effect confirmed by suspicions. The three young women all loved Alex and all had agreed to make the best of it. Clara then said to Kara, under the guise of her carefree innocence, she noticed all of the training officers had a way of looking at each other, looking at Alex, and Alex looking at them. She said she couldn’t lay her finger on it, but the way of looking at each other reminded her of the way her parents always looked at each other. Sophia heard and then said it was strange that Kylie only smiled lovingly at Kate, when she at one time was dreamingly staring at the commander.

All of us three, Clara, Sophia and me were on to it. That all the young women of Alex’ section had a love relation with him. Probably Kate and Kylie were also together. But I wasn’t sure if Alex knew that. The only thing we didn’t know was how the commander, Alex had managed to form that kind of special agreement, and how the hell he had persuaded to have all three to have a relation with him, at the same time. It didn’t bother Clara and Sophia in the least. If anything it encouraged them to get closer to him. Clara in her usual innocent self, Sophia openly trying to vie for attention, both failing miserably.