From Here to Eternity_ The Restored Edit - Jones, James [325]
“I’m sold,” Prew said. “You dont have to sell me. I was sold before you took this last trip. The only reason I waited at all was because you made me promise I would.”
“An a damn good thing for you, too, buddy,” Angelo said fervently. “The Malloy passed along a couple of tips that will help you plenty. An I wount of thought to tell you any one of them.
“The first thing,” he warned, “is to not ever let them know you want into Number Two. You want to make them think that compared to getting threwn into Number Two, the being worked over and the time in the Hole are heaven-sent pleasures.”
“Okay,” Prew said.
But the main thing, Jack Malloy said, the secret, was to not fight back with the guards when they worked him over; take it and keep his mouth shut. That was the really important thing. The other thing was how to handle himself after they locked him up in the Hole.
“Why the hell not fight them back?” Prew said quickly.
“Because it will only get you a worse working over and not accomplish a damn thing.”
“I dont aim for none of them to get the idea I’m yellow.”
“Yellow my big fat ass,” Angelo said. “Yellow my balls. You go into it thinkin like that, you sure to fight them back.”
“Well, I notice you and Berry both fight back.”
Angelo grinned bitterly. “Sure, an we aint the ony ones. But its a mistake on our part, not somethin to copy. Thats one of the things The Malloy is awys givin all us guys hell over.
“I know he’s right,” Angelo said, “but when I get in there I just cant help it. Berry, he dont know no better; but I do. But I get in there with them I awys forget. I fly off the handle and then I dont care if they kill me or not.”
“Maybe I cant help it, either,” Prew grinned, wishing they could stop talking about it and get on with it. Three days ago the excitement had been a pleasantly thrilling escape from the rockpile. Now it was so strong it had become distinctly unpleasant.
“Its not for to joke with,” Angelo bored on inexorably. “A guy is a sap to get himself messed up when he dont have to. And you can get under their skin worse that way than you can by fighting them. The Malloy calls it the Principle of Passive Resistance. Says Gandhi invented it. And it works, too, because I’ve seen Jack Malloy make it work. If I dont do it, its because I just aint that good of a man yet, not because I dont want to.”
“Okay!” Prew said irritably, “I’ll do what I can. How do I know I can do it or not? What makes you so sure I can do it? when you cant do it yourself?”
“Because I know how you work,” Angelo said defiantly. “I aint never seen you fight in the ring, but I have heard about that also. You’re a good soljer,” he admitted grudgingly unwillingly, “just like The Malloy’s a good soljer,” he said. “Ordinarily, I aint got no use for good soljers; but it takes a crack soljer with plenty control, to beat another good soljer like Fatso who’s holding the reins and got all the cards,” he said angrily, “and you mights well admit it.”
“Balls!” Prew said, embarrassedly because Angelo had touched him on his soft spot, derisively because he felt a sunburst of pride, pride that he knew he had no right to in front of any man who had earned this face from behind which Angelo Maggio of Atlantic Avenue looked out at him so devotedly.
“You ask me!” Angelo said argumentively. “I tole you!”
“Awright, awright,” Prew growled. “Now what else?”
“Theres just one other thing,” Angelo said. “And thats the Hole. You got to know how to act, in the Hole.”
“The Hole? I thought you were all by yourself in the Hole.”
“Thats just it, you are. Thats what makes it bad. The Malloy says you can beat that too, if you just go at it the right way, but I never been able to do it. And neither has anybody else I know of, except The Malloy.
“The main thing,” Angelo said, “is to remember to make yourself relax. You got two, maybe three days, maybe more, to do in there. Theres no way to get out of it, and no way to cut it short. You mights well accept it and get use to it, and relax.”
“Thats logical,” Prew said. “Whats hard