Fable, A - William Faulkner [187]
'Okay,' Buchwald said. 'So you promised her,'
'That's right,' the lowan said. 'When we found out I was coming to France I promised to take a map and mark off on it all the places I went to, especially the ones you always hear about, like Paris. I got Blois, and Brest, and I'll get Paris for volunteering for this, and now I'm even going to have Chaulnesmont, the Grand Headquarters of the whole shebang as soon as I can find a pencil,' He began to search the desk again.
' What you going to do with it?' Buchwald said. 'The map. When you get it back home?'
'Frame it and hang it on the wall,' the lowan said. 'What did you think was going to do with it?'
'Are you sure you're going to want this one marked on it?' Buchwald said.
'What?' the lowan said. Then he said, 'Why?'
'Dont you know what you volunteered for?' Buchwald said.
'Sure,' the lowan said. 'For a chance to visit Chaulnesmont,'
'I mean, didn't anybody tell you what you were going to do here?' Buchwald said.
'You haven't been in the army very long, have you?' the lowan said, 'In the army, you dont ask what you are going to do: you just do it. In fact, the way to get along in any army is never even to wonder why they want something done or what they are going to do with it after it's finished, but just do it and then get out of sight so that they cant just happen to see you by accident and then think up something for you to do, but instead they will have to have thought up something to be done, and then hunt for somebody to do it. Durn it. I dont believe they have a pencil here either,'
'Maybe Sambo's got one,' Buchwald said. He looked at the Negro. 'What did you volunteer for this for besides a three-day Paris pass? To see Chaulnesmont too?'
'What did you call me?' the Negro said.
'Sambo,' Buchwald said. 'You no like?'
'My name's Philip Manigault Beauchamp,' the Negro said.
'Go on,' Buchwald said.
'It's spelled Manigault but you pronounce it Mannygo,' the Negro said.
'Oh hush,' Buchwald said.
'You got a pencil, buddy?' the lowan said to the Negro.
'No,' the Negro said. He didn't even look at the lowan. He was still looking at Buchwald. 'You want to make something of it?'
'Me?' Buchwald said. 'What part of Texas you from?'
'Texas,' the Negro said with a sort of bemused contempt. He glanced at the nails of his right hand, then rubbed them briskly against his flank. 'Mississippi. Going to live in Chicago soon as this crap's over. Be an undertaker, if you're interested,'
'An undertaker?' Buchwald said. Tou like dead people, huh?'
'Hasn't anybody in this whole durn war got a pencil?' the lowan said.
'Yes,' the Negro said. He stood, tall, slender, not studied: just poised; suddenly he gave Buchwald a look feminine and defiant. 'I like the work. So what?'
'So you know what you volunteered for, do you?'
'Maybe I do and maybe I dont,' the Negro said. 'Why did you volunteer for it? Besides a three-day pass in Paris?'
'Because I love Wilson,' Buchwald said.
'Wilson?' the lowan said. 'Do you know Sergeant Wilson? He's the best sergeant in the army.'
Then I dont know him,' Buchwald said without looking at the lowan. 'All the N. C. O.'s I know are sons of bitches.' He said to the Negro. 'Did they tell you, or didn't they?' Now the lowan had begun to look from one to the other of them.
'What is going on here?' he said. The door opened. It was an American sergeant-major. He entered rapidly and looked rapidly at them. He was carrying an attach^ case.
'Who's in charge?' he said. He looked at Buchwald. 'You.' He opened the attache case and took something from it which he extended to Buchwald. It was a pistol.
'That's a German pistol,' the lowan said. Buchwald took it. The sergeant-major reached into the attaché case again; this time it was a key, a door key; he extended it to Buchwald.
'Why?' Buchwald said.
Take it,' the sergeant-major said. 'You dont want privacy to last forever, do you?' Buchwald took the key and put it and the pistol into his pocket.
'Why in hell didn't you bastards do it yourselves?' he said.
'So