| We're just a bunch of GIs(Brown is enjoying himselfWhile we're home, and slipping a little meat to them every night, they're all lovey-doveyOh, they can't do enough for yaBut the minute you go away they start thinking
MINETTA: Yeah, my Rosie thinks of me
BROWN: You bet she doesShe starts thinking of how good it was to have it steadyListen, she's a young girl, and if she's as beautiful as my wife is, she's missing her good timeThere's lots of guys around, lots of four-Fs and USO commandos, and pretty soon she lets herself be talked into going out on a dateAnd then she dances and starts rubbing up against a guy
MINETTA: Rosie wrote me she don't go out to any dances(Polack and Brown laugh
POLACK: He believes the bitches
MINETTA: Well, I tested her plenty of times, and I never caught her in a lie yet
BROWN: That just proves she's smarter than you(Stanley laughs uncomfortably Listen, they're no different from you and me, especially the ones that've had their screwingThey like it just as much as men do, and it's a helluva sight easier for them to get it
POLACK: (falsetto voice) I don't know why I'm not more popular with the girlsI'm such an easy lay
BROWN: What do you think your girl friend is doing now? I'll tell you whatIt's just about six AShe's wakin' up in bed with a guy who can give her just as much as you can, and she's giving him the same goddam line she handed youI tell you, Minetta, there fake gucci fabric ain't a one of them you can trustThey'll all cheat on you
POLACK: There ain't a fuggin woman is any good
MINETTA: (weakly) Well, I ain't worrying
STANLEY: It's different with me
BROWN: The ones with kids are the worstThey're the ones who're bored and really need a good timeThere ain't a woman is worth a goddam
STANLEY: (looking at his watch) It's about our turn to dig(He jumps into the hole and picks up a shovel Jesus, you guys are a bunch of goldbricksWhy the hell don't you do your share? (He shovels furiously for a minute, and then haltsHe is sweating freely
POLACK: (grinning) I'm glad I ain't got to worry about one of those bitches cheating on me
MINETTA: Aaah, fug youYou think you're pretty goddam good
7
AFTER the night when the Japanese failed to cross the river, the first squad remained in its position for three daysOn the fourth day, 1st Battalion advanced a half mile and recon moved up with A CompanyTheir new outpost was on the crest of a hill which looked down into a tiny valley of kunai grass; they spent the rest of the week digging new holes, stringing barbed wire, and making routine patrolsThe front had become quietNothing happened to the platoon, and they seldom saw any other men except for the platoon of A Company whose positions were on an adjoining hill a few hundred yards awayThe bluffs of Watamai Range were still on their right, quite close, and in the late afternoon the chanel watch cliffs hung over them like a wave of surf about to break
The men in recon spent their days sitting in the sun on top of the hillThere was nothing to do except eat their rations and sleep and write letters and stand guard in their foxholesThe mornings were pleasant and new, but by afternoon the men were sullen and drowsy, and at night they found it hard to sleep, for the wind moved the grass in the valley beneath them and it looked like a column of men moving toward their hillAt least once or twice every night, a man on guard would awaken the entire squad and they would sit in their holes for almost an hour searching the field beneath them in the silver uncertain moonlight
Occasionally, they would hear the crackling of some rifles in the distance sounding like a bonfire of dry twigs on an autumn day, and often a shell or two would arch lazily overhead, sighing and murmuring before it crashed into the jungle beyond their linesAt night the machine guns would be hollow and deep, and would hold the mournful boding note of primitive drumsAlmost always, they could hear some noise like a grenade or a mortar or the insistent shrill tatting of a sub-machine gun, but the sounds were so far away and so muffled that in time they disregarded themThe week went by in an uncomfortable suspended tension which they felt only in their unvoiced fear of the towering mute walls of Watamai Range on their right
Every day a replica watches rolex ration detail of three men would trudge over to the hill on which the adjacent platoon of A Company was bivouacked, and return with a box of 10-in-l rations and two five-gallon jerricans of waterThe trip was always uneventful and the men did not dislike it, for the monotony of the morning was broken and it gave them a chance to talk to someone other than the men in their squad
On the last day of the week, Croft and Red and Gallagher filed down their hill, wove through the six-foot kunai grass in the valley beneath them, emerged into a bamboo grove, and from there followed the trail that led to A CompanyThey filled their empty water cans, strapped them to pack boards, and talked for a few minutes with some of the men in A Company before starting backCroft was leading them, and when he reached the beginning of the trail he halted, and motioned to Red and Gallagher to come forward
"Listen," he whispered"You men were making too goddam much noise coming down the hillJust 'cause this is a short distance and you got a little weight on your back don' mean you're supposed to wallow round like a bunch of goddam pigs
"Okay," Gallagher muttered sullenly
"C'mon, let's go," Red mutteredHe and Croft had hardly spoken to each other all week
The three men filed slowly down the trail keeping a distance of ten yards between themRed found himself treading warily, and he realized with a trace of anger that Croft's command chloe was influencing himHe walked along for many yards trying to determine whether he was afraid of Croft's anger or his caution came from habitHe was still debating this when he saw Croft stop abruptly, and creep through some bushes on the side of the trailCroft turned around and looked at Gallagher and him, and then waved his arm forward in a slow silent motionRed looked at his face; Croft's mouth and eyes were expressionless but there was a poise and tension about his entire body which was imperativeRed crouched and moved up beside himWhen the three of them were together, Croft held his finger to his mouth, and then pointed through a break in the foliage beside the trailAbout twenty-five yards away there was a tiny hollowIt was actually no more than a small clearing, encircled by jungle, but in the middle of it three Japanese soldiers were sprawled on the ground, resting with their heads on their packs, and a fourth soldier was sitting beside them with his rifle across his lap, his chin resting on his handCroft looked at them for a long tense second, and then stared fiercely at Red and GallagherHis jaw had tightened, and a small lump of cartilage beneath his ear quivered once or twiceVery carefully, he slipped off his pack board and laid it noiselessly on the ground
"We can't get through that brush without making a noise," he whispered almost soundlessly"Ah'm gonna throjw a grenade, and then we all rush speedy bag louis vuitton toget |
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