Battle Cry (28 page)

“Married! You bastard, you! And you…this is what I raised you for—to spend the night in the bushes!”

“Danny, they don’t understand—they don’t want to listen.”

The room became still. Only a broken sob came from Danny’s hysterical mother.

“Marvin, Sybil—we’d better calm down and talk this over like normal humans. These kids are serious. Martha, dammit! Stop that confounded sniveling or get out of here.”

“How dare you speak to me like that.”

“Shut up. I’ve seen that dying swan act too many times to be impressed. Your son has gotten himself into trouble. Either try to help or get out!” She slumped back ashen faced.

Marvin Walker’s rage had turned him a sallow white. He stood shaken. The parents all glared at their children.

“What have you to say, son?” Henry asked more calmly.

“Nothing…nor any excuses to make,” Kathy answered.

“That’s it, Dad.”

“You’re…you’re not sorry?” Sybil asked.

Kathy shook her head. “We did nothing to be sorry for.”

“You were right, Sybil. You told me a long time ago to break this up—I didn’t listen. Henry, I think you and your son had better leave my house.”

Kathy put her arms about Danny tightly. “I won’t stay here…take me away, Danny.”

“Are you game, Kathy?”

“Yes,” she whispered.

“I won’t be a party to this,” Henry said.

“We don’t need your help,” Danny answered.

Kathy walked to her mother and knelt before her. “Mother, I love him. I’ve loved him an awfully long time. I…I don’t want to hurt you, but can’t you see how we feel?” She arose and looked to her father with pleading eyes.

“Get out,” he said.

“I’ll just be a few minutes, Danny.” She ran upstairs.

Danny’s eyes were fierce. “Thanks,” he spat, “you’re grand people. We don’t care if the whole damned world is against us—we’ll make out.”

“Marvin, stop her,” her mother cried.

“They’re bluffing, Sybil. Let her go. She’ll come crawling back. He hasn’t got a dime.”

Danny walked to the phone. “Western Union, please…I want to send a telegram to First Sergeant Pucchi, Headquarters Company, Second Battalion, Sixth Regiment…Camp Eliot, California…yes, that’s correct. Urgent. Have two hundred dollars riding on the books. Wire to Western Union, Baltimore, at once. Have Mac raise another two hundred from the squad and round up an apartment or room in Dago. Line up a job for my wife at North American…. Sign it Danny.” He confirmed the reading and gave Walker’s number for the charge. He threw a bill on the phone stand. “That’s for the telegram.”

Kathy came downstairs with a suitcase and a coat over her arm.

“Son, son…” his father pleaded.

“Ready, honey?” He winked.

She winked back bravely.

“Kathleen! No! Don’t leave us!”

She turned at the door. “What’s the answer, Mother?” she said coldly.

“Anything.”

“Dad?”

Marvin Walker’s arched back sagged. “You win, Kathleen…God help us.”

Henry walked to the girl and placed his arm about her. “Welcome to the family, Mrs. Forrester…dammit, I’m glad!”

“Thanks, Dad,” she said.

They exchanged vows in an empty, flowerless church, with only Danny’s father and Sally Davis present. The remainder of his furlough they stayed in an apartment loaned them by Kathy’s spinster aunt.

They grasped desperately for their moment, their outward actions trying to smother the turmoil inside them, but each new dawn was greeted with clutching terror. One day less…one day less…

Kathy bolted to a sitting position in bed! She was cold and clammy and her heart pounded wildly. Danny stirred for a moment and reached out and pulled her down close beside him and she calmed in his arms.

Sleep was impossible for her but he was tired and she must not let him know. It was the fourth night in a row of the frightening awakenings. Her hand slipped under his pajama top and she held him tightly. What was this price she must go on paying and what was their sin?

Danny’s eyes opened, he kissed her cheek softly and stroked her hair and she was again unafraid and happy for the moment.

The sands ran on….

He shook Wilbur Grimes’ hand and led her back to the car. “Nice guy, the coach. I hope you didn’t mind me seeing him.”

“Of course not, darling.” He started the car and she tucked her feet beneath her and curled up against him.

“Too bad Virg is gone, we could of had a double date with him and Sally, just for kicks. Haunt the old places and get real mushy.”

