Hansel and Marion Ch 55

Big post! Big post! To sum it up this chapter roughly covers the point from the last chapter all the way up to the 90’s. Now it’s not everything, but it sums up some key points. Now this isn’t the end of HaM in general, but this is the end of this era, so to say. They now move into the new age, the one we are in, and have to deal with a new generation and new challenges. Things should start coming into stronger effect and other goodies await.

Enjoy!

Hansel and Marion Ch 55
Hansel and Marion waited about a year before they tried for another baby. In this time they did some more thorough planning based off of what happened with Marion’s pregnancy with Hannah, and they adjusted their lives to live with their newest addition to the family. In the time they planned and prepared they also took on house renovations, new technology was coming out and so Hansel and Marion worked on the side to incorporate these new inventions into their house. First was a new oven, it had a sort of grill on the top of it so it could cook soups and meats on the top while it baked bread, cookies, or whole chickens! Marion was very appreciative of Hansel’s gift but she didn’t use it very much until she noticed how much Hannah liked the cake she’d make. Hannah grew rapidly, in just that year they watched Hannah grow half her size bigger, and once eat a whole plane’s wing from the junk pile in one sitting. Hannah’s intelligence blew their minds, too, she was speaking basic words, both German and English, in a month, and she knew phrases in another month. Hansel would brag and boast about his new baby whenever he could, to Whacker, to his parents, to his sister, to the other tanks, anyone he could without breaking the secrecy of their existence. They loved Hannah so much, and whenever they could they showed her off. When Cindy saw Hannah she instantly took her as her sister, she tried to pick up her sister but after Hannah was picked up off of her wheels Cindy’s eyes widened and her turret face flushed with exertion.
When Hansel and Marion did engage and commit to their second child it was much smoother than making Hannah. Marion’s sexual urges and needs were dealt with better and yet Hansel only committed a little more seed than he did with Hannah. He was still extremely paranoid about hurting the baby, but was more accepting with sexually pleasing Marion. The time came a lot faster than it did with Hannah, which drug on for seemingly forever with her pregnancy, and when the time was approaching they were ready. All the steps had been made and all the questions had been answered by Hannah’s coming. Their second child’s birth, a son and still a tank like his mother and sister, was much smoother and less strenuous as Hannah’s. With this birth Hansel’s parents were here to visit, they had found the time and money to come over and visit America and visit their children and grandchildren. Mrs. Walter helped encourage and keep Marion going while Mr. Walter just stood off to the side completely entranced in wonderment, looking off past everyone. They did help clean the newborn, and wrap him up in cloth to keep him warm. His name was Tyler, and he made them just as happy as Hannah.
Hannah didn’t meet him for a week, and when they did meet, Hannah instantly began picking on her younger brother, poking him in the loader’s periscope discomfortably for which he grabbed her gun and pulled it around angrily. This began the long and predicted sibling rivalry. Other than the usual tease these kids didn’t fight each other. Being so isolated from anything else they formed a tight bond. While they did have many chances to go out and play with the other kids on the bases they loved their vast yard to play in. Sometimes Hansel would take a week off from work to spend time with his family and whenever he did they played “Panzerwaffe” and they would hunt each other, make little forts, and try to beat each other in very competitive fashion during these war games. Most of the time they were pleasant and peaceful, but sometimes as siblings are they would fight or get emotional or get too rough with each other.
As a father, Hansel was supposed to be the discipline figure in the family, he made and enfored the rules and made sure the kids didn’t act up. He would try his hardest but often times whenever Hannah or Tyler did act up they would shrug him off, so he got creative with his punishments, but sometimes it was Marion who had to set them straight. This was another reason Marion wanted a human child, she didn’t like doing that and wished Hansel would do it instead. Even though both parents would be the hard one and the easy one, it didn’t affect how either child was raised well and they were respectable, hard working, with the same values and morals of their parents. Hansel and Marion did well raising them. They were good kids, they really didn’t act out much, Hannah was much easier than Tyler though, but overall they made Hansel and Marion proud, happy, and ever grateful of them. Most of the time Marion would teach her children math, grammar, reading, writing, science, and all of that sort of stuff, but when her limits of knowledge was reaching closer she decided to send them to school with the other kids on base. It was a long travel every day, one that she made with them every day, and this made their maintenance and upkeep rise.
