U.S.A_ - John Dos Passos [192]
about it, but he decided she wouldn't like it and that he'd better not write. He wished Janey wasn't getting so kind of uppish, but after al she was making a big success of business. When he was skipper of his owd ship she'd think it was al great. Joe was two months ashore that time. He went to shore school every day, lived at the Y.M.C.A. and didn't take a drink or shoot pool or anything. The pay he had saved up from the two trips on the North Star was just about enough to swing it. Every week or so he went over to Newport News to talk it over with old Cap'n Perry who told him what kind of questions the examining board would ask him and what kind of papers he'd need. Joe
-67-was pretty worried about his original A.B. certificate, but he had another now and recommendations from captains of ships he'd been on. What the hel , he'd been at sea four years, it was about time he knew a little about run-ning a ship. He almost worried himself sick over the ex-amination, but when he was actual y there standing before the old birds on the board it wasn't as bad as he thought it ud be. When he actual y got the third mate's license and showed it to Del, they were both of them pretty tickled. Joe bought his uniform when he got an advance of pay. From then on he was busy al day doing odd jobs round the drydock for old Cap'n Perry who hadn't gotten a crew together yet. Then in the evenings he worked painting up the little bedroom, kitchenette and bath he'd rented for him and Del to live in when he was ashore. Del's folks insisted on having a church wedding and Wil Stirp, who was making fifteen dol ars a day in a shipyard in Balti-more, came down to be best man. Joe felt awful sil y at the wedding and Wil Stirp had gotten hold of some whiskey and had a breath like a distil ery wagon and a couple of the other boys were drunk and that made Del and her folks awful sore
and Del looked like she wanted to crown him al
through the service. When it was over Joe found he'd wilted his col ar and Del's old man began pul ing a lot of jokes and her sisters giggled so much in their white organdy dresses, he could have choked 'em. They went back to the Matthews) house and everybody was awful stiff except Wil Stirp and his friends who brought in a bottle of whiskey and got old man Matthews cockeyed. Mrs. Matthews ran 'em al out of the house and al the old cats from the Ladies Aid rol ed their eyes up and said,
"Could you imagine it?" And Joe and Del left in a taxicab a fel er he knew drove and everybody threw rice at them and Joe found he had a sign reading Newlywed
-68-pinned on the tail of his coat and Del cried and cried and when they got to their apartment Del locked herself in the bathroom and wouldn't answer when he cal ed and he was afraid she'd fainted.
Joe took off his new blue serge coat and his col ar and necktie and walked up and down not knowing what to
do. It was six o'clock in the evening. He had to be aboard ship at midnight because they were sailing for France as soon as it was day. He didn't know what to do. He thought maybe she'd want something to eat so he cooked up some bacon and eggs on the stove. By the time every-thing was cold and Joe was walking up and down cussing under his breath, Del came out of the bathroom looking al fresh and pink like nothing had happened. She said she couldn't eat anything but let's go to a movie . . .
"But, honeybug," said Joe, "I've got to pul out at twelve." She began to cry again and he flushed and felt awful fussed. She snuggled up to him and said, "We won't stay for the feature. We'l come back in time." He grabbed her and started hugging her but she held him off firmly and said, "Later."
Joe couldn't look at the picture. When they got back to the apartment it was ten o'clock. She let him pul off her clothes but she jumped into bed and wrapped the bedclothes around her and whimpered that she was afraid of having a baby, that he must wait til she found out what to do to keep from having a baby. Al she let him do was rub up against her through the bedclothes and then sud-denly it was ten of twelve and he had to jump into his clothes and run down to the wharf. An old colored man rowed him out to where his ship lay at anchor. It was a sweetsmel ing spring night without any moon. He heard honking overhead and tried to squint up his eyes to see the birds passing against the pale stars. "Them's geese, boss," said the old colored man in a soft voice. When he climbed onboard everybody started kidding him and de--69-clared he looked al wore out. Joe didn't know what to say so he talked big and kidded back and lied like a fish. NEWSREEL XXI