From Here to Eternity by James Jones Read Free Book Online Page A

seen her in here talkin to O'Hayer. Just last week he drove her over to Wahiawa in that Chrysler, to shop," he mimicked. "Looks like I'll have to buy a car myself," Warden said. But secretly he did not believe it. It always went by some other name with women. They never called it by the right, the only proper name, unless they were professional whores. "Now dont tell me she's never made a pass at you," Leva said. "Hell, no," he said. "I'd of given her this." "Well you're the only one," Leva said. "If I had that rating you been promisin me I could get some of it myself. But you got to be at least a corporal to make time with that one, she dont take to us privates," he said bitterly. He held up five fingers and ticked off the names he mentioned. "O'Hayer, a sergeant. Sgt Henderson, from Dynamite's old outfit at Bliss, who now takes care of Holmes's horses up at the Pack Train and goes riding with her three times a week. Cpl Kling, who is Holmes's dogrobber. She's laid them all. Everybody in the Compny knows it. She must have some kind of a perverse yen for all her husband's noncoms because he cant take care of her." "What've you been doin? Studyin psychology?" They listened for a moment to her knocking on the Orderly Room door and when there was no answer, heard the door squeak open. "I dont need to know psychology to know that much," Leva said. "I guess you didnt see her kiss Champ Wilson when he won the lightweight championship last year?" "Sure I seen it. So what? Wilson is Dynamite's prize punchie and he won the crown. Natural enough." "Thats what she knew you'd think, and everybody else," Leva said. "But there was more to it than that..She kissed him right on the lips, blood, collodion and all, and flung her bare arms around his back and rubbed them on the sweat. When she let him go her dress was dark with it and blood all over her face, dont tell me." "I aint tellin you," Warden said, "you're tellin me." "The only reason she aint picked you yet is because you're new here." "I been here eight months now," he said. 'That ought to be long enough." Leva shook his head. "She cant take no chances. Them others, all but O'Hayer, was at Bliss with Holmes. Wilson, Henderson, and Kling. About the only one of them from Bliss she hasnt picked is old Ike Galovitch, who is too old. She.. ." He stopped, hearing the Orderly Room door slam again. "Now she'll goddam well be in here," he said. "Four bucks it costs me. Every time she comes here. If you dont get me that rating so I can get some of it, I'll be in debt to the twenty percent men." "To hell with her," Warden said. "We got work to do," listening to her footsteps in the corridor and then on the porch and then before him at the door. "Where is the First Sergeant," Mrs. Holmes demanded, coming in. "I'm the First Sergeant, Maam," Warden bawled, putting in his voice that sudden vehemence that always was so startling, like a thunderclap in a cloudless sky, and that he had developed purposely, ever since he'd been a noncom. "Oh," the woman said. "Yes, of course. How are you, Sergeant?" "What can I do for you, Mrs. Holmes?" Warden said, not getting up from his stool. "Oh, you know who I am then?" "Why shouldnt I, Maam, I've seen you often enough." Warden looked her slowly up and down, making his light blue eyes wide under the bushy brows and black hair, putting into them the secret, unsayable challenge. "I'm looking for my husband," Mrs. Holmes said, emphasizing it a little. She smiled thinly at him and waited. Warden stared at her unsmiling and waited too. "Do you know where he is?" she asked, finally. "No, Maam. I dont," Warden said, and waited again. "Has he been in this morning?" Mrs. Holmes stared back at him now, with the coldest eyes he had ever met in any woman. "You mean before now, Maam?" Warden raised his heavy brows. "Before eight-thirty?" Leva, working at his desk, was grinning. When Warden said them, the Army's rigidly enforced titles of respect had quite a different meaning