O'hara's Choice - Leon Uris [152]
Zach took the captain’s bars from his pocket and offered them to Ben. “Put these on the right pair of shoulders,” he said.
“Keep them. Show them to your grandchildren, someday.”
• 46 •
O’HARA’S CHOICE
That Evening—Prichard’s Inn
From her room upstairs, Amanda could see Zach enter the hall, and she was waiting at the top of the stairs. No dainty stuff here now. They came together like two hot winds. He kicked the door open and tossed her into the deep, inviting feather bed and leaped on her. She tickled him and he crashed onto the floor and crawled away and she caught his foot and he went flat and she pounced.
Circled, they did, around the bedposts, panting and grabbing enough clothing to tear off each other.
She doused him from the water pitcher and he wrestled her, using quite a bit of strength now, and pinned her to the floor and she screamed and swung at him and whacked him good. Mr. Prichard was starting to wonder if they were not engaged in an all-out naval battle. As the purveyor of Marine farewell parties and one-night stands, he knew to furnish his rooms with tasteful but party-worthy furnishings. A total bash-in would cost a Marine not more than ten or twelve dollars.
She tickled him again and tried to crawl off on all fours, and that’s how he caught her.
“Take your boots off, you savage!”
They locked in, the pair of them, till even the Marine boy’s strength was gone and they both keeled over quivering.
He helped her back onto the bed as best he could and collapsed beside her.
“Oh God, that was wonderful!”
“You are hereby declared a Wart-Hog,” he said.
After a time.
“I resigned.”
“How did they take it?”
“Very bad at first. The Gunny had always known about that night. My da told him before he died. The Gunny told them today and they sent me off with Godspeed.”
“Poor baby, you must be done in,” Amanda said.
“Don’t fret, I’ll catch you again later.”
“How long before we’re free to go?”
“They’ll push it through. No more than a week or so. The commander at Quantico has granted me nightly leave off the base. We’re well set up here.”
“I went to the shipping office. I’ve a list of all the spring sailings. We’ll book a grand ship and marry at sea in the captain’s cabin and have a huge wedding party in the ballroom with two hundred total strangers.”
Zach propped on his elbows, put a pillow against the headboard, and sat against it, sullen.
Amanda realized immediately. She closed her eyes and recited firmly: “We will not let my money come between us. I have instructed my mother and the Blanton family lawyers to sell back all my stock in Dutchman’s Hook to my uncles. The funds will go into a trust for that future girls’ school, and I’ll establish it in a place where black girls can study as well. There is some Blanton money, enough for a blowout of a journey and to start up a life in California. I want you to handle the money together with me.”
Zach mumbled.
“Then we’ll burn the damned stuff and take a train to California,” she said.
“You make me love you so much,” he whispered. “We’ll go by boat.”
Well into the night, after the bar closed downstairs, Amanda slept, at last, but there was no sleeping for Zachary. He marveled at what he saw in the dim light, traced over her body so that she smiled in her sleep.
That was the last of Zach’s memory.
Grumph. Captain O’Hara’s pillow was wet with his sweat as though his face had been caught in drying cement. “On your feet, goddammit, Marine,” Zach grunted to himself. He dragged himself up, whereupon he supported two of the four bedposters.
His memory failed as to who had collapsed