From Here to Eternity by James Jones Read Free Book Online

know I never argue with the First Sergeant." "First Sergeant, hell," Warden said. He stared back into the flat eyes, curious as to just how far you had to push this smiling gambler to make him show some emotion. There must be some feeling some place among the tumblers of this adding machine. Dispassionately, he considered knocking him down, just to see what he would do. From the desk Leva was watching them. "I wasnt talking as the goddamned First Sergeant. I was talking as Milt Warden. And I still say get the hell out and go away." O'Hayer smiled again. "Okay, Top. No matter who you're speaking as, you're still the top. I'll see you later," he said offhandedly to Leva and stepped around the other, deliberately offering his back, and left without a word. "Some day he's gonna make me mad," Warden said, staring at the door. "Some day I'd like to make him mad. I wonder if he can get mad." "You ever see him fight?" Leva asked, casually. "Yes-I-seen-him-fight. I seen him win that decision over Taylor. I figured I might as well get something out of all this work of his I'm doin." "He fouled Taylor six times," Leva said. "I counted them. Each time a different foul, so the referee could only warn him. It made Taylor mad. But when Taylor fouled him back he didnt get mad. He's a smart boy." "I wonder just how smart he is," Warden said speculatively. "He makes a lot of money," Leva said. "I wish I was smart enough to make that much money. He made enough money from his shed to bring his whole family over from the States, buy his dad a restaurant on the Wahiawa Midway, buy his sister a millinery shop downtown where all the ritzies go, and also build them a ten room house in Wahiawa. Thats fairly smart.... "I hear he's running around with the society downtown now. Got him a society dame." "For when his Chinese shackjob's got the monthly, 'ey?" Warden said. "Christ!" he said hopefully. "You suppose he'll marry her and retire?" "We aint that lucky," Leva said. "He's more trouble to me than Preem. Preem's only a drunk." "Maybe we can work now," Leva said. They had not been working very long when a car drove up in the company street outside. "What the hell?" Warden said. "Since when is this place the goddam Royal Hawaiian?" "Who is it now?" Leva said disgustedly. Warden watched the tall lean blonde woman get out of the car. A nine-year-old boy clambered out after her and began to hang on the kneehigh guardrails along the walk. The woman moved on up the walk, the faces of her breasts always falling slightly, under the purple sweater. Warden looked at them closely and decided she was not wearing a brassiere, they moved too much and were too pointed. "Who is it?" Leva said. "Holmes's wife," he said contemptuously. Leva straightened his back and lit another cigaret. "Goddam her," he said. "Her and them sweaters. She'll come in here if there aint nobody in the Orderly Room. And every time she comes in here it costs me three bucks with Mrs. Kipfer at the New Congress and a buck roundtrip taxifare to town. Big Sue's girls aint good enough to take that picture off my mind." "She's a good lookin woman," Warden admitted grudgingly. He watched the tight skirt under which, over her hip, passed a thin bulge that was the hem of her panties, fading out of sight. Framing the volute power of her life that no woman ever will acknowledge, he thought. Warden had a theory about women: For years he had been asking them to sleep with him, the ones that interested him. "Will you go to bed with me?" and they were always shocked, even the rummy barflies. Of course, they always did, but that was only later, after he had fulfilled the proper requirements of approach. No woman ever said, "Why, yes, I'd like to go to bed with you." They couldn't do it. It wasnt in them to be that honest. "Sure," Leva said. "She is good lookin. And she knows what its for." "Is that right?" Warden said. "And I suppose you've made her." "Hell, no, not me. I aint got enough stripes. But I've