From Here to Eternity_ The Restored Edit - Jones, James [204]
“Wheres Lorene?” Prew said.
Mrs Kipfer put her hand lightly on his arm and beamed at him sideways knowingly. “Why, Prew! Is that why you came down specially on Payday? What did you do, did you go and borrow money? Just to come down here today and see Lorene?”
“Why would I do that?” Prew said, stiffly. He could feel both his upper lip and his neck get stiff simultaneously. “As a matter of fact,” he said stiffly, “I won a little money today and decided to come to town before I lost it back is all.”
“Well, I think thats very wise of you.” Mrs Kipfer was smiling at him sideways with her head cocked on one side. “How much did you win, dear?”
Prew felt a hollow fear cut down sharply through his irritation, splitting it into halves that fell away leaving a complete blankness in his mind, and he reached for his wallet quickly as a man will who is used to having to calculate his funds. It was still there. He breathed again.
“Oh,” he said. “About a hundred.”
“Well. Thats quite good, isnt it?”
“Only fair,” he said. He was remembering he had already spent one dollar of the twenty for two drinks to help him drop the trapdoor in his mind (there are times when it is imperative to drop the trapdoor in the mind, but the hinges have a tendency to stick so often) and that left him nineteen. Take a buck out for cab fare both ways (be could not risk hitching back, not this time) and that left eighteen. Fifteen for all night and three for a quickie now, and no bottle at all. It was running him too close for comfort.
Mrs Kipfer was still smiling at him sideways. “You know, I vastly admire your taste, my dear. But there is always such a heavy call for Lorene on Payday, and there are two or three other girls available in the waiting room.”
“Listen,” he said, wanting now to laugh at her, “I aint in no hurry. Just tell me where to find her.”
Mrs Kipfer, smiling, shrugged. “Very well. She’s in number nine. Straight down the hall. The best way is to wait and catch her in the hall. Excuse me theres the door.”
He grinned after her, still wanting to laugh at how she didnt know near what she thought she knew, and turned away down the hall.
“I’m sorry, boys,” Mrs Kipfer was saying through the slot “We’re just completely filled—
“There just isn’t a bit of room—
“I’m just awfully sorry—
“Well,” she said. “If thats the way you feel, you just go right ahead. I’m sorry.
“Oh, Prew-ew,” she called.
“Yes?”
“Drunk as lords,” she whispered, coming back. “I wanted to ask you how Sergeant Warden was?”
“Who?”
“Milt Warden. He’s still with the company, isnt he?”
“Yes,” he said. “Yes, he is.”
“He hasnt been in for such a long time now I thought perhaps he had been transferred back to the Mainland. Will you remember me to him?”
“Yes. Well,” he said. “Yes, I’ll do that.” He would do just that, walk up to The Warden after Reveille and tell him exactly that.
“You know,” Mrs Kipfer said, “you boys are lucky to have a man like that for your first sergeant.”
“You think so?” Prew said. “I think so, too. Oh, in fact, we all think that.” Well, well, he thought, well, well. But The Warden! Well, well. Will wonders never cease?
The door of number nine was open and a Marine tech sergeant with the bar under his chevrons instead of the rocker was coming out tying his tie. It was remarkable how every detail of him seemed so very clear and personal to Prew. Prew watched him absorbedly as he went off up the hall.
Lorene came out after him, moving at a swift walk that jarred the spike heels down staccato-ly and he saw her suddenly, heart-jumpingly, as if she had been photographed life size in mid-stride and stuck there and then walked right out of the print into the hall, the unzippered dress held together with one hand that also clutched one white poker chip, a brimming bottle of dark liquid in the other that she swung slightly to keep from spilling the way a waitress swings a cup of coffee. She was moving fast, and she swung her shoulders sideways to pass him in the narrowness of the crowded hall.
“Hey,” he said. “Lorene.”
“Hello, dear,” she said.
“Hey! Wait a minute, will you?”
“I’ve got to hurry, dear, theres three or four ahead of you.”
T