Armageddon_ A Novel of Berlin - Leon Uris [285]
“We better get in gear or we’ll miss the kick-off.”
“I won’t be too late, Mrs. Loveless.”
“No rush.”
“Wiedersehen, children.”
A chorus of soldiers’ whistles greeted Hilde as Scott led her to their seats. She settled between him and Nick Papas. Scott explained that the enemy was the team in the blue shirts, the Army from Heidelberg, and the whites were the Air Force, Wiesbaden. Nick Papas had three bills riding on the outcome.
At the first crunching blocks, Hilde’s eyes bulged. “Mein Gott! They’re killing each other!”
“The idea, honey,” a perplexed Nick Papas explained for the third time, “is the man who is running ... well, his team has four turns to advance the ball ten yards ... or meters. Then, they are entitled to another four chances ... see?”
She jabbed Scott in the ribs. “Why didn’t you explain it that way?”
“For Christ’s sake, watch the game.”
“Nick?”
“Yeah?”
“If he must only make ten meters, why did he just run twenty-five meters?”
“Because ... because his true objective is to get it all the way down the field and score a goal.”
“Ja, ja, now I see.”
“Good.”
“Nick?”
“Yeah?”
“Why does he kick the ball?”
“For Christ’s sake, watch the game.”
“Mein Gott!” Hilde hid her face in Scott’s shoulder as the Air Force safety man took the punt and the Army gang tackled him viciously.
“Come on, Hilde,” Scott said. “He isn’t hurt and he isn’t mad. Look, he’s running back to play ... he likes the game.”
“I will watch and I will be very still.”
The stands came to their feet. The soldiers were in a state or hysteria over an interception.
“Who has the ball, Nick? I did not see.”
The Army officers were guests at the Scala Officers’ Club and celebrated their victory rousingly. Hilde changed to high heels as Judy had instructed her to do.
Scott was barely able to have a dance without being cut in on. Anyhow, it was kind of nice to study her from a distance. She danced near their table with a pink-cheeked, fuzz-faced Army second lieutenant, and winked to Scott. He appraised her backside, her legs, her bust. It all checked out ... gorgeous. He didn’t know how long he would be able to keep his promise.
A wild, barefoot congo line circled the club, a converted theater, moving from the little bar and dance floor to the main bar, where the band on the stage joined as they picked up dancers. They congoed up the stairs to the balcony where couples were necking and back down again and Hilde laughed until her sides hurt She continued to bubble all the way home.
“It has been a wonderful day ... the most wonderful day since ...” Since the last time she saw Scott. Scott was wonderful days.
But she understood by his silence what was happening and was bound to happen. He pulled up to the curb.
“Let’s sit and talk a moment,” he said.
“Okay. I don’t know how to thank you for the day.”
“That’s a bad question to ask me. How long you figure we’re supposed to go on like this?”
“That’s up to you.”
“Hilde, we’ve got to bend a little. I’m a nice guy.”
She shook her head. “That is just the trouble. You aren’t a nice guy. You are a rat, just like I am. We are two of a kind. I do not dislike you because you are a rat ... but I know you.”
“All right, so we’re both rats. Then what’s the harm?”
“Good night, Scott.”
Hilde tried to compose a letter to Erna, but found herself contradicting her own ideas.
When it came to a definition of love she did not know it. Scott was a wanderer who would never change his ways. Yet, she had never cared for a man as she did for him. She even desired him, but to give him sex would be the beginning of the end.
From the time she began to work for her first American family, Colonel and Mrs. Smith, a new experience began. The colonel was a great bear of a man who spoke softly and with warmth. He called her “Miss Hilde.” He was a gentle person, perhaps like Uncle Ulrich would be if she knew him better. The colonel’s children loved to cuddle on his lap for their story.
But there was strength in Colonel Smith too. One could tell that by the respect his officers showed,