Bell for Adano, A - John Hersey [29]
“You have the wrong idea, Tomasino.”
“Hah,” said the morose Tomasino. “I am an old man, American. I have seen men of authority come and go. I don’t believe that you are any different from all the others. “
Here Major Joppolo got angry. “Old fisherman,” he said, you will have to understand something. The people of Adano are hungry. They must have fish. Do you get that through your thick skull?”
Giuseppe ran back to the crowd. “It is wonderful,” he said. “The Mister Major said: `The people of Adano are hungry. They must have fish.”‘
The people in front repeated this and then shouted at the top of their voices: “Live the Mister Major! Live the Mister Major!”
The people in back shouted: “What did he say?” The people in front shouted: “He thinks we ought to have fish for our hunger.”
The whole crowd shouted then: “Live the Mister Major!”
Tomasino on the boat heard this, and it made him suspicious. “Why have you hired these people to come and jeer at me? No, I will not go fishing.”
Major Joppolo shouted to Giuseppe in English: “Make the people go away! They are ruining everything.” Giuseppe passed on the Major’s request, but the people just laughed at him. “Now?” they said. “You are crazy, interpreter. Speaking two languages has made you crazy.
Giuseppe shouted to the Major: “I’m a can’t a do nothing, a boss.”
So the Major said to Tomasino: “Wait for me, Tomasino, I will show you that I mean well toward you.” And he jumped down on the mole and went to the crowd. “Do you want fish?” he asked the crowd. “Yes!” the people shouted.
“Then you must go home,” the Major said. “It is not easy to persuade Tomasino to go fishing. You must choose between this stupid gaping and having fish.”
The crowd chose. Watching this unprecedented conversation and getting bulletins on it from Giuseppe was immediate, it was now. Eating fish was future and uncer- tain at best. The crowd chose staying to watch.
When he saw that he could not argue them into going home, Major Joppolo said to Giuseppe: “Where is the nearest telephone?”
Giuseppe said: “I guess she’s in a Port a Captain’s office, I show a you. “
A thrill of curiosity ran through the crowd as the Major and Giuseppe went off. What had previously been the Italian Port Captain’s office was now the office of the American Naval Lieutenant in charge of harbor facilities at Adano. This was Lieutenant Livingston, who had gone into the Navy’s V-7 program early in the war, and had entered on his application blank as one of his main qualifications to be an officer and a gentleman: “Have had experience with small boats.” This experience, as a matter of fact, consisted of rowing on the crew at Kent School and at Yale. At Yale, Crofts Livingston was known as a fellow who would do anything for you if he liked you, but he was rather choosy in his friends.
Lieutenant Livingston had not yet decided to like Major Joppolo. The Major had not gone to either Kent or Yale. There was a rumor around that he had once been some kind of clerk in the New York City government under Walker and O’Brien. Lieutenant Livingston was inclined to the opinion that it was too bad the Army had sent such a meatball to be administrator of a town like Adano. And besides, when the Major saw a Navy officer wearing two bars, which anyone ought to know stood for Lieutenant Senior Grade, Major Joppolo would address him as Captain.
“Hello, Captain,” the Major said when he walked into Lieutenant Livingston’s office, “can I use your phone?”
“Good morning,” the Lieutenant said, “what are you doing down here?” The tone of the Lieutenant’s KentYale voice indicated that he thought the Army ought to stay on Army ground, and let the Navy stay on Navy shore.
“Can I use your phone?” the Major said. The Major was a single-minded man.
“Sure, help yourself.”
The Major called Rowboat Blue Forward.
While he was waiting, he said to the Lieutenant: “I’m trying to get these fishermen