The Grape Juice
The rain beat down on the ground all around us. Thunder rumbled like the belly of a hungry tiger and lightning flashed, brightening the dark sky. Steve Rogers had a pencil in his hand, currently sketching a monkey in a ‘star-spangled’ costume, riding a unicycle. He had just finished talking to a crowd of worn-out soldiers, humiliating himself in the process.
In an attempt to cheer him up, I spoke about nonsense that he clearly didn’t care for, but when I realized he wasn’t paying attention, I opened up my book and continued reading.
I had been around the camp more and more recently, my pa being one of the people who was helping Mr. Stark build a plane. I felt that he was much too smart to ask my pa for help, but he probably just wanted the company and someone to talk about the plane with. In the time I’ve been spending at the camp, I’ve been getting to know Steve quite a bit more. From time to time, he’ll leave to put on a show here and there, hoping to make more bond sales for the war.
Steve had begun to take on a big brother role in my life, showing me his sketches, telling me stories about him and Bucky Barnes, and bullying me all the time. And in return, I picked on him and told him stories, swearing him to secrecy. And at times like this, when he needed silence, we sat in each other's company and were silent, reading and sketching.
At some point, I stopped reading and started listening to the rolling thunder and the falling rain, letting the cold breeze coat my pale skin. I shivered, wrapping my brown aviator jacket closer to my chest, and crossed my ankles that were covered by my baggy pants. My eyes were closed and my head was resting on a wooden beam behind me.
“Hello Steve, Ara,” I opened my eyes to see Peggy Carter standing to my right, on the steps above.
Since our first meeting, I’ve seen Peggy a few times as well. We weren’t as close as Steve and I, but we knew each other fairly well. I looked up to her and frequently asked her any tips on how to be a woman in power, like her. She’s helped me with crises my pa hadn’t been able to help me with.
Steve looked up, shock evident on his features, “Hi,” his body shuffled to turn more towards her.
“Hi,” she replied again, moving to sit next to me.
I stayed silent, offering her a smile and closing my book.
“What are you doing here?” Steve’s voice became confused. Peggy had been away, doing more planning and training with other soldiers who weren’t him.
“Officially I’m not here at all,” her English accent was thick as she spoke, “that was quite a performance.” She folded her jacket over her arm and sat on the stage, crossing her legs at her ankles.
Finally, Steve was able to compose himself and wipe the surprise off his face, looking more like a kicked puppy, “Yeah, uh, I had to improvise a little bit,” I snorted and he side glanced at me, silently telling me to shut it. I smiled, holding back another laugh, and looked down letting my brown hair blanketing over my eyes.
He looked away, back towards the rain and the buildings flooded beneath it, “The crowds I’m used to are usually more, uh,” he tilted his head sideways, pausing for a beat, “twelve.”
Peggy stared at him hard, “I understand you are ‘America’s new hope’.” I looked away from both of them, watching people walk in and out of a medical tent behind them, choosing to ignore the conversation.
“Bond sales take a 10% bump in every state I visit,” he voices as if he were made to remember it. And he was, every time he talked to Senator Bradnt about being able to contribute more to the war, that’s what he was told.
Peggy hadn’t missed that, “Is that Senator Bradnt I hear?” Her eyes were slightly squinted as if trying to figure him out, but the rest of her face gave way to no thought.
Steve hung his head in shame, swallowing hard, then finally responded, “At least he’s got me doing this. Philips would have had me stuck in a lab.”
“And these are your only two options? A lab rat or a dancing monkey ?” She pointedly looked towards his sketch, “You were meant for more than this, you know.”
He knew, of course, Steve knew. He had told me all the time that he was meant for the front lines and to actually fight in the war, rather than to be forced on the stage and be monkeyed.
His silence only ended in a knowing stare and a pushing question from Peggy, “What?”
That’s all it took for Steve to explain himself, “You know, for the longest time, I dreamed about… coming overseas and being on the front lines, serving my country…I finally got everything I wanted,” he clenched and unclenched his jaw, “and I’m wearing tights.”
A medical car pulled up, honking incessantly. Three medics responded, opening the back doors hurriedly and pulling the bandaged man out of the car. I grimaced seeing the blood seep through and his lack of a lower leg.
“They look like they’ve been through hell.”
I quickly looked toward Steve and responded “Through hell? It looks like he had a boxing match with the devil.”
Peggy turned back around and dipped her head in a slow nod, “You’re not too far off.”
I sent her a questioning look and she continued, “Schmidt sent out a force to Azzano. Two hundred men went up against him, and less than 50 returned. Your audience contained what was left of the 107th.”
My heart dropped down to my stomach and I felt like I was going to puke. Not too long ago, Steve had told me that Barnes was apart of that regiment.
“The rest were killed or captured-”
“The 107th?” Steve looked pale and he began to stand up.
We quickly stood up and next thing I knew, we were running through the pouring rain to Colonel Phillips for a deceased list.
“Steve, you cannot just go to Austria and liberate them like some- some god!”
“No, not like some god, but like some soldier,” he barely spared me a glance as he shoved extra gear and clothing into a big, brown duffle bag, “the soldier I am supposed to be, Ara.”
“They are forming a plan, right now, if you just wait-”
He shrugged on a brown leather jacket, like my own, and whirled around towards the opening of the tent, “By the time they do that, it could be too late.”
I shared an exasperated look with Peggy, and we both followed him outside. He was loading a Jeep, then turned around, looking at Peggy.
“You told me you thought I was meant for more than this. Did you mean that?”
She took in a deep breath, “every word.”
He turned his blue eyes to me, tilting his head down to get a straight shot for eye contact, “and you told me that you would always back me up no matter how stupid the decision. Are you going to back me up?”
I clenched my jaw and sighed, long and hard. I looked away, back towards the medical tent, where the victim was now getting sewn up. If we didn’t go help the 107th, there could be hundreds more dead. If I didn’t go, Steve would still go, but without me. And without me, Steve would probably die due to his poor planning skills.
I looked back, staring hard into his blue eyes, “I owe you one for the grape juice incident. Of course, I’ll back you up.”
Steve cracked a smile, and that was a powerful thing right now. Even though it only lasted a few seconds before he spoke again, “Then you’ll both let me go.”
He climbed into the Jeep, but before he could start it, I put my hand on the door, “I could do more than that.”
He stared at me and glanced at Peggy, who seemed to understand what I was talking about.