Hansel was responsible for making sure that his family was mechanically sound, he did weekly checks on his wife and kids, checking their engines, liquid levels, and made sure they were oiled up. Whenever they hurt or felt bad he fixed them or did his best to remedy the pain. He made them linen skirts for their hulls so he didn’t have to make like forty sets of side skirts for them, he rigged their drive wheels to their wheels with cables so they could move, and ensured that their wooden tracks fit right. They had gotten track and skirt and tool sets from the base, they kept a stockpile of these things for the living tanks and had some limited equipment to make replacement parts, for when the kids grew to full size. Early on Hansel and Marion tried to get some engine oils into Hannah, but she’d down the oil and an hour later she’d be sitting in a puddle of it. She couldn’t seem to hold it at all. It wasn’t until her engine fully developed after two years when she cried for oil again. They did the same with Tyler.
Hansel and Marion knew that their kids wouldn’t be very socially adept because of how limited their social pool was, so they got their kids into a pen-pal group so they could practice speech, writing, and reading as well. Before their letters were sent Marion would proof read them for any classified material. It wasn’t until the kids were a maturing age when Hansel and Marion not only gave them the Birds and the Bees talk but also explained to them that they were classified. Neither of the parents really talked much about their service, they did explain about the war and what happened, the crimes that Hitler’s regime did, and why America was a good country. They enforced the concept that regardless of race or religion, a person is a person, and that you respect and treat them all equally. Hansel and Marion had seem some impressive feats and knew that no matter the background a human being is a human being. Their kids would ask about some stories from the war and Hansel and Marion would oblige them, but they never actively told stories. Some of the other tanks, however, told stories all the time. The kids loved going over to Frau and Canine’s place (Canine’s body was rebuilt and experiments were performed that reactivated him, to Frau’s everlasting gratitude) for their war stories. the crew were seen as uncles and their wives as aunts, their kids as cousins, and thus all the tanks and such were all interweaved as family, one large family. Whacker and Shellproof visited often, and Adler, through them, also grew close to Hannah and Tyler. Shellproof was very fond of the kids and that made her push and beg Whacker for kids of their own, when that time did come they produced a human baby. Their kid made Marion rub it in Hansel’s face, every time they visited each other Marion asked how they got a human kid, and would grudgingly look at Hansel when she recited Shellproof’s answer, just to spite Hansel. Hansel would always sort of disinterest himself and look off, regretting his over cautious nature.
Times changed, the world Hansel and Marion knew was changing, and their kids were growing eager and anxious, in the late sixties news reports and footage on the new televisions showed American soldiers fighting in Vietnam, and this made Tyler want to go enlist like his father did before him, Hansel was worried about the fighting style he’d be facing. Betty and Banker had to serve in the Army through the Korean War and heard the scary stories of how the Koreans fought in the jungle. Marion was extra worried, she couldn’t sleep through the whole night because of it. When he did turn 18 in 1970, they couldn’t stop him from driving up to the base, and talking to a recruiter to get him in. Hansel and Marion supported and loved him, but they expressed their worries to him. While paperwork was going through and plans were being made for him Hansel had Tyler, Banker, Betty, Fritz, and a few other veterans gather around and talk to him about combat. They didn’t sugar coat anything, they sat down, and told him what to expect, what to do, and what he will see. Tyler stood tall and said he’d be ready, but the hardened veterans couldn’t help but look at him and see themselves, see the hundreds of new recruits, and see the boys that said that but never survived the first day.
