W.E.B. Griffin - The Corps 03 - Counterattack

(Four)

2307 Watterson Avenue

Jenkintown, Pennsylvania

2140 Hours 13 February 1942

Because Lieutenant Jim Ward’s mother and dad really went out of their way to make Sergeant Charley Galloway feel welcome and comfortable, they severely undermined his determination to stay off the sauce in the process. Mr. Ward, who’d been in the Army in World War I, made a pitcher of martinis soon after they came in the house. Charley didn’t like martinis, but he had two-the first to be polite and the second because he saw that Lieutenant Schneider didn’t like to see him drinking at all.

There was red wine during dinner to go with the steaks; and cognac after dinner, when they went down to the basement game room. Mr. Ward poured generously, and whenever Charley lowered the level in his glass a quarter-inch, he "topped it off."

Jim Ward’s girlfriend and a friend of hers for Lieutenant Schneider were both good looking, but Charley thought that neither of them was as classy or as good looking as Aunt Caroline. Wearing a soft, pale blue cashmere sweater and a pleated skirt, she was even more beautiful than he had thought the first moment he saw her. With absolute innocence, they had been sort of paired off, as the only unattached people who would make up a couple.

They sat beside each other at dinner, and several times their knees brushed under the table. Charley didn’t think it was his fault. He didn’t have much room for his knees, squeezed as he was between Ward’s mother and Aunt Caroline.

Aunt Caroline was wearing a perfume he had never smelled before. He had a wild fantasy of burying his face between Aunt Caroline’s breasts and inhaling to his heart’s content.

He smelled the perfume again in the basement game room when Aunt Caroline bent over, at Mr. Ward’s order, to "touch off" his cognac snifter.

"No more for me, please, Ma’am," Charley said.

"I don’t think you’re having a very good time, Charley Galloway," Aunt Caroline said.

"I’m having a fine time, thank you," Charley said.

"Why don’t you dance with Sergeant Galloway, Caroline?" Lieutenant Ward’s mother said.

"Would you like to dance with me, Charley?" Aunt Caroline asked.

I’d cut off my left nut for the chance to put my arms around you.

"I’m not a very good dancer," he said.

He saw Lieutenant Schneider looking at him uneasily.

He’s afraid I’m going to grab her on the ass, or say something dirty in her ear.

Aunt Caroline spread her arms for him, and Charley stood up.

He put his arms around her and felt the warmth of her back, and then the soft pressure of her breasts against his chest; and the smell of her filled his nostrils; and the primary indicator of his gender popped to attention the moment that Aunt Caroline elected to move a little closer to him.

She was startled; but he was literally immobilized with humiliation. They stopped dancing. When he glanced nervously around to see if anyone was watching, he saw that they were alone in a small corner of the game room. He wondered how they had gotten here.

"I’m sorry," Charley said.

"I’m not," Aunt Caroline said matter-of-factly, not withdrawing her midsection at all. "I was beginning to think you were a faggot."

"Do I look like a faggot?" Charley asked, shocked, after a moment.

"Not at all, but neither did my husband, and he was-is-as queer as a three-dollar bill," Aunt Caroline said.

"Your husband’s queer?"

"My ex-husband is," she said.

Her hand had been brushing his neck. She dropped it, caught his hand, and led him back to the main area of the game room. She let go of his hand.

"Charley’s too polite to say so," Aunt Caroline said. "But he’s bushed and wants to go back to the base."

Very quickly, Lieutenant Schneider said, "Galloway, we’ll all be leaving shortly. We can leave together."

"Oh, I know how Charley feels," Aunt Caroline said. "Four’s company and five is a crowd, right, Charley?"

"Something like that," Charley said.

"And I’ve got a busy day tomorrow, too," Aunt Caroline said. "And I drive right past Willow Grove, so I’ll take Charley back to the base."

"That’s very good of you, Caroline," Charley’s dad said. "Then I’ll take the boys back later."

"Oh, I can drive them, Mr. Ward," Jim Ward’s girlfriend said. "You won’t have to."

They were almost at the gate to Willow Grove before Aunt Caroline spoke.

"I’m sorry you didn’t have a good time tonight."

"I had a good time."

"You were uncomfortable," she argued. "Because Jim and his friends are officers, and you’re not?"

"That didn’t bother me," Charley said.

"Then it was me," she said. It was not a question. "You don’t have to be afraid of me, Charley."

He didn’t reply.

"How old are you, Charley?"

"Twenty-five."

"I’m thirty-three," she said. "Is that what’s been bothering you? God, that never happened to me before, the older woman."

"I don’t give a damn how old you are," Charley blurted. "You’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen."

Startling him, she pulled the station wagon to the curb and slammed on the brakes. She switched the interior lights on and looked at him intently, into his eyes. After a long moment, her hand came up and lightly stroked his face.

Then she turned from him, switched off the interior lights, and pulled away from the curb. When they reached the gate to the Willow Grove Naval Air Station, she drove right past.

(Five)

Willow Grove Naval Air Station

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

0205 Hours 14 February 1942

When Lieutenants Schneider and Ward and their dates returned to Willow Grove Naval Air Station, Dave Schneider asked the MP at the gate how to find the Chief Petty Officer’s Quarters. He had the girls drop them off there.

But then he wanted to be absolutely sure that Sergeant Galloway was there and not drunk in some saloon, about to punch out a shore patrolman. After Colonel Hershberger’s little speech, Lieutenant Schneider regarded the likelihood of that happenstance as probable.

Technical Sergeant Galloway was not in the Chief Petty Officer’s quarters. A chief petty officer, visibly annoyed to be wakened by a pair of damned jarhead lieutenants, gave Schneider directions to the transient enlisted quarters. Technical Sergeant Galloway was not there, either.

The crew chief was. He reported that he had not seen Sergeant Galloway since he had "driven off with you and that knockout blond lady," and that he had no idea where he might be.

"He’ll show up," Lieutenant Jim Ward said, without much real conviction. Sergeant Galloway had left the Ward home with Aunt Caroline Ward McNamara at about ten minutes to ten.

"He goddamed well better!" Dave Schneider replied angrily. "I knew damned well we shouldn’t have left him out of our sight!"

When Sergeant Galloway did not appear by half past three, Schneider began preparing to make the flight to Lakehurst without Technical Sergeant Galloway. He checked the aircraft books. The red-line "engine roughness" comment had been written off: "Sparkplug replaced. Running smoothly."

They made up the flight plan, which was pretty simple. Direct, VFR, off the airways. It was about forty miles from Willow Grove to Lakehurst. They got a weather briefing, and made sure that the aircraft had been fueled and that a ground auxiliary power unit and a fire extinguisher would be in place. And then they waited.

"Absence without leave," Lieutenant David Schneider declared five minutes later, "is defined as ‘failure to repair at the properly appointed time at the proper place in the properly appointed uniform.’ If Galloway’s absence does not meet those criteria, I’d like to know why not."

"Come on, Dave," Jim Ward said uncomfortably. "What’s the ‘properly appointed time’? Did you tell him to be here at any specific time? I didn’t."