| 5:52a |
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Red hated statistics"Don't give me any of
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Red hated statistics"Don't give me any of those figures," he told Corporal Toglio"If you listen to them you give up taking a bath 'cause it's too dangerous
"No, I'm serious," Toglio saidHe was a heavy-set Italian of about middle height with a pear-shaped head which was broader in the jaw than the templeAlthough he had shaved the night before, his beard darkened all of his face under his eyes except for his mouth, which was wide and friendly"I'm serious," he insisted, "I saw the statistics
"You know what you can do with them," Red said
Toglio smiled, but he was a little annoyedRed was a pretty good guy, he was thinking, but too independentWhere would you be if everybody was like him? You'd get nowhereIt took co-operation in everythingSomething like this invasion was planned, it was efficient, down to a timetableYou couldn't run trains if the engineer took off when he felt like it
The idea impressed him, and he pointed one of his thick powerful fingers to tell Red when suddenly a Jap shell, the first in half an hour, threw up a column of water a few hundred yards from themThe sound was unexpectedly loud, and they all winced for a momentIn the complete silence that followed, Red yelled loud enough for the whole boat to hear, "Hey, Toglio, if I had to depend on you for my safety, I'd a been in hell a year ago The laughter was loud enough to embarrass Toglio, who forced himself to grinWilson capped it by saying in his high soft voice, "Toglio, you can figger out more ways to make a man do something, and then it turns out all screwed up anywayAh never saw a man who was so particular over nothin'
That wasn't true, Toglio said to himselfHe liked to get things done right, and these fellows just didn't seem to appreciate itSomebody like Red was always ruining your work by making everybody laugh
The assault boat's motors grew louder suddenly, began to roar, and after completing a circle, the boat headed in toward shoreImmediately the waves began to pound against the forward ramp, and a long cascade of spray poured over the troop |
| 12:10p |
@@@@@He wasn't making allowances for common
@@@@@He wasn't making allowances for common courtesy
“Did you save her dinner?” he asked eagerlyShe bent down beside the oven and came back with a metal tray in her
handIt's probably nasty and tough now, but it's better than the usual
On the tray was a rather large piece of red meatMy mouth started to water, even as I rejected
the portion I'd been allotted
“We have to eat all the perishables the first day,” Jamie encouraged me“Everyone eats
themselves sick–it's a tradition
“You need the protein,” Trudy added“We were on cave rations too longI'm surprised no
one's in worse shape
I ate my protein while Jamie watched with hawk-like attention as each bite traveled from the
tray to my mouthI ate it all to please him, though it made my stomach ache to eat so much
The kitchen started to fill up again as I was finishingA few had apples in their hands–all
sharing with someone elseCurious eyes examined the sore side of my face
“Why's everyone coming here now?” I muttered to JamieIt was black outside, the dinner hour
long over
Jamie looked at me blankly for a second His tone added the wordsof
course
“Are you kidding me?”
“I told you nothing's changed
I stared around the narrow roomIt wasn't a full houseNo Doc tonight, and none of the
returned raiders, which meant no Paige, eitherNo Jeb, no Ian, no Wal |