The day came, Tyler’s ship out date. Hannah poked him in the periscope one more time before she hugged him, then he embraced his bawling mother as she grabbed him in a vice grip. He assured her he’d do alright, he’d come back, and she begged him to. She begged him to keep his cupola down. Next he went to his father, who hugged him and shook his hand, wishing him luck. Tyler moved over to say his goodbyes to Fritz, who wanted to join up, too, to keep Tyler safe but he wasn’t let in. Next he went over and said his goodbyes to family like Whacker, Shellproof, Adler, Jager, Mini, Kramia, Frau, Canine, Zwei, Betty, Banker, Erika, Inbred, and many, many more. Almost the whole base waved him off. One of the last people to say goodbye was Devestator, he wasn’t too close to Tyler, but when Tyler said his farewells to him he pulled Tyler close and whispered to him. “Whatever you do, do not take advantage of any women over there. Do not do it. It will be the guiltiest decision you ever made.” Tyler wasn’t sure what that meant but agreed to it. Before he left he went back to Hansel, Marion had to leave she was crying so much, and Hansel and him sat there in silence before he finally piped up.
“I’mma make you proud, father.”
“You already have, son. I’m always proud of you.”
With that, he left for refit and boot camp. Marion worried about him and had hundreds, thousands of sleepless nights and nightmares, she was going crazy about her baby boy off in war. She was glued to the radio and television, she’d keep every single letter she got from him on her at all times. She had all these luck charms she had and she prayed for his safety multiple times a day. Hansel was much more confident in his son. His son had thick armor, he was strong, he knew that he’d be fine. Did he ever get restless about his son? Definitely, he thought about his son every day. He just was less stressed about it. Hannah was attending higher education schools in history and engineering, and was helping her parents out by doing some more work around the house and yard.
Tyler’s time at bootcamp was certainly strange, he was in a platoon of four other tanks, all new tanks, they were Patton tanks, all expected to make it through and get into their units in Vietnam. Tyler was not expected to make it. There were plans and measures ready to be made for if he made it, but they weren’t committing to him yet. His Drill Sergeants were all Korean vets, a Sherman tank, Easy-8 model, and two Pershing tanks. They broke the recruits and shaped them into military material. To everyone’s surprise Tyler was one of the best recruits they had. He out shined his peers with his dedication. He wasn’t an exact copy of his mother, as it turned out his armor was generally thinner everywhere, his engine was stronger, and various parts of him were more flesh and less metallic, most notably his hands. His hands just looked like someone dipped a human hand in gunmetal paint. In other areas, like his manhood, he was also more human than say Fritz would be.
He wrote home as often as possible and wished that his parents could make it to his graduation. As soon as he could he made a phone call home, his mother’s voice was the best thing he’s heard in his life. This inability to get around the country made Hansel depressed, he decided to invest in some large equipment to get Marion around on the roads. Once he found some suitable equipment he began saving for it and made it his highest priority. His dreams of Rudolph were coming back, and things were making more sense.
