Libra - Don Delillo [44]
He barely noticed himself talking. That was the interesting part. The more he spoke, the more he felt he was softly split in two. It was all so remote he didn’t think it mattered what he said. He never even looked at his companion. He sat in a white calm and let the sentences float. Konno studied him, listened, jittery, needing a shave, sniffing the nicotine on his fingers, a habit of his that seemed to imply there was never enough—enough of what you craved. Lee talked softly on. Ten thousand years of happiness, or whatever it means when they say banzai.
He let it be known that he’d figured out the U-2’s rate of climb. He didn’t say what it was but went into detail on other, minor matters, testing Konno’s knowledge of technical things, lecturing a little, pointing out flaws in the base’s security.
A man in a white tuxedo introduced the bathing beauties by name. Sincere applause. The two men went into the chill night. It was late and quiet and Lee pulled his windbreaker tight around him. Konno stood smoking, hunched away from the wind, knees bent, looking down an empty neon street.
Take the double-e from Lee.
Hide the double-l in Hidell.
Hidell means hide the L.
Don’t tell.
White ideograms. Roman letters ticking in the dark. Konno said they were waiting for one of the hostesses, Tammy, and he looked a little dejected about it, maybe because he needed sleep. She came out a side exit wrapped in plastic rainwear including a hat and floppy booties, and seemed ready for some hard-earned relaxation. She thought she knew a pachinko parlor that might still be open. She wanted to play pachinko.
A radarman named Bushnell was climbing the exterior stairs of his barracks when he heard a sharp noise, a single hard rap, like a ruler striking a desk. On second thought, no, that wasn’t it. More like a little popping sound, a two-inch firecracker maybe. Except that wasn’t it either. That wasn’t even close. Maybe just a slamming door actually.
He went inside and saw Ozzie sitting on a footlocker, alone in the squadbay, showing his funny smile. He had a little bitty pistol in his hand and there was a streak of blood across his left arm, above the elbow.
“I believe I shot myself,” he said.
Bushnell studied the perfect little scene. He thought Ozzie’s remark sounded historical and charming, right out of a movie or TV play.
“Where did you get the gun is what I’m thinking if I’m the duty officer and just happen to come around.”
“Meanwhile would you do something?”
“What do you want me to do?”
“Get a corpsman would be fine with me.”
“What’s it doing? Is it bleeding? Looks like a shaving cut to me.”
“There’s a hole in my arm.”
“You shave yet, Ozzie? I hear your mother shaves but you don’t. What happens when they see the gun?”
“It was an accident.”
“Bullshit. You should have used your .45.”
“And blow my arm off.”
“It’s government issue, shitbird. What are you supposed to tell them, I found the gun on a sidewalk at high noon?”
“I did find it.”
“Christ, Ozzie, you make me sick. You’re sitting here all alone. What if I don’t come in? You just sit and wait? If there’s anything I don’t respect, it’s bad planning.”
“Meanwhile I am shot.”
“Well big fucking deal.”
“I am bleeding, Bushnell.”
“You deserve to bleed. You deserve to go white and fucking die. This is a stunt. It is just the oldest stunt in the world. How do you expect them to walk in here and say all right you’re shot, Oswald, so you stay here and the rest of them have to ship their asses out to sea.”
“Because I am shot. That’s how I expect them to say it.”
“Completely ignoring the fact you hit only flesh, which it looks like it to me. It’s a court-martial offense, I guarantee, the minute they see a weapon that’s not authorized.”
“I took the gun out of the footlocker to turn it in when it went off.”
“Tell us how small and cute it is.”
“I am bleeding.”
“You’ll be hit with wrongful conduct, regardless. Same as if you had a riot gun.”
“It went off when I dropped it.