From Here to Eternity_ The Restored Edit - Jones, James [166]
The men still went on working, wearily ignoring this new outburst because they had been expecting it, as they wearily ignored the other outbursts, and Prew went with them, suddenly suffocating in the wet plaster smell that enveloped him. He wished he had a pair of bright and shining boots.
“You Prewitt,” Ike hollered angrily, not finding anything else to criticize. “Lets looking a life. Dis a fatigue, not vacation for a seminaries of lady. I got to tell you all ready times too many. Now looking a life.”
If Ike had not mentioned him by name, with Holmes in there listening taking it all in, he could still have stomached it. But quite suddenly the words were beating against his ears, on and on, so that instinctively he wanted to shake his head to clear it.
“What the hell do you want, me to grow a couple more arms for Chrisake?” he said violently suddenly, hearing his own voice outhollering Ike’s astoundedly, yet seeing in his mind the Great God Holmes sitting grinning at his desk listening relishingly to his favorite sergeant. For once maybe The Man might like to hear what his men thought of his favorite sergeant, for a change.
“How?” Ike said flabbergastedly. “What?”
“Yas, what,” Prew sneered. “You want this job done so perfect and so fast why dont you grab a brush yourself? Instead of standing around giving orders nobody listens to.”
The men stopped mechanically washing and all stared at him, just as mechanically, and he looked at them, the rage filling him, now knowing why. He knew it was senseless, absolutely senseless, even dangerous, but for a moment he was wildly proud.
“Now listen,” Ike said, thinking hard. “This back talk are you giving me do I not want. To work get back on the lip shut button.”
“Oh blow it out your ass,” he said savagely, still mechanically scrubbing with his rag, “I’m working. What do you think, I’m floggin my doggin?”
“What,” Ike gasped. “What.”
“AT EASE!” roared Capt Holmes, appearing in the door. “What the hell is all this racket, Prewitt?”
“Yes, Serr,” Ike grunted, popping to attention. “Dis man bolshevik da back talk is giving to a noncom.”
“Whats the matter with you, Prewitt?” Capt Holmes said sternly, ignoring the momentarily shattered illusion of his favorite sergeant, “You know better than to talk back to a noncommissioned officer, and in that tone of voice.”
“To a noncom, yes, Sir,” Prew grinned savagely, aware now of the watching eight wide pairs of eyes. “But I have never liked being pissed on, Sir. Even by a noncommissioned officer,” he said, twisting the phrase.
The Warden appeared in the door behind Holmes and stood looking at all of them, his eyes narrowed thoughtfully, himself aloof from it.
Holmes looked as if someone had dashed a glass of ice water in his face absolutely without reason. His brows were up with disbelief and his eyes were wide with hurt and his mouth was open with surprise. When he spoke his voice quivered openly with both rage and start.
“Private Prewitt, I think you owe both Sergeant Galovitch and myself an apology.” He paused and waited.
Prew did not answer. He felt a shrinking in his belly at the thought of what this stupidity would do to his chances Payday, wondering what in hell had possessed him to do a thing like that.
“Well?” Holmes said authoritatively. He was as surprised by it as any of them, as surprised as Prewitt even, and had said the first thing that came into his head but he could not show that He had to back it up. “Apologize, Prewitt.”
“I dont think I owe anybody any apology,” Prew said savagely doggedly. “In fact, if apologies are in order, I think they’re owed to me,” he went on recklessly, wanting suddenly to laugh at the comedy of it, like a mother chastening a child to bring it back in line. “But then thats the way they always treat us, isn’t it?”
“What!” Holmes said. It had not occurred to him that an EM could refuse. He was as much at a loss now as Old Ike had been before and his eyes that had become almost normal size now got wider even than before. He looked at Galovitch, as if for help, then he turned