From Here to Eternity_ The Restored Edit - Jones, James [273]
Weary let him go and watched disgustedly as he wavered over to the sleeping Warden and leaned over to take hold of him and fell on him.
“Ohh,” Prew said. “A’m drunk.”
“No stuff,” Weary said disgustedly.
He helped him back to his feet. Between them they managed to half-carry half-drag the big man’s lax body that was slippery as an eel around to the back of the truck. Twice they dropped him; Warden fell like a stone. They heaved and pushed and shoved and finally got him in the truckbed. As soon as he was in Warden opened his eyes and grinned at them slyly. “Is that Russell?” he mumbled vaguely.
“Yeahr,” Weary said disgustedly. “Russell the nursemaid. Russell the goat.”
“En listen to me, Russell,” Warden said. “I want you da zu sompin. I mean za du sompin. See?”
“Yeah?” said Weary learily. “What?”
Warden reared half up and looked around. Prewitt was already lolling in the rider’s seat, asleep again. “I tell you,” Warden whispered with all the quiet of a hissing locomotive. “I want you to drive ziz man home tiz bivouac.”
“Okay,” said Weary wearily. “But quit talkin in z’s and playin drunk. You fooled me once, actin passed out so I’d put you in the truck. You aint drunk. You aint as drunk as he is.”
Warden laughed. “I sure did, dint I?” he giggled. “But that aint all: when you get him home, I want you to tell his corprl of the guard the Firs Sarnt says he is relieve from duty the rest of the night. For halping the Firs Sarnt on a private reconnaissance.”
“But you cant do that, Top,” Weary said wonderingly.
“I cant, ’ey?” Warden said. “I already done it. You heard what I said, dint you?”
“Yeah,” Weary said, “but——”
“No buts,” said Warden savagely. “Do like I said. Am I the Firs Sarnt or not the Firs Sarnt?”
“You’re the First Sarnt.”
“Maybe you dont know which side that Pfc of yours is buttered on. But me no buts. Just do like I said.”
“Okay, Top. But you sure demand a hell of a lot for a lousy goddam Pfc.”
“Cmere,” Warden said and grabbed him by his arm. “Dont you know we got to look out for this man, Weary?” he whispered. “He’s the best fuckin soljer in the Compny.” He paused thoughtfully. “The ony fuckin soljer in the Compny,” he amended.
“What is this?” Weary said. “A mutual backslapping society I stumbled into?”
“We got to take caref him while we can, see?” The Warden told him urgently. “This man may not be with us for long, and we got to take caref this man.”
“Okay, okay, Top,” Weary said. “Go back to sleep.”
“Its important,” Warden said. “You dont know. Very important.”
“All right,” Weary said. “For god sake, go to sleep.”
“You promise?” Warden said.
“Yeahr,” said Weary Russell wearily. “I promise. Now go back to sleep.”
“Okay then,” Warden said contentedly. “But dont forget. Zvery important.” He rolled over comfortably complacently in the dirty ribbed wood floor of the truckbed. “Because it may happen any day,” he said.
Weary looked at him and shook his head and put the tailgate up and drove off down the gravel toward the bivouac, carrying two drunks, who both fatuously drunkenly imagined, that once in a dream somewhere, sometime, someplace, they had managed for a moment to touch another human soul and understand it.
Chapter 34
IT HAPPENED THE DAY after they got back from Hickam. It had been coming a long time so that everybody was spoiling for it, and they had all been anticipating it, but it turned out to be very involved and when it happened it was so complex that almost no one could get any satisfaction out of it, especially Prew. Prew had planned to go to Maunalani Heights that night.
They had pulled in and unloaded the trucks late the afternoon before and worked late that night cleaning personal equipment, scrubbing the web, saddlesoaping the leather, working with the toothbrushes on the gummy rifles. Nobody liked that kind of work, and the whole next day was given to cleaning the company equipment, the stoves, flies, pyramidal tents, the officers’ sleeping tent, and generally policing up for the full field inspection.
To everyone’s surprise, Pfc Bloom was standing on the porch with the rest of the boxing squad which had turned out to watch, when they