“That would have been fun.”

“Light me a cigarette.”

“You smoke too much, Danny.”

“Nag, nag, nag. Just like a wife. Get home from a hard day at the office…five brats climbing all over me and then the old lady starts griping.”

“Shut up or I’ll deck you.”

“Kathy, where did you learn that talk?”

“From you.”

They rode, trying to avoid the heavy hearted, sick feeling inside them. The walls were closing in. The invisible hand was pulling him away. A wild notion, yet too clear for comfort—desert, go over the hill.

“Danny?”

“Huh?”

“I want to go to San Diego with you.”

He didn’t answer.

“I know it sounds crazy, but we can do it. Maybe we’ll have another month, even two.”

“No,” he answered, “that’s it…don’t try to get around me, please.”

“Why, darling, why?”

“Don’t you see. Kathy? Well be grabbing at straws.”

“But darling…”

“Kathy wait. I guess we both know what we are thinking. No use trying to kid ourselves. There’s no time left. But honey, if I took you to San Diego it would be…desperation. You’d be alone in a room, maybe even one like that motel. You’d sit alone and wait, wondering if every night was the last one….”

“I’m not afraid.”

“I know we promised, but we have a lot of things to talk about. We have to try to plan something for the future. It’s going to be rough, but one of these days everything will be worth it all. Till that time, this is your home. I want to remember you here…safe. It would bust the bubble. If I took you back there, we’d be just another desperate couple in a desperate city.”

“I understand,” she said. “I’m going to quit school and get a job. With what you’ll be sending, I’ll be able to set up a little apartment. I want a place, just ours, for you when you come back.”

“No!” The sharpness of his voice startled her.

“Danny!”

“I didn’t mean to shout. That is out, absolutely. If your folks get too rough, my dad will stand by you. You’ll always have a home.”

“But why, Danny? I thought you’d be so happy about it.”

His mind wandered back two weeks. A lonely haunted room in a third floor walkup. A pale, sad girl there. Alone—alone with the ghost of Nort. If something should happen, if he didn’t come back, she must not be alone.

“Why?” she repeated.

“Don’t ask me…don’t ask me.”

The airport was asleep at four in the morning. A few tired travelers sat dozing on the hard wooden benches. Danny bent over and mussed his brother’s hair. The little boy squinted one eye open and put his arm about his brother.

“Flight Sixty, for Chicago, Cheyenne, Salt Lake, and Los Angeles. Gate Ten.”

“Dad, you don’t know how much your help…”

“Have a good trip, son. Write to us.”

“Yes, sir.” Henry smiled at the note of respect.

“Don’t worry about the home front, son, I’ll take good care of her.” Their hands clasped tightly. His father stood back as the young couple walked into the night. A sharp wind howled over the runway. The silver monster waited at the gate. They stopped and she became rigid.
He must not see me cry…he must not.
She forced a grin on her white face.

“I’ll make it up to you, Kathy, some day.”

She nodded for fear speaking would bring tears. He held her a moment, then turned and walked away. He turned again at the door and then he disappeared.

A burst of wind, a deafening roar, and the silver wings were swallowed up in the black night.

“Danny! Danny! I love you!” Henry Forrester placed his arm about the girl tenderly and led her back to the car.

CHAPTER 7

I SLEPT
with one eye open, an old Marine trick. I had seen plenty of them come back from furlough. Sometimes it took a week, sometimes a month, sometimes they never snapped out of it. It helped if they had someone to talk to when they came in. I always waited up when one of my boys was due back.

That night, a tall, good-looking Marine passed the sentry box at the gate of Camp Eliot. He trudged down the dimly lit, long street, past the row of quiet barracks, leaning slightly under the weight of his heavy officer’s bag. The door opened and he stood for a moment. A snore, a grunt, a turn by a restless sleeper. The clicking heels of a marching sentry outside. He walked slowly to his bunk and sat. It was empty. He felt the same way inside. He lit a cigarette and just sat.

“Hello, Danny,” I whispered.

“Hi, Mac.”

“Have a good furlough?”

“Yes.”

“Hey, you guys knock off the crap. Can’t a guy get no sleep around this joint?”

“Come on to the head and let’s bat the breeze. I can’t sleep.” I was lying. I wanted to talk.