Tyler’s renovations were numerous, first off his gun was removed from his turret and sent home. That was a terrifying morning for his Mother, it’s not a good thing opening a box and seeing your son’s limb stuffed in it. Nonetheless his gun was the newest and best gun on a tank, the British made L7A3 one-hundred-and-five millimeter gun. It was a marvelous gun and one he grew to love the first range day he had. Another renovation was changing the engine, this was a much more complicated task, the transmission layout remained the same so that the strongest engine they had could be fitted into his aft end. It made him sick and uncomfortable for a month but after that his body accepted the new engine he also grew to love the extra umpf it had. Next was armor, his armor while thinner than his mother’s was still on par with the M48 Patton model, but that was still inadequate for the newest rounds flying around. New and experimental reactive armor was put onto his hide to help mitigate the effects of this threat. His tracks were also overhauled and sent home, the tracks were replaced with more modern rubber padded tracks for better traction. He was a little cautious about the tracks but he made them work. Next was an overhaul of his optics, his crew dropped from five to four, as he would be the loader and assist a designated gunner with aiming. To his surprise the hull machine gunner would remain because of the number of infantry that is fought in the jungles. That makes another point that’s changed, his machine gun ports are all rebuilt to carry either the .30 cal or the new 7.62mm M60 “Pig” machine gun. It looked a lot like the MG 42 his mother had on her. The last major modification he underwent was the replacement of his cupola, his old low profile hatch was replaced with the mini MG turret seen on the Pattons. He didn’t like it, it jutted out and made him even taller, not only that but it was an annoyance to keep in line. Of all the changes he went through, that was the one he hated. Other than that it was just some changes in placement of gear, tools, and ammo. Extra fuel tanks were installed and his radio was upgraded. He went through some final training to get fully acquainted with the gear, was crewed by some new tankers, and they were shipped off to Vietnam.
Marion kept a very close eye on the mail when she got his letter saying he left for Vietnam. The mailman never even touched the box for years, she was always out there waiting for him to arrive. They got updates from him often, he has some close encounters, close calls, and got himself some tank kills. and he got himself some stories. He served his time and re-up’d for another term. He was eventually rotated out of Vietnam and was transferred state-side towards the end of the war, just as the withdraw began. He took a month of leave to go home, and surprised Marion with it. She went out to go get the mail and was ambushed by her son Tyler, painted in olive drab with the US flag painted on his flanks. He made her jump with joy and rush him into an embrace. She cried onto him and clamped him against her, weeping about how much she worried and missed him. It wasn’t for a solid minute until she noticed Tyler wasn’t alone, she looked up and saw an American tank with the same gun smiling at them.
“Oh? Who’s this, sweetie?”
“This is Queen, my girlfriend.” Marion was very excited, she smiled to make herself as welcoming as a machine designed to kill and destroy can. It was a little bit easier than anticipated because Queen was also a machine designed to kill and destroy. Nonetheless meeting the parents is always awkward, and this is no exception. They conversed as they slowly made their stroll down the long driveway to the house. Her nickname was just Q, and Tyler and her had met just a few days after he arrived. She was an M48A3 version Patton tank. She was olive drab just like Tyler with similar company markings. After a long introduction Marion combed over her baby boy to see what the Army had done to him. She liked his new gun a lot, and his tracks, too, she expected the engine change and agreed that the cupola was a terrible and ugly thing. Q really liked her cupola. Both of them had scars all over them from the bush and combat, and there was rust in the skirts. While Tyler had blue eyes Q had light brown eyes, almost hazel, and she had a surprisingly cheery attitude for being right out of combat. Tyler was ecstatic that he was home again, and was very excited with how fast Q was accepted as family. Q and Tyler stayed together for almost the whole time they were home, they were inseparable and would be very on edge when not together. Marion had been watching the television because the news would broadcast footage of the war in Vietnam and it made her so terrified and anxious. She pried stories from Q and Tyler about what it was like, and from all their stores she understood why they never left the other’s side. It seemed that they were never scared of anything but sinkholes, mud, and infantry ambushes. They never really feared enemy tanks, aircraft, or even anti-tank weapons, but ambushes in the jungle and being torn apart would keep them awake for weeks on end. Marion and Hansel sucked the life out of them while they were home, and Marion made all the food she could for Tyler, nearly every letter he sent home mentioned her cooking and how much he missed it. There time was too short it seemed, and the month of leave they spent home flew by and they rotated back out to Fort Knox. Tyler would be acting as a Drill Sergeant and Q would be a guard for the base.
