Irwin Shaw - The Young Lions

"I have searched myself," Captain Lewis read in the officers' section of the ferry, as it throbbed at its moorings, "for the reasons that I have acted as I have done, and I believe I can state them honestly and understandably. The immediate cause of my action is the fact that I am a Jew. The men of my Company were mostly from the South, for the most part quite uneducated. Their attitude of mild hostility, which I believe had begun to wear away in respect to me, was suddenly fanned by a new Sergeant who was put in command of my platoon. Still, as I have said, I believe I would have taken this action even if I were not a Jew, although that brought it to a crisis and made it impossible for me to continue living among them."

Captain Lewis sighed and looked up. The ferry was moving towards the lower point of Manhattan. The city looked clean and everyday and dependable, and it was hard to think of a boy roaming its streets, loaded with all this misery, preparing to go to the reading-room of the Library and there spill it out on to paper for the Provost Marshal to read. God only knew what the MPs had made out of the document.

"I believe," the letter went on, "that I must fight for my country. I did not think so when I left camp, but I realize now that I was wrong then, that I did not see the issues clearly because of my preoccupation with my own troubles and a sense of bitterness towards the men around me, a sense of bitterness which was suddenly made unbearably strong by something that happened on my last night in the camp. The hostility of the Company had crystallized into a series of fist-fights with me. I had been called upon to fight by ten of the largest men in the Company. I felt that I had to accept that challenge.

"I had gone through nine of the fights, however, fighting honourably, and asking for no quarter. In the last fight I managed to beat the man who was opposing me. He knocked me down several times, but in the end I knocked him out, as a culmination of many weeks of fighting. The Company, which had watched all the fights, had before this left me on the ground, full of congratulations for the winner. In this instance, when I faced them, looking, perhaps foolishly, for some spark of admiration or grudging respect for what I had done, they merely turned, as one man, and walked away. It seemed to me as I stood there that I could not bear the fact that all I had done, all I had gone through to gain a place in the Company, had been absolutely wasted.

"At that moment, looking at the backs of the men at whose side I was expected to fight and perhaps die, I decided to desert.

"I realize now that I was wrong. I realize now that I believe in this country and in this war, and an individual act like this is not possible. I must fight. But I think I have the right to ask for a transfer to another division, where I can be among men who are more anxious to kill the enemy than they are to kill me. Respectfully, NOAH ACKERMAN, Private, US Army."

The ferry docked and Captain Lewis slowly rose to his feet. Thoughtfully he folded the letter and put it into his pocket, as he crossed the gangplank to the wharf. Poor boy, he thought, and he had an impulse to call off the lunch and go right back to the Island and seek Noah out. Ah, well, he thought, as long as I'm here now, I might as well have lunch and see him later. But I'll make it quick, he thought, and get back early.

But the girl he was lunching with had the afternoon off, and he had three cocktails while waiting for a table, and after that the girl wanted to go home with him. She had been a little cool to him the last three times he had been out with her and he felt he couldn't risk leaving her now. Besides, his head was a little fuzzy by now and he told himself he would have to be absolutely clear and sober when he went to see Noah; he owed it to the boy; it was the least he could do. So he went home with the girl and called his office and told Lieutenant Klauser to sign off for him after Retreat that afternoon.

He had a very good time with the girl and by five o'clock he decided that he had been foolish to think that she had grown cool towards him, very foolish indeed.

The visitor was very pretty, although a great deal of worry seemed to be under severe control in her steady dark eyes. Also, Lewis saw, she was pregnant. And from the look of her clothes, she was poor. Lewis sighed. This was going to be even worse than he expected.

"It was very good of you," Hope said, "to get in touch with me. They haven't let me see Noah all this time, and they don't let him write to me, and won't deliver my letters to him." Her voice was cool and steady, and there was no tone of complaint in it.

"The Army," Lewis said, feeling ashamed of all the men around him, all the uniforms, guns, buildings. "It does things its own peculiar way, Mrs Ackerman. You understand."

"I suppose so," Hope said. "Is Noah well?"

"Well enough," Lewis said diplomatically.

"Are they going to let me see him?"

"I think so," Lewis said. "That's what I wanted to talk to you about." He frowned at the WAC secretary, who was watching them from her desk with frank interest. "If you please, Corporal," Lewis said.

"Yes, Sir." The WAC rose reluctantly and went slowly out of the room. She had fat legs and the seams of her stockings were crooked, as always. Why is it, Lewis thought automatically, why is it they are the ones who join up? Then he realized what he was thinking and frowned nervously, as though somehow the grave, steady-eyed girl seated erectly in the stiff chair by the side of his desk could somehow read his thoughts and, in the middle of her terrible dilemma, be shocked and disgusted by him.

"I suppose," Lewis said, "that you know something of what has gone on, even though you haven't seen or heard from your husband."

"Yes," said Hope. "A friend of his, a Private Whitacre, who was down in Florida with him, passed through New York and he came to see me."

"Unfortunate," Lewis said. "Most unfortunate." Then he flushed, because the barest hint of an ironic smile played across the corners of the girl's mouth at his sympathy. "Now," he said briskly, "this is the situation. Your husband has asked to be transferred to another unit… Technically, he can be tried by a court-martial on the charge of desertion."

"But he didn't desert," Hope said. "He gave himself up."

"Technically," Lewis said, "he deserted, because at the time he left his post, he did not intend to return."

"Oh," said Hope. "There's a rule for everything, isn't there?"

"I'm afraid there is," Lewis said uncomfortably. The girl made him uneasy sitting there, staring steadily at him. It would have been easier if she cried. "However," he went on stiffly, "the Army realizes that there are extenuating circumstances…"

"Oh, God," Hope said, laughing dryly. "Extenuating circumstances."

"… and in recognition of that," Lewis insisted, "the Army is willing not to press the court-martial and return your husband to duty."

Hope smiled, a grave, warm smile. What a pretty girl, Lewis thought, much prettier than either of the two models…

"Well, then," Hope said, "there's no problem, is there? Noah wants to be returned to duty and the Army is willing…"

"It isn't as simple as that. The General in command of the base from which your husband deserted insists that he be returned to the Company in which he was serving, and the authorities here will not interfere."

"Oh," Hope said flatly.

"And your husband refuses to go back. He says he would stand trial before going back."

"They'll kill him," Hope said dully, "if he goes back. Is that what they want?"

"Now, now," Lewis said, feeling that since he was wearing the uniform and the two bright captain's bars, he had to defend the Army to a certain extent, anyway. "It's not as bad as that."