From Here to Eternity_ The Restored Edit - Jones, James [135]
“I mean for all night,” he said thickly. “Engaged for all night.”
“You want to stay all night?” Lorene said. “I thought you meant engaged for right now.”
“I meant engaged for all night,” he said flatly. “Are you?”
“Not yet, Prew.”
“Well you are now,” he said, looking at the talkative soldier.
“Its a date,” Lorene smiled. “But it is twenty minutes yet. Theres no need for you to hurry. Sit down and relax a while.” She patted the seat on the other side of her like a serenely reassuring mother, smiling at him with her long-lipped mouth set into the thin child’s face.
“We were talking about surfboarding,” she explained, as he dropped into the chair. “Bill is stationed at DeRussey and is quite an expert at it. He describes it thrillingly.”
The talkative soldier stopped grinning. He smiled briefly. “You know anything about surfing?” he asked Prew, leaning forward around Lorene.
“No,” Prew said, leaning forward around Lorene. “Not a goddam thing.”
“Well,” the talkative soldier said, smiling at Lorene. “You guys from Schofield, being stationed inland like you are, dont get much chance at it I guess.”
“No,” Prew said. “But we got mountains. You know anything about mountain climbing?”
“A little bit,” the talkative soldier said, smiling at Lorene again. “Are you a mountain climber?”
“No,” Prew said. “I dont know anything about mountain climbing. Do you know anything about flying an airplane?”
The talkative soldier smiled briefly. “I’ve had a few lessons,” he said. “Out at John Rodgers.”
“Well I cant fly either,” Prew said. “What do you know about deep sea diving?”
Lorene, who was sitting facing the talkative soldier, turned clear around to serenely frown at him severely.
The talkative soldier frowned at him too, this time, before he smiled briefly.
“No,” the talkative soldier said. “I’ve never done that. Is it fun?” He leaned back in his chair and returned to his private conversation with Lorene who listened to it with the same serene attentiveness.
Prew leaned back in his own chair, letting him have the floor undisputed, and bit off a hangnail on his thumb, waiting for him to run down, but he did not run down, he took the floor and kept it, with a constant stream of talking that showed no prospects of running down.
“Hey,” Prew said finally, leaning forward again around Lorene. “Why dont you take her to bed, Bill? Aint that what you come up here for? Or did you come up here to present her with a charter membership of the Outrigger Club?”
The talkative soldier stopped talking and smiled at Lorene sadly. “Well,” he said to her. “An Infantryman who is also a wit.”
“At least I’m not a goddamned Coast Artilleryman who is also a surfboarder,” Prew said. “Are you going to screw her or aint you?”
Stiffly Lorene turned clear around to stare at him again, this time not severely but horrifiedly, as if he had just crawled up out of a hole in the mud.
Prew grinned at her. “Well? Are you?” he asked Bill.
“Did you want to go to the room, Bill?” Lorene said, “with me? There is plenty of time if you do, honey.”
“Well,” Bill said. “Sure. I guess. I think that would be better perhaps, dont you? The air in here seems to have gotten very smelly, hasnt it?”
“Yeah,” Prew said deliberately. “I noticed that too. You son of a bitch.”
“Listen, fellow . . .” Bill started.
“Shall we go then?” Lorene interrupted him. “I see no point in remaining here, do you? Come on, Bill,” she said, taking his hand with virginal shyness. “The sooner we go, the more time we’ll have together, Bill.”
“All right,” Bill said. He let her lead him out. At the door she stopped just long enough to give Prew a very disapproving look and to let him see her smile tremulously shyly at Bill.
Prew grinned at her. “Dont forget to show her the snapshots of your new surfboard, Bill,” he called after them.
Then, when they had gone, he let the grin drop off. He leaned back in the chair. He slid down in it until he was