The Naked and the Dead - Norman Mailer [275]
"It's dark out."
Wilson began to giggle weakly. "Ah thought that hole in mah belly made me blind." He worked his mouth dryly, and in the darkness it sounded like the tense choking murmurs of a woman in grief. "It's a sonofabitch." He seemed to roll on the stretcher. "Where the hell am I?"
"We're takin' you back to the beach, Stanley and Goldstein and Ridges and me."
Wilson digested this slowly. "Ah'm out of the patrol, huh?"
"Yeah, all of us, boy."
He giggled again. "Ah bet Croft was mad as a goosed bee. Sonofabitch, they're gonna op-per-rate on me now, an' cut out all that pus, ain't they, Brown?"
"Yeah, they'll fix you up."
"By the time Ah git done, Ah'll have two belly-buttons, one right on top of t'other. Goddam that's gonna make me a hell of an attraction to the women." He tried to laugh, and began to cough softly. "On'y thing beat that would be two peters."
"You old bastard."
Wilson shivered. "Ah can taste blood in mah mouth. Is that good?"
"Can't hurt ya," Brown lied. "Just comes out both ends."
"Ain't that a sonofabitch though, man who's been around's long as me in the platoon gettin' hit in a lousy shit-storm like that." He lay back reflecting. "Ah wish to hell that hole in mah belly would stop actin' up."
"It'll be all right."
"Listen, they was Japs after me in that field, jus' a couple of yards away from me. They was talkin', jus' jabberin' away, doky cola kinda it sounded like. But they was right after me." He began to tremble.
He's off again, Brown thought. "You feeling cold, boy?"
At the suggestion, Wilson shuddered. Slowly, as he had been talking, his body had been losing its fever, becoming increasingly chill and damp. Now he shivered with cold.
"You want another blanket?" Brown asked.
"Yeah, can you gimme that?"
Brown stepped away from him, moved over to where the others were talking. "Anybody got two blankets?" he asked.
None of them answered immediately. "I have just one," Goldstein said, "but I can sleep in my poncho." Ridges was slumbering. "I'll sleep in my poncho too," Stanley offered.
"The two of you bunk together with a blanket and a poncho, and I'll take one from each of you." Brown returned to Wilson, covered him with his own blanket, and the blanket and poncho the others had donated. "You feel better, boy?"
Wilson's shuddering was becoming less frequent. "Feels good," he murmured.
"Sure."
Neither of them said anything for a moment or two, and then Wilson began talking once more. "Ah want you to know Ah 'preciate what you men are doin'." A spasm, of gratefulness welled in him, and tears formed in his eyes. "You're pretty goddam good men, an' they ain't a damn thing good enough for ya. The on'y thing worth a damn is when a man's got good buddies, an' you men are really stickin' to me. Ah swear, Brown, we maybe got a little pissed off at each other from time to time, but they ain't a thing Ah won' do for ya when Ah git fixed up. Ah always knew you was a buddy."
"Aw, shit."
"No, a man wants, wants. . ." In his eagerness he began to stutter. "Ah 'preciate it, an' Ah jus' want you to know that Ah'm always gonna be your buddy. You're gonna be able to know that they's one man, Wilson, who'll never have a bad thing to say about ya."
"Better take it easy, boy," Brown said. Wilson's voice was rising.
"Ah'm gone to sleep, but don' think Ah don' 'preciate it." He was beginning to ramble again.
After a few minutes he became silent.
Brown stared into the darkness. Once more he swore to himself. I gotta get him back. More than anything else it was a plea to whatever powers had formed him.
The Time Machine:
WILLIAM BROWN
NO APPLE PIE TODAY
About medium size, a trifle fat, with a young boyish face, a snub nose, freckles, and reddish-brown hair. But wrinkles had formed about his eyes and there were jungle ulcers on his chin. At second glance he was easily twenty-eight years old.
The neighbors always like Willie Brown, he is such an honest boy, he has such an average pleasant face, you can see it in all the stores, in the framed pictures on the desks of