Bell for Adano, A - John Hersey [82]
“What’ll you have?”
Major Joppolo, who was not much of a drinker, said: “What’ve you got?”
“Well, Scotch mostly. Little bourbon, couple bottles of gin, and Lieutenant Commander Robertson here brought us a bottle of rum. You can even have some wop wine if you insist, though why anyone would drink that stuff beats me.”
“Let’s see,” the Major said, “what’s everybody drink”Different things, whatever you want,” the Lieutenant said. “How about some Scotch?”
“If that’s what you have the most of.”
So the Lieutenant poured out some Scotch for Major Joppolo. He made it strong and the Major coughed on the first gulp.
“Say,” the Lieutenant said, “you sure have these wops charmed. How’d you ever get ‘em back down here so fast this morning?”
“Guess I’m a kind of pied piper,” the Major said. “I had to pipe through my nose this morning.” And he told how he had sniffed all over town to disprove the gas attack.
The Navy enjoyed this story and decided that Major Joppolo was all right.
They talked for a while about how the invasion was going, and about a destroyer that had been hit by a Jerry divebomber, and about the Italian Navy, and then, as Major Joppolo started in on his second drink, about the big part the U.S. Navy was playing in the whole operation.
One of the officers said: “That first landing was really something. Thousands of ships from God knows how many ports, all going at different speeds and on different courses. Jesus, I don’t see how they did it.”
Another said: “And I hear that every ship was on station within ten minutes of H hour.”
“Yes sir,” said Major Joppolo, whose tongue was becoming pleasantly loose in his head, “I take my hat off to the Navy.” And he raised his glass.
“God’s teeth,” said Lieutenant Commander Robertson, “that’s the first Army man I ever saw that was willing to give the Navy credit.”
“Navy’s the only bunch that can get anything done around here,” the Major said. “Don’t know what I’d do without this fellow Livingston. “
Livingston glowed but said: “I haven’t done anything, Major.
“Don’t hand me that stuff,” the Major said to Livingston. Then he turned to the others. “Listen, every time I try to get anything out of the Army, they tell me to put it in writing. Now Livingston here... “
“That reminds me,” Livingston said. “You said you had something on your mind this morning.”
“Matter of fact, I have. Since you’ve been getting all the results, I thought maybe - “
“Want to go in the other room?” Livingston asked politely but importantly.
“Nothing hush-hush,” the Major said. “Might as well tell you right here.”
And he told about Adano’s seven-hundred-year-old bell. He told how it had been taken away, and about what he had done to try to get another. Two drinks had made his mind relax, and he told his story beautifully.
He made the town’s need for a new bell seem something really important, and he made the bell seem a symbol of freedom in Adano. He made it seem as if the people of Adano would not feel truly free until they heard a bell ringing from the clock tower of the Palazzo. And not just any bell. He described what he thought was needed in the bell: a full, rich tone; no crack of any kind; and a touch of history that would mean something to the Italians.
His story was nicely told and his audience was just right. The Navy has a quick sense of tradition. All the folderol -saluting the quarter deck, the little silver buck to mark who should be served first in the wardroom, still calling the captain’s court of justice going before the mast, the marvelous poetic orders like: “Sweepers, man your brooms: clean sweepdown fore and aft” -these things made Navy men able to grasp the idea