U.S.A_ - John Dos Passos [355]
"Scrapple," said Joe.
"Good coffee with real cream," said Mrs. Johnson, laughing.
"You win," said Paul with a sickly grin as he left the table. Charley took a last gulp of his coffee. Then he said he thought he'd go on deck to see if the immigration officers had come. "Why, what's the matter with Charley?" He could hear Joe and Mrs. Johnson laughing together as he ran up the companionway. Once on deck he decided he wasn't going to be sick. The fog had lifted a little. Astern of the Niagara he could see the shadows of other steamers at anchor, and beyond, a rounded shadow that might be land. Gul s wheeled and
-5-screamed, overhead. Somewhere across the water a foghorn groaned at intervals. Charley walked up forward and leaned into the wet fog.
Joe Askew came up behind him smoking' a cigar and
took him by the arm: "Better walk, Charley," he said.
"Isn't this a hel of a note? Looks like little old New York had gotten torpedoed during the late unpleasantness. . . . I can't see a damn thing, can you?"
"I thought I saw some land a minute ago, but it's gone now."
"Musta been Atlantic Highlands; we're anchored off the Hook. . . . Goddam it, I want to get ashore."
"Your wife'l be there, won't she, Joe?"
"She ought to be. . . . Know anybody in New York, Charley?" Charley shook his head. "I got a long ways to go yet before I go home. . . . I don't know what I'l do when I get there."
"Damn it, we may be here al day," said Joe Askew.
"Joe," said Charley, "suppose we have a drink . . . one final drink."
"They've closed up the damn bar."
They'd packed their bags the night before. There was nothing to do. They spent the morning playing rummy in the smokingroom. Nobody could keep his mind on the game. Paul kept dropping his cards. Nobody ever knew who had taken the last trick. Charley was trying to keep his eyes off Mrs. Johnson's eyes, off the little curve of her neck where it ducked under the grey fur trimming of her dress. "I can't imagine," she said again, "what you boys found to talk about so late last night. . . . I thought we'd talked about everything under heaven before I went to bed."
"Oh, we found topics but mostly it came out in the form of singing," said Joe Askew.
"I know I always miss things when I go to bed." Char--6-ley noticed Paul beside him staring at her with pale loving eyes. "But," she was saying with her teasing smile, "it's just too boring to sit up."
Paul blushed, he looked as if he were going to cry; Charley wondered if Paul had thought of the same thing held thought of. "Wel , let's see; whose deal was it?" said Joe Askew briskly.
Round noon Major Taylor came into the smokingroom.
"Good morning, everybody. . . . I know nobody feels worse than I do. Commandant says we may not dock til tomorrow morning."
They put up the cards without finishing the hand.
"That's nice," said Joe Askew.
"It's just as wel ," said Ol ie Taylor. "I'm a wreck. The last of the harddrinking hardriding Taylors is a wreck. We could stand the war but the peace has done us in." Charley looked up in Ol ie Taylor's grey face sagging in the pale glare of the fog through the smokingroom win-dows and noticed the white streaks in his hair and mus-tache. Gosh, he thought to himself, I'm going to quit this drinking.
They got through lunch somehow, then scattered to
their cabins to sleep. In the corridor outside his cabin Charley met Mrs. Johnson. "Wel , the first ten days'l be the hardest, Mrs. Johnson."
"Why don't you cal me Eveline, everybody else does?" Charley turned red.
"What's the use? We won't ever see each other again."
"Why not?" she said. He looked into her long hazel eyes; the pupils widened til the hazel was al black.
"Jesus, I'd like it if we could," he stammered. " Don't think for a minute I . . ." She'd already brushed silkily past him and was gone down the corridor. He went into his cabin and slammed the door. His bags were packed. The steward had put away the bedclothes. Charley threw himself face down on
-7-the striped mustysmel ing ticking of the mattress. "God damn that woman," he said aloud.
The rattle of a steamwinch woke him, then he heard