From Here to Eternity_ The Restored Edit - Jones, James [122]
“You dont think so,” Stark said. “They think so.”
“All I want is to be left alone.”
“In this world,” Stark said, “today, nobody is left alone.”
He sat down on the table beside the sink and got his sack of Golden Grain out, slipped a paper free, opened the sack with his teeth, and poured tobacco delicately and with great absorption into the curl.
“Take a break a while,” he said offhand. “Theres no hurry tonight. Listen,” he said, “how would you like to come to work for me in the kitchen.”
“You mean cooking?” Prew said, laying down the spatula. “Cook for you?”
“What else?” Stark said, without looking up. He offered Prew the sack.
“Thanks,” Prew said, taking it. “Well I dont know. I never thought about it.”
“I like you,” Stark said, absorbedly smoothing the tobacco away from the middle so it would be thick on the ends and not hump in the middle when he rolled it. “I reckon you know you can expect a rough time of it, when the Compny moves back into field training after the rainy season’s all done, along with Ike Galovitch, and Wilson and his boyfriend Henderson, together with Baldy Dhom, Dynamite, and all the rest the jockstraps; and with the Compny Smoker season drawin nearer all the time. Unless, of course, you change yore mind and decide to go out for Compny Smokers.”
“I suppose you want me to tell you all about why I dont go out?”
“Not me. I heard it all already. Plenty times. Old Ike dont talk about nothing else. If you was in the kitchen, Prewitt, they couldnt none of them get at you.”
“I dont need anybody to protect me,” Prew said.
“I aint asking you because of charity, buddy,” Stark said, suddenly clearly distinctly, no longer hesitantly. “A kitchen dont run on charity. If you couldnt do the work you wouldnt stay. If I dint think you could I wouldnt of ast you.”
“I never much liked to work inside,” Prew said slowly, seeing he meant it seriously now, and carefully thinking over how good it really would be to work under a man like Stark. Chief Choate was like this too, but in this outfit the corporals didnt run their squads, the platoon guides who couldnt speak English ran them. But Stark really ran the kitchen.
“I been wantin to get rid of Willard quite a while,” Stark said. “I could kill two birds. Sims would make First Cook and I’d start you off as Apprentice, so nobody could kick, then move you up to Second Cook and First and Sixth as soons you been there long enough to keep anybody from accusing me of favoritism.”
“You think I could do the work?”
“I know damn well,” Stark said, “or I wouldnt of ast you.”
“Would Dynamite okay a deal like that? When it was me?”
“He would if I promoted it. I’m the fair-haired boy right now.”
“I like to be outside,” Prew said, saying it very, very slowly. “And its messy in a kitchen. Food’s all right on the table, but its too sloppy for me in the pan. I lose my appetite.”
“Men got to eat.”
“But I dont have to be reminded of it all the time.”
“Somebody got to fix it.”
“Thats true,” Prew admitted, wondering where the hell this conversation was going anyway and how it got off on this. It would, though, he thought, be really good to work under a man like Stark, who was absolutely, truly fair. For a change.
“Quit stalling me,” Stark said. “I aint going to coax you. Either you want it or you dont want it.”
“I’d sure like to,” Prew said slowly. “But I cant,” he said, finally getting it out finally.
“Okay,” Stark said. “Its your funeral.”
“Wait a minute,” Prew said. “Heres the way I look at it, Stark. I want you to understand it.”
“I understand it.”
“No you dont. Every man’s supposed to have certain rights.”
“Certain inalienable rights,” Stark said, “to liberty, equality, and the pursuit of happiness. I learnt it in school, as a kid.”
“Not that,” Prew said. “Thats The Constitution. Nobody believes that any more.”
“Sure they do,” Stark said. “They all believe it. They just dont do it. But they believe it.”
“Sure,” Prew said. “Thats what I mean.”
“But at least in this country they believe it,” Stark said, “even if they dont do it. Other countries they dont even