Battle Cry - Leon Uris [50]
“I got to find L.Q. and tell him,” Marion raced on.
“Christ, fifty-four scooties a month. Man, we’re millionaires!”
They saluted a passing officer.
“Figure out how much I’ve got coming with the retroactive, Danny. Figure it out.”
“Let’s see…”
“Danny…Ski!” They spun about. It was Milton Norton.
“Hey, professor, did you hear about the pay bill passing?”
“Yes, great, isn’t it? I was looking for you fellows all over. I wanted to say good-by. The Pioneers are shipping out.”
“Honest?”
“Yes, just got the word. We’re on twenty-four-hour standby now.”
“Hell,” Danny said, “that might mean a week.”
“I don’t think so.”
“I guess that means no furlough, Nort.”
“I guess so.”
“That’s the way the bail bounces, Danny,” Norton said, shrugging his shoulders.
“Well, good luck, professor—give them hell.” Ski extended his hand.
“Ski.”
“Yeah.”
“That offer I made. About having Susan stay with my wife. It still goes.”
“Thanks, anyhow. I figure just a couple of months now and I’ll have enough saved to send for her.”
“Any idea where you’re going?”
“No use trying to second guess the Corps. They probably don’t know themselves. I’ve got a hunch we may try a strike to stem any further advance toward Australia. Scuttlebutt says the First Division is on the move already.”
“An invasion…”
“Well, we won’t worry about it now.”
“Come on, Nort. I’ll buy you a soda.”
“I’ll sail for that.”
“Count me out,” Ski said. “I’d better hit those books before taps. Good luck again, professor.” They shook hands warmly and Ski marched off down the long arcade.
Danny and Nort found an empty booth. “How do you feel, excited?” Danny asked.
“Sort of.”
“I…I was kind of hoping the Pioneers would stick around long enough for me to get out of school. I thought maybe I could get in.”
“I thought you wanted the Sixth Marines? Now that they are back from Iceland.”
“Well, it would have been nice with us shipping out in the same outfit, Nort.” He drew on his straw. “If we get split up on addresses, you can always get mine from Baltimore. I want to stay in touch.”
“That’s a deal.”
Danny emptied the bottom of his glass and dug his spoon into the ice cream and chewed on it, disinterestedly.
“Anything wrong, Danny?”
“Hell, you’ve got enough on your mind without hearing my T.S. story.”
“What is it, kid?”
“Nort,” he sputtered, “I talked to Kathy tonight. With the way things have been going the past couple of weeks, I was glad. I was beginning to feel that I was throwing her off. I didn’t like getting like I did that Sunday I borrowed your I.D. card. But I heard her voice, and it hit me. I’m just kidding myself, Nort. I love her too much to ever stop loving her.” He lowered his eyes and flipped the spoon on the table.
“I see,” Norton whispered.
“I just can’t fight it any more, Nort.”
“I’m glad, Danny.”
“But this Elaine’s got me twisted up.”
“Why?”
“I could understand it if she was a tramp. But dammit, Nort, any guy would be proud to have a wife like her. She came up from scratch, poor family, houseful of girls, she married money. Sure, she’s pretty cold and calculating…but she’s got a head on her shoulders. Besides everything in the world a woman could ask for—money, looks, ambition, position.”
“And what has that to do with it?”
“Everything. She might be Kathy or…”
“Or my wife?”
“Yes.”
Norton drew on his cigarette. “Yes, she may well be.”
“Nort, did you ever think of another guy in bed with your wife?”
“A man doesn’t like to think about that, but he can’t keep it from flashing through his mind sometimes, I suppose.”
“When I’m with her, I think to myself, suppose it was Kathy? If it could be Elaine, it could be Kathy. The thought of another guy…I tell you, it can drive you crazy.”
“Danny, wait. Do you really believe it of Kathy? Do you?”
“No,” he said. “No.”
“Can’t you see Elaine?”
“Maybe I can’t.”
“It doesn’t make any difference how much money her husband made or where she went to school or who her friends are. Why,