Redemption - Leon Uris [259]
Ah, that was my Uncle Conor with a woman like that, I thought.
“So, Conor was able to love again after the tragedy of Shelley?”
“We don’t know for certain. He was a diamond with many facets. I think he had the capacity for many kinds of love. My mother never got over him. Yes, I think he could love again because he could trust again.”
All I was hearing now made me very warm. No doubt he blamed himself for Shelley MacLeod’s murder. It meant that I might get over Georgia some day.
“She went from Dublin all the way back to his village with his funeral cortege with crowds gathering and weeping at every town along the way. They say she lay on his grave for days. Hard to believe that this all happened just a few months ago.”
Jeremy became terribly pensive and gave me a look to say, “We are brothers.”
“You asked for a meaning about Gallipoli,” he said slowly. “I think I’ve found my meaning.”
“What did you find, Jeremy?”
“Maybe there are justifications for this war, that the other side is uglier in their intent than we are. But Gallipoli is wrong. Imperialism is wrong. Empire is wrong. It’s Conor’s voice saying to me that no one has the right to send men to places like this when the final objective is greed. Oh, we cloak ourselves in democracy, but the war here is not about democracy.” He waited a long moment, never taking his eyes off me. “Rory, when I return to Ireland, I am going to join the republican cause.”
“That’s awesome,” I whispered. Jeremy had gone from pitiful drunk to a man of worth onto a path of clarity.
“If I were Irish,” I said, “I hope I’d come to the same conclusion.”
“You’re as Irish as I am,” he said.
We stared at each other.
“I wanted you to know of my deepest secret because I want no further secrets between us.”
“You know, don’t you?” I asked.
“Rory Larkin, is it?” he said.
“God, I’ve wanted to hear the sound of my name for a long time. How did you learn?”
“From the first, I suppose. I knew there was a Rory Larkin in New Zealand. Conor had spoken to me about you. You have used the word Ballyutogue inadvertently a half dozen times. I didn’t think it right to question you until you were ready to tell me and mostly, until I was ready to say out loud that I am going to be a republican.”
“Gallipoli is filled with secret meanings,” I mused.
“As my mother is wont to say, aye mon, indeed it is.”
Chester Goodwood, the best of us all, entered. “Yurlob is gone,” he said.
Modi followed in a moment, carrying Yurlob’s body. He was not very heavy, anymore. “I didn’t want to send him out on the boat,” Modi said. “I thought, maybe, we’d like to bury him.”
“Aye.”
“Here, have a drink, first.”
“I’m drunk already enough,” Modi said.
“Don’t they put their dead on pyres and burn them?” Jeremy asked.
“I don’t know,” I said, “but I think it’s a good idea. That way the bloody flies won’t get him.”
We put on our shoes. Damn! I knew I shouldn’t have taken the goddamn shoes off! Fuck it!
“You going to be all right, Rory?”
“No, I’m not all right. Let’s send the lad off in a blaze. There’s another bottle in my kit. Bring it.”
I pushed into my boots but couldn’t see to lace them. No matter. I lifted Yurlob Singh, fucking raghead Buddha-worshiping bastard…oh God…he doesn’t weigh a thing now, does he…he doesn’t weigh a thing.
III
The Surgeon
I actually enjoyed my hangover. We had given Subaltern Yurlob Singh a send-off fit for the Maharajah of Lahore.
I was doing a hoof check at the railing when I saw a new officer, a light colonel, followed by an entourage of a half-dozen Ghurkas, leave Corps and go to battalion headquarters.
Chester came over with a list of the morning’s shipments.
“Who’s the new man?” I asked.
“Some mucky-mucky from Alexandria.”
“Looks like he’s traveling with his own private bodyguards. Maybe they’re entertainers, sit on nails, charm snakes.”
“You’ll find out. You’re to see him at Battalion HQ.”
“Come with me will you, Chester?”
“Why?”
“Ah look, they’re fixers. We’re getting the greatest specialists in the world these days. They always need