U.S.A_ - John Dos Passos [191]
-64-didn't like the idea of his being torpedoed every minute, but Joe said he hated to leave the sea now that there was a chance of getting ahead. She asked him how much he'd make as third mate on a freighter and he said a hundred and twentyfive a month but there'd always be bonuses for the zone and there were a lot of new ships being built and he thought the prospects pretty good al around.
Del screwed her face up in a funny way and said she didn't know how she'd like having a husband who was away from home al the time, but she went into a phone booth and cal ed the other boy up and broke off the date she had with him. They went back to Del's house and she cooked up a bite of supper. Her folks had gone over to Fortress Monroe to eat with an aunt of hers. It made Joe feel good to see her with an apron on bustling around the kitchen. She let him kiss her a couple of times but when he went up behind her and hugged her and pul ed her face back and kissed her, she said not to do that, it made her feel al out of breath. The dark smel of her hair and the feel of her skin that was white like milk against his lips made him feel giddy. It was a relief when they went out on the street in the keen northwest wind again. He bought her a box of Saturday night candies at a drugstore. They went to see a bil of vaudevil e and movies at the Colonial. The Belgian war pictures were awful exciting and Del said wasn't it terrible and Joe started to tel her about what a guy he knew had told him about being in an air raid in London but she didn't listen. When he kissed her goodnight in the hal , Joe felt awful hot and pressed her up in the corner by the hatrack and tried to get his hand under her skirt but she said not til they were married and he said with his mouth against hers, when would they get married and she said they'd get married as soon as he got his new job.
Just then they heard the key in the latch just beside
-65-them and she pul ed him into the parlor and whispered not to say anything about their being engaged just yet. It was Del's old man and her mother and her two kid sisters and the old man gave Joe a mean look and the kid sisters giggled and Joe went away feeling fussed. It was early yet but Joe felt too het up to sleep so he walked around a little and then went by the Stirps' house to see if Wil was in town. Wil was in Baltimore looking for a job, but old Mrs. Stirp said if he didn't have nowhere to go and wanted to sleep in Wil 's bed he was welcome, but he couldn't sleep for thinking of Del and how smart she was and how she felt in his arms and how the smel of her hair made him feel crazy and how much he wanted her. First thing he did Monday morning was to go over to Newport News and see Cap'n Perry. The old man was
darn nice to him, asked him about his schooling and his folks. When Joe said he was old Cap'n Joe Wil iams' son, Cap'n Perry couldn't do enough for him. Him and Joe's old man had been on the Albert and Mary Smith together in the old clipper ship days. He said he'd have a berth for Joe as junior officer on the Henry B. Higginbotham as soon as she'd finished repairs and he must go to work at shore school over in Norfolk and get ready to go before the licensing board and get his ticket. He'd coach him up on the fine points himself. When he left the old man said, "Ma boy, if you work like you oughter, bein'
your Dad's son, an' this war keeps up, you'l be master of your own vessel in five years, I'l guarantee it." Joe couldn't wait to get hold of Del and tel her about it. That night he took her to the movies to see the Four Horsemen. It 'was darned exciting, they held hands al through and he kept his leg pressed against her plump little leg. Seeing it with her and the war and everything flickering on the screen and the music like in church and her hair against his cheek and being pressed close to her a little sweaty in the warm dark like to went to his head.
-66-When the picture was over he felt he'd go crazy if he couldn't have her right away. She was kinder kidding him along and he got sore and said God damn it, they'd have to get married right away or else he was through. She'd held out on him just about long enough. She began to cry and turned her face up to him al wet with tears and said if he real y loved her he wouldn't talk like that and that that was no way to talk to a lady and he felt awful bad about it. When they got back to her folks' house, every-body had gone to bed and they went out in the pantry back of the kitchen without turning the light on and she let him love her up. She said honestly she loved him so much she'd let him do anything he wanted only she knew he wouldn't respect her if she did. She said she was sick of living at home and having her mother keep tabs on her al the time, and she'd tel her folks in the morning about how he'd got a job as a ship's officer and they had to get married before he left and that he must get him his uni-form right away. When Joe left the house to look around and find a flop, he was walking on air. He hadn't planned to get married that soon but what the hel , a man had to have a girl of his own. He began doping out what he'd write Janey