Hannah was still in collage, using government funds that was granted to the tank children for their classified life style. She was still going for her history major but now it was going to be a Masters and not a Bachelor’s. This would make her much more competitive in the job market. She was thinking about applying to a museum as an exhibit, she had heard that there were scenarios that relived battles from previous wars and she was interested in that as well. It was around ’76 when she asked her parents some deep questions about their war, a lot of uncomfortable questions. They knew this time would be coming and had prepared themselves for it, they decided the best way to do this was to sit down with Hannah and answer every question she asked the best they could. It was a very dark, challenging, and uncomfortable time for them all. This was healthy for the two of them, though, it got a lot off their chests, acting as almost a therapy session for them. They would answer a question then spout on about something like betting on how long someone would live, joking about how someone died, how humorous some of the maimed were about their injury. They opened up a long suppressed can of memories and let these memories indulge themselves, the dark humor that got them by, the little things that kept them going, how they felt about everything initially, how they transformed, everything from politics to their favorite brand of canned beef. Hansel talked a lot about the prewar he grew up in, the hardships and chaos that led to his whole nation blindly following the words of a self described disciple of a super-race. He talked about the fanaticism that these people flocked too, and made sure Hannah knew the difference between the ideologies. He told her that when he enlisted and was commissioned into the Wehrmacht he rose his hand and vowed on the bible to be ever faithful to Hitler, and to give his life for Hitler, but when he was put into the American Army he raised his hand and vowed on the bible to uphold and defend the constitution. He emphasized that the Nazi party swore allegiance to a man, and the Americans swore an oath to a document of ideas, of rights. He could not convey to her how much that means to him now that he knows the aftermath, knows the impact, of these ideologies.
“When you see children hanging in the streets because they would not fight for one man.., you begin to question any faith you ever placed in him.”
Hannah was satisfied with her answers, she enjoyed listening to her parents’ stories. For her parents it uplifted a burden from them, they felt relieved and a bit more secure about their history together. Although they still tried to keep it away and move on as much as they could, they weren’t as desolate as they once were when they did occasionally remember it, both the good parts and the bad parts. They used it to remind themselves where they came from and it realigned their virtues and values, they used it to make themselves better beings.One example was Hansel’s refusal to grow much hair, he kept his hair well cut and sharp and his face clean shaven, most of his body didn’t have hair and the parts that did were trimmed, too, but Marion loved his hair and Hansel gave it more thought. He decided to grow his hair out some more and that thrilled Marion, he grew at first a pretty pathetic excuse for a beard and mustache but eventually it turned out to be quite nice. It wasn’t full and thick like Whacker’s, Hansel’s was barely extending past his jawline, but it was enough to please Marion.
Eventually this led them to confront much of the belongings that they had sealed away in an outside shack. They brought Hannah out there and opened it up, Hansel pulled out guns, ammo, uniforms, trinkets, photos, and all sorts of relics they had. Hannah was enthralled by it all, she lost herself in the items, examining them and asking about their significance. She pleaded that her parents put up the photos they had, she thought that they looked lovely, and her favorite was a photo of a very young Hansel his sister in their school uniforms while sitting in front of the door to their home. She eventually pressured them to put up the photos around the house. Hansel was collecting various things to burn or destroy but Hannah stopped him and explained her reasoning, she said that eventually this all would be worth some money, some good money, and gave examples of items and their worth dating all the way back to America’s slavery days. If there are components of slavery in the market that are valued at a pretty penny, she says that even the Nazi banner will be worth something.
Things got better, Q and Tyler got married and got a place in Florida, Hannah got her job finally as an exhibit and started looking for her own place, and in the mid 80’s Whacker and Shellproof finally had a baby, a beautiful human baby boy. Once again Marion asked how they did it, and with that answer she glared at Hansel and told him that once Hannah’s finally in her own place their having a human baby. Once she does move out in 1989 Marion pounces on Hansel, and gets him to start their next little one, a little girl they’d find out. When time came to name her, Marion remembered in a spark of brilliance what she wanted to name Hannah, and so they named their second daughter, their third baby, Jasmine. Jasmine Walter came into the world in 1990.
Fin Ch 55