From Here to Eternity (93 page)

spite of her three holds. She came right back,, screaming in a high shrill senseless falsetto, and jumped for Warden's back again with both feet off the floor. A fist belonging to one of the S/Sgt's friends, flashing out of the writhing mass, met her directly in the forehead and she was knocked back, down, out, and out of the fight. Charlie Chan, chattering frantically in Chinese, stopped wringing his hands long enough to drag her slack lax body back behind the bar. Then he went back wringing his hands and chattering in Chinese, stooped down behind the bar ready to duck. The large crowd, over which he had been so happy, had melted away. Most of them were standing just outside the open front watching the show. It was a good show. Stark was wading into the four scrambling bodies. He pulled out a foreign leg until a back emerged and began beating shattering blows into the kidneys of the unknown back. From down in the mass a muffled voice raised itself, calling plaintively, "Hey, Ira. Where ya? Comen'n give us a hand." Warden's malevolently joyous laugh was a bellow, also strangely muffled. "You'll need more than just four, friend." Ira the S/Sgt, still lying numbly on his table with his head propped against the wall, heard the call and slid down off the table shaking his head and holding his streaming nose. He paused long enough to mumble, "This is getting rough," to nobody, and then dived back in. The churning mass on the floor broke up, and Warden rose up like a colossus out of it, grinning silently murderously, blood trickling down out of his mouth onto his CKC shirt and tie. He worked his lips around and spat out two teeth dramatically. The uniform was ruined, both shoulders ripped out of the shirt, one pants leg torn almost off revealing the hairy hard slim column of muscle. Between his feet lay one of the S/Sgt's buddies, in the same lax condition and as out of action as Miss Rose. Warden stood over him solidly, grinning happily silently, and punching with abandon at every face and belly he could reach. His punches spun two of them back and away like pebbles flung off a spinning wheel. Stark grasped the third one, who happened to be Ira the S/Sgt, and swung him sharply and drove a pulverizing punch into his adam's apple with surgical precision as he turned. Ira staggered back wildly into a booth and sat down, choking in terrible pain, and gave up. Of the other two, whom Warden had spun back out of range, one sat down apathetically in the booth with Ira. The second one, who had come up against the bar, grabbed a beer bottle and smashed it on the rail and ran past Stark at Warden with it, like a dagger, cursing