U.S.A_ - John Dos Passos [250]
When he'd left she came and sat on Joe's knee and
asked him about everything and whether he'd got his sec-ond mate's ticket yet and whether he'd missed her and how she wished he could make a little more money because she hated to have another girl in with her this way but it was the only way she could pay the rent. She drank a little of the whiskey that the lieutenant had for-gotten on the table and ruffled his hair and loved him up. Joe asked her if Hilda was coming in soon and she said no she had a date and she was going to meet her at the canteen. But Joe went and bolted the door anyway and for the first time they were real y happy hugged in each other's arms on the bed.
Joe didn't know what to do with himself around Nor-folk. Del was at the office al day and at the Red Cross canteen al the evening. He'd usual y be in bed when she came home. Usual y there'd be some damn army officer or other bringing her home, and he'd hear them talking and kidding outside the door and lie there in bed imag-ining that the guy was kissing her or loving her up. He'd be about ready to hit her when she'd come in and bawl her out and they'd quarrel and yel at each other and she'd always end by saying that he didn't understand her and she thought he was unpatriotic to be interfering with her war work and sometimes they'd make up and
he'd feel crazy in love with her and she'd make herself little and cute in his arms and give him little tiny kisses that made him almost cry they made him feel so happy. She was getting better looking every day and she sure was a snappy dresser.
Sunday mornings she'd be too tired to get up and he'd cook breakfast for her and they'd sit up in bed together and eat breakfast like he had with Marceline that time in Bordeaux. Then she'd tel him she was crazy about him
-166-and what a smart guy he was and how she wanted him to get a good shore job and make a lot of money so that she wouldn't have to work any more and how Captain Barnes whose folks were worth a mil ion had wanted her to get a divorce from Joe and marry him and Mr. Can-field in the Dupont office who made a cool 50,000 a year had wanted to give her a pearl necklace but she hadn't taken it because she didn't think it was right. Talk like that made Joe feel pretty rotten. Sometimes he'd start to talk about what they'd do if they had some kids, but Del ud always make a funny face and tel him not to talk like that.
Joe went around looking for work and almost landed
the job of foreman in one of the repairshops over at the shipyard in Newport News, but at the last minute another berry horned in ahead of him and got it. A couple of times he went out on parties with Del and Hilda Thomp-son, and some army officers and a midshipman off a de-stroyer, but they al high-hatted him and Del let any boy who wanted to kiss her and would disappear into a phone booth with anything she could pick up so long as it had a uniform on and he had a hel of a time. He found a poolroom where some boys he knew hung out and
where he could get corn liquor and started tanking up a good deal. It made Del awful sore to come home and
find him drunk but he didn't care any more.
Then one night when Joe had been to a fight with some guys and had gotten an edge on afterward, he met Del and another damn shavetail walking on the street. It was pretty dark and there weren't many people around and they stopped in every dark doorway and the shavetail was kissing and hugging her. When he got them under a street light so's he made sure it was Del he went up to them and asked them what the hel they meant. Del must have had some drinks because she started tittering in a shril little voice that drove him crazy and he hauled off and let
-167-the shavetail have a perfect left right on the button. The spurs tinkled and the shavetail went to sleep right flat on the little grass patch under the streetlight. It began to hit Joe kinder funny but Del was sore as the devil and said she'd have him arrested for insult to the uniform