From Here to Eternity_ The Restored Edit - Jones, James [127]
Stark (very drunk but still able to roll a cigaret deftly in the darkness) struck a match and lit it—the match flare lighting up like echoes of their minds all the pencil drawn naked bodies (male and female) on the walls, the unattached bodyless organs (male and female), the realistic looking vaginas made by holding a burning kitchen matchhead against the wall and then drawing in the legs afterwards, and all the accompanying verses of several generations of artistic soldiers, sailors, marines, and kanaka shoeshine boys—and beat with his fist against the door.
The peephole slid back immediately and a huge, black Hawaiian woman’s face peered out at them suspiciously.
“Let us in,” Stark said. “We freezin in the cold, cold night,” ending with a tragic, from the heart, hiccup.
“You drunk,” the great hulk heaved, “go way. We dont want trouble with MP. This a respectable place. Close up. You go home.”
“Now dont get tough with me, Minerva,” Stark grinned. “Or I have you busted back to the ranks. Go tell Mrs Kipfer her number one boy is here and why aint she on the door where she belongs.”
“I see,” she said, still suspiciously. “You wait,” and slammed the peephole irritably shut.
Prew felt the completely unearthly lovely breasts and bellies and long thighs begin subtlely to fade and grow dim on him. He looked at Stark.
“There,” Stark said bitterly. “You see? Woman thinks we drunk.”
“Imagine that,” Prew said. “Suspicious old bat.”
“Any time women see a soljer, think he’s drunk. Why? You know why?”
“Because he is.”
“Thats right. Just plain suspicious. Thats why I dont like to come to these places. No faith in humanity. For two cents I’d go over to the goddam Service Rooms, or Pacific Rooms, or Ritz Rooms, or White Hotel. She thinks this is the only whorehouse in this town? Theres even a Japanee Electric Massage four doors down the street.”
“Lets go there. I never been to one of them.”
Stark giggled. “Cant. Close up. Closes at eleven.” Then realization dawning, he turned and stared. “You mean you never been to a Japanee Lectric Massage?” he said disbelievingly.
“Never.”
“Ones with the little white sign and red letters on it and red streak of lightning under them?”
“Not once.”
“Tsk, tsk,” Stark said. “Where have you been?”
“I’m a hick,” Prew said bitterly. “Plumb green.”
“Tsk, tsk. I bet Wahoo’s the ony place in whole dam world where a man can get Japanee Lectric Massage. And you refuse to take advantage of your opportunity. You have missed a great experience, Prewitt, you have neglected your education. They lay you on your side,” he said, “then one of these hot lookin Japanee girls works you over, all over, with this lectric vibrator. But you cant touch her. They come out naked, and work you over and catch it in a towel. But they wont let you touch them, not even with a finger. They explain it all beforehand. And just in case someone dont understand instructions they keep a bouncer, a great big judo man. They let you see him when you first go in.”
“But I’d want to touch em,” Prew said. “I like to touch em.”
“So do I. Thats the point, see? You want to but you cant. Very funny feeling. There she is, all of her, but you cant touch it. Practically the same thing as a civilian tryin to make a respectable woman, see? Very peculiar feeling. Really nothing like it. Takes a Japanee to think of a valuble experience like that”
“Takes a Japanee to enjoy it too, I bet.”
“Oh, no,” Stark said. “I enjoy it. Makes you hot so hot you’d almost eat the goddam thing. With me, it invigorates the blood. After a Japanee Lectric Massage I could run any whorehouse out of business, even if I was sober. Makes you realize what a woman’s worth, even a whore. Gives you a great understanding of the human race. All of it.”
“I still wouldn’t like it,”