From Here to Eternity_ The Restored Edit - Jones, James [372]
“Yes, Sir,” Warden heard himself say. “Thanks.”
“Now it wont be for a couple of months,” Dynamite said. “But its as sure as God made little green apples. If you werent becoming an Officer yourself and I hadnt thought it might help you, I wouldnt have told you at all. But when I leave this outfit for Brigade, I’ll put you through for a fourteen day furlough. Hows that?”
“I’d rather have it now,” Warden said. “And I want the full thirty days. If I didnt have them coming, it’d be different.”
Dynamite shook his head. “I’m making you a fair proposition, Sergeant,” he said kindly. “More as a brother-in-arms than as a Commanding Officer. If you werent going to become what you’re going to become, I probably wouldnt even do that. Because of that, I’m treating you as an equal.
“But,” he said friendlily, “thats absolutely the best I can do. I dont give a damn what happens to this outfit any more than you do, but if I put you in for a full thirty-day furlough, with the Company in the state its in, and especially at a time like this, it would only be turned down anyway and be a black mark against both of us. Thats politics. Theres more going on at the present time than meets the eye, Sergeant,” he said slyly with the air of a man who was on the inside.
Warden watched him narrowly, still feeling uncomfortable to be formally sitting down.
“Well, what do you say?” Dynamite said kindly. “Fourteen days,” he said. “Two months from today. Its the best any body could do for you, under the circumstances.”
“Then I’ll take it,” Warden said. You could only push any man just so far. If you squeezed an orange past that certain point you not only got no more juice, but you tore the orange all apart.
“Fine!” Holmes said. “Its a bargain then. Under the stipulation, of course, that both your furlough and my reassignment go no further than right here and now.”
“Thats fair enough,” Warden said.
“Its protection,” Holmes corrected. “Believe me, Sergeant, theres nothing for an Officer like protection.”
“I believe you,” Warden said sourly.
“Well,” Holmes said cheerily, “I’ll see you later. I’ve got a little business over at Headquarters.”
Warden watched him through the window go off across the quad, wondering how many times in how many different circumstances he had watched how many people go off across that quad. If it had not of happened to him he could not have believed it. So that was what it was like, being an Officer? It was like all the big corporation men who sent presents to each other every Christmas and paid for it all out of the Company advertising funds; many wonderful expensive presents for themselves and their wives to stack up under their trees; and it didnt hurt anybody; and still nobody had to pay for it. Of course, the presents were always restricted to each other and each other’s wives.
What surprised him the most was that it was so easy. One minute you were one thing, then the next minute you were something entirely different and opposite. Just like that. By signing a large sheet of paper.
Two months, he thought. Two whole months. It looked like Gert Kipfer was going to get some more of his money after all, whether he wanted to spend it or no. That poor bastard Prewitt, up there in the hole. Prewitt and Maggio, two ordinary normal commonplace fuckups, up there in the hole without any. Not heroes, or Robin Hoods, or legendary paladins, but just two common ordinary verynormal fuckups, paying the common verynormal price of not getting any. Tough luck.
If you couldnt have thirty days, you would settle for ten. If you couldnt have Karen when and how you needed her, you would settle for her when and where you could get her. If you couldnt have a thirty day furlough now, you would settle