The lieutenant colonel said, “You know, with
Italy out, Germany is going to have a time holding the Balkans down. They’re
going to want to get out from under. I bet Greece revolts, too. And Turkey was
about ready to come in. This may be the push she needs.” ...
Three GIs sat in a windblown cave, made by
slinging their shelter halves between a rail and a davit and a ventilator.
They watched the whitecaps go surging by. “I’d like to get there before it’s
over, Willie. I won’t get a chance to see any action if we don’t hurry up.”
“You’ll see plenty action and you’ll tote
plenty bales before you’re through, brother.”
“I don’t know about that. With those Turks
running wild, Germany can’t hold out forever. Why, Germany’s so busy now, I’ll
bet we could even get in across the Channel. This is a slow damn scow.” ...
“Gentlemen,” said a twenty-year-old lieutenant
to three other twenty-year-old lieutenants, “gentlemen, I give you Paris.”
“My old man took Paris in the last war,” said one
of the gentlemen.
“Gentlemen,” said the first speaker, his voice
shaking, “we’ve crossed the Channel. Oh, boy, oh, boy! We’re in.”
The three joined hands in a kind of fraternal
cat’s cradle. ...
And so the ship came into port with the war
fought and won. It took them a little time to get over it.
CRAPS
LONDON, August 12, 1943—This is one of
Mulligan’s lies and it concerns a personality named Eddie. Mulligan has
soldiered with Eddie and knows him well. Gradually it becomes apparent that
Mulligan has soldiered with nearly everyone of importance.
At any rate this Eddie was a crap shooter, but
of such saintly character that his integrity in the use of the dice was never
questioned. Eddie was just lucky, so lucky that he could flop the dice against
the wall and bounce them halfway across the barracks floor on a Sunday and
still make a natural.
From performances like this the suspicion grew
that Eddie had the ear of some force a little more than human. Eddie, over a
period of a year or two, became a rich and happy man, not so lucky in love, but
you can’t have everything. It was Eddie’s contention that the dice could get
him a woman any time, but he never saw a woman who could make him roll
naturals. Sour grapes though this may have been, Eddie abode by it.
Came the time finally when Eddie and his
regiment were put on board a ship and started off for X. It wasn’t a very large
ship, and it was very crowded. Decks and staterooms and alleys, all crowded.
And it just happened that the ship sailed within reasonable time of payday.
