Battle Cry - Leon Uris [43]
“You’re not so smart, he’s a certified public accountant.”
“Same category, ulcer man.”
“Really.”
“Yep.” She began to feel uneasy, but he continued. “You probably belong to a clique; immaculate housekeeper with maid. Social ambitions.”
“Really.”
“You’re repeating yourself. Say listen, I’m getting rude and you’ve been damned nice to me.”
“I must be wearing a sign.”
“No, it shows in your eyes, your dress, the way you talk, the way you choose words. You’ve trained yourself.”
She changed the subject.
Yes, I’ve trained myself. The only one of the Gursky girls who had the guts to go out and get what I wanted. Five daughters…four married, poverty, misery, failure. I trained myself to get Vernon Yarborough and be his wife. The family didn’t like him; he didn’t sit in his shirtsleeves and drink beer on the front porch and argue baseball like the other sons-in-law. I’ve groomed myself…his clubs, his parents. To learn to have. Planned life, plan the next step. People must know where they are going.
“You were saying, Danny, about Georgia Tech and the war came…”
They walked for many blocks and then turned from the main street to a quiet, shadowed one. As they strolled he told her about Baltimore, Kathy, Forest Park…the wanting to become an engineer. “Funny,” he said, “people sure make friends fast. I’ve just known you a little while and I’m babbling my life’s story…want a cigarette?”
“I shouldn’t smoke…on the street.”
“Here.”
“Thanks.”
“Look, Elaine.”
“What?”
“Across the street. An ice rink. Let’s go skating.”
“Goodness, no.”
“Why not?”
“Why, I haven’t been in years.”
“There you go, fighting off impulses.”
“Seems like I followed enough of them for one day. Besides, if you are going to continue to accuse me…then tell me why I’m in San Diego?”
“That’s easy. You’re here because it’s the thing to do.”
“Exactly what do you mean!”
“Look, I’m not trying to be nasty, stop egging me.”
“I want to know what you meant by that.”
“All right. To uproot and stay here and wait faithfully for ships to come in, it looks good to the clique. Probably the same reason your husband joined up. I’ll bet he weighed the best deal for himself very carefully. Look, I don’t know what’s gotten into me. I shouldn’t be angry with you, but I am…did that last one hurt?”
Yes, it hurt. She was clever. A clever hostess, a clever pusher for the dull husband. Respectable. A complete divorce from the round oak table and the rye bread and borscht. A small, select circle, do the proper thing at the proper time. She didn’t like being stripped naked by a boy she had only known a few hours. Why didn’t she just slap his face and leave?
“I guess if you stay around officers’ wives long enough, you’ll get nauseated enough to try anything. Like join the USO to get away from them. And find out there are a lot of little punks, not wearing gold braid, who are pretty good guys.”
“That’s enough, Danny.”
“I used to go skating in Carlin’s Arena all the time, back home. During a real cold winter the rowboat lake in Druid Hill Park froze. Ever play crack-the-whip? Anyhow, there’s a little island in the center of the lake with a boathouse on it and a big fireplace. You’d come in half chilled and stand in front of the fire and drink hot chocolate.”
“It—it sounds like lots of fun.” And then that strange twinge again. A thrill of adventure in walking alongside him. His cocky words, sure manner. Calm and sure of himself. For the first time in many years she felt as though a veil had been lifted from before her. She felt like the young reckless girl who had lived in a big, shingled house on the South Side of Chicago. And then she became frightened of the way he was completely twisting her.
She felt tired and for a moment nearly slipped her arm about his waist and laid her head on his shoulder. “Danny.”
“Yes?”
“We’d better go back. We’ve walked way off our course.”
“All right—look, there’s a carnival a couple blocks down….”
“I really must go back.”
“I’ve got six bits left. Look, I’m a dead-eye at throwing baseballs at the bottles. I’ll win you