I led Danny into the toilet room and slapped him across the shoulders. “Twenty miles tomorrow and you’ll be good as new.”

“Yeah…sure.”

“Everything all right?”

“Sure, sure. Did the guys get the money back?”

“Yes.”

“Sorry I put you to so much trouble, Mac.”

“Hell, it wasn’t any trouble.”

“Mac, I got married.”

“The little blonde?”

“Yes.”

“I’ll be go to hell, that’s great.”

“Sure, sure.”

“Don’t go feeling sorry for yourself, Danny.”

“I’ll be O.K., Mac. Don’t worry about me. I just don’t feel like going to sleep right now.”

“Hell, I almost forgot. I got a letter here for you.”

“A letter? That’s funny, I just left last night.”

“It came a couple days ago.” I handed him the special delivery air mail envelope. A grim look came over him.

“Her father. Looks like trouble…he’s got me over a barrel now.”

He ripped the envelope open. Danny was too nervous to read, so I read it to him.

Dear Danny,

I hardly know what to say or where to start. I wanted this letter to reach camp before you got back, because I know how uneasy you must feel.

First of all, I’m not going to apologize for my actions on the morning you brought Kathleen home. I doubt whether you would have acted differently under the same circumstances. You see, Kathy is an only child and I suppose we’ve been overprotective with her. We’ve tried to give her everything in our power, including guidance. It was a shock, to say the least. Too much of a shock to realize that in the last seven months she changed from adolescence to womanhood. I should have seen it and helped her in her problem, but none of us knew what would happen when you came home.

I am not so bullheaded as to not be able to sit down in the light of a new day and try to reason a problem out. Sybil and I have talked of this a great deal. There is only one reality to face now. My daughter loves you; and her happiness is still the foremost thing in my mind.

Danny, when the war broke out I was pretty smug about it. I was damned complacent. I had no sons to go off to fight and I knew I’d never live to see the day that Baltimore would be laid open by enemy bombs. It was bonds and the blood bank for me, a superficial aid at best. Yes, I was happy that the war wouldn’t reach me. How foolish I was. There is no escaping war, for any of us. And I’m in it, just as my daughter is. You kids have your own life and must make your own decisions. I humbly admit I can’t wear your uniform.

You and Kathleen have a tough row to hoe. I suppose you know that. But I feel that you both have the stuff to see it through. I was always fond of you and I do not disapprove of my son-in-law. Only his methods.

You have a lot on your mind. You’ve got a war to fight for the old bastards like me. The least I can do is give you the peace of mind of knowing that your wife is safe and that we are with you, all the way.

Sybil is planning a shopping spree with Kathleen for a bunch of silly junk that women look for. Sort of a delayed wedding present.

I hope you talk her out of this idea of quitting school. I know you feel the same as I do about it. College is another thing. We’ll come to that next year. I don’t want to influence your marriage in any way, but perhaps you can write to her about this one thing. She’s very hardheaded, you know. Takes after her mother.

Well, son, I’d like to hear from you once in a while. You know, just personal between us. If you run short of money (I understand how those things are in the service) feel free to put the bite on me anytime.

“I’ll be damned,” Danny said. “Think I’ll hit the sack, Mac. Better grab an hour before reveille.” He folded the letter, smiled, and walked to the barrack room.

Danny did snap back fast. In a corner of his heart, he tucked away the memory of his furlough and drew it out only in an hour of solitude.

During these days, I watched the squad develop, slowly, into a good radio team. Not like the old Corps, mind you—I could still send code faster with my feet than they could with their fists. But they had developed in a competent way that pushed the ancient equipment to its maximum effort.

Danny wasn’t a flashy operator, but he was steady. Reliable. I felt good, knowing there would be no trouble as long as he was at the earphones. Marion had the same cool efficiency and it wasn’t long before I singled the pair out as a step ahead of the rest of the squad for added duties and responsibilities. Promotion is slow in the Marine Corps, but when the stripe did come, those two would have a jump on the field.

Shortly after Danny’s return we began the slow tedious task of packing to ship out. None of us wanted to leave the States, but yet it was welcome when the word was passed down that we were earmarked for overseas. The quicker we got out, the quicker we’d get back.