U.S.A_ - John Dos Passos [29]
first of October they were in Vancouver. They had new suitcases and new suits. Ike had forty-nine dol ars and fifty cents and Mac had eighty-three fifteen in a brand new pigskin wal et. Mac had more because he didn't play poker. They took a dol ar and a half room between them and lay in bed like princes their first free morning. They were tanned and toughened and their hands were horny. After the smel of rank pipes and unwashed feet and the bedbugs in the railroad bunkhouses the smal cleanboarded hotel room with its clean beds seemed like a palace. When he was ful y awake Mac sat up and reached for his Ingersol . Eleven o'clock. The sunlight on the win--71-dowledge was ruddy from the smoke of forestfires up the coast. He got up and washed in cold water at the wash-basin. He walked up and down the room wiping his face and arms in the towel. It made him feel good to fol ow the contours of his neck and the hol ow between his shoulderblades and the muscles of his arms as he dried himself with the fresh coarse towel.
"Say, Ike, what do you think we oughta do? I think we oughta go down on the boat to Seattle, Wash., like a coupla dude passengers. I wanta settle down an' get a printin' job; there's good money in that. I'm goin' to study to beat hel this winter. What do you think, Ike?
I want to get out of this limejuicy hole an' get back to God's country. What do you think, Ike?"
Ike groaned and rol ed over in bed.
"Say, wake up, Ike, for crissake. We want to take a look at this burg an' then twentythree."
Ike sat up in bed. "God damn it, I need a woman."
"I've heard tel there's swel broads in Seattle, honest, Ike." Ike jumped out of bed and began splattering himself from head to foot with cold water. Then he dashed into his clothes and stood looking out the window combing the water out of his hair.
"When does the friggin' boat go? Jez, I had two wet dreams last night, did you?" Mac blushed. He nodded his head.
"Jez, we got to get us women. Wet dreams weakens a guy."
"I wouldn't want to get sick."
"Aw, hel , a man's not a man until he's had his three doses."
"Aw, come ahead, let's go see the town."
"Wel , ain't I been waitin' for ye this halfhour?" They ran down the stairs and out into the street. They walked round Vancouver, sniffing the winey smel of
-72-lumbermil s along the waterfront, loafing under the big trees in the park. Then they got their tickets at the steam-boat office and went to a haberdashery store and bought themselves striped neckties, colored socks and four-dol ar silk shirts. They felt like mil ionaires when they walked up the gangplank of the boat for Victoria and Seattle, with their new suits and their new suitcases and their silk shirts. They strol ed round the deck smoking cigarettes and looking at the girls. "Gee, there's a couple looks kinda easy . . . I bet they're hookers at that," Ike whispered in Mac's ear and gave him a dig in the ribs with his elbow as they passed two girls in Spring Maid hats who were walking round the deck the other way. "Shit, let's try pick 'em up."
They had a couple of beers at the bar, then they went back on deck. The girls had gone. Mac and Ike walked disconsolately round the deck for a while, then they found the girls leaning over the rail in the stern. It was a cloudy moonlight night. The sea and the dark islands covered with spiring evergreens shone light and dark in a mottling silvery sheen. Both girls had frizzy hair and dark circles under their eyes. Mac thought they looked too old, but as Ike had gone sailing ahead it was too late to say any-thing. The girl he talked to was named Gladys. He liked the looks of the other one, whose name was Olive, better, but Ike got next to her first. They stayed on deck kidding and giggling until the girls said they were cold, then they went in the saloon and sat on a sofa and Ike went and bought a box of candy.
"We ate onions for dinner today," said Olive. "Hope you fel ers don't mind. Gladys, I told you we oughtn't to of eaten them onions, not before comin' on the boat."
"Gimme a kiss an' I'l tel ye if I mind or not," said Ike.