Battle Cry - Leon Uris [152]
“Listen, Pat honey.”
“Really, Andy, you don’t have to say anything, really you don’t.” She kissed his cheek and drew away from him. “I know how you feel about women. Oh, Andy, when you left it was like dying for a second time—only this time it was worse.”
“I didn’t know.”
“Of course you didn’t, darling. When the other Marines returned and I knew you were coming back, I…I…You’ll think me horrid, but I don’t care. I got this apartment.” Pat Rogers stiffened and looked to the window. “I’m not keeping any more lamps in the window or waiting for any more ships to come in the bay. This war has done me in. You are here now and you’ll be here for a while. I’ll make it plain and simple, Andy. I want you, regardless of what you may think. I don’t care. I made up my mind to that long ago. When you go out again, that will be the end of it.” She slumped down on the bed and closed her eyes and bit her lip.
“I don’t like you to talk like that, Pat.”
Her eyes were misty. “I’m propositioning you, you know.”
He took her in his arms and held her. Pat’s eyes were closed and her lips were on his neck and her arms about him.
“You’re like nobody else, Pat, nobody. You got to know that.”
“You don’t have to flatter me, darling. You’re here, you’re safe. I’ll have you for a while. That’s all I care for any more. Today, this minute—to hell with the ships in the bay, to hell with waiting, to hell with living in fear. I’m a sinful woman now and I don’t care…I don’t, Andy, I don’t.”
“Aw, pipe down.” He kissed her and drew the blanket over her. She rested in his arms and sighed contentedly.
CHAPTER 3
OUR TENT flap opened. First Sergeant Pucchi entered followed by a homely, medium-sized Marine. “You check in to Mac, there. He’s in charge of communications,” Pucchi said. “Mac, this is your new radioman.”
I got up and the fellow dropped his seabag. The squad, sitting about, beating their gums and shining gear, looked up. There was a hush. Then the replacement introduced himself loudly.
“Levin’s the name, Jake Levin. So this is the accommodations, huh?”
“My name is Mac.”
“Glad to meet ya, Sarge.” His voice rang with familiarity. “Got a fart sack for me?” He was trying out his Marine lingo to show us how salty he was.
“You can have mine,” Speedy said. “I’m going to live with the telephone squad.” He left the tent.
Levin shrugged and introduced himself around. Only Marion gave him a warm welcome and handshake. “Welcome to the outfit, Levin.”
“Thanks, buster.” The new boy sat on Speedy’s cot and chattered on loudly.
“Where you from, cousin?”
“Brooklyn.”
“I thought so.”
“Had a rough trip over. Terrible boat…I mean ship. What the hell, I says, make the best of it.”
“How long you been out of boot camp?”
“Two months. Like I says,” he continued, “I think I’ll get along. At least I didn’t volunteer into this lash up, so I got my beef all right.”
“What do you mean, cousin?”
“I was drafted, that’s what, drafted.”
“Something stinks in here,” Seabags said.
“I got my shoes on,” Lightower said as he headed for the catwalk. The others walked out. I followed them.
“Holy Christ, Mac, we got to take that loudmouth bastard?”
“Take it easy,” I said. “All replacements make a lot of noise at first. They’re just trying to make an impression. They feel uneasy.”
“Yeah, but a goddam draftee in the Marine Corps.”
“War is hell,” I moaned.
“I don’t like that Jew boy,” Speedy spat.
“I don’t like that talk, Speedy,” I warned. “The kid might be all right. Don’t hang him before he gets one foot in the tent.”
“Let’s go to the PX, cousin. Got your ration card?”
“Yeah, let’s go. I’m sick.”
I returned to the tent. Levin stood up from his unpacking. “What’s the matter with them guys? It ain’t polite they should all take a hike.”
“Levin,” I said, “this outfit has been together quite a while. Some of the fellows for ten or more years. It’s like a private club.”
“I don’t get ya.”
“Wait a minute, Levin,” I said. “I know you hear a lot of Marines bitch. But you’ve got to earn that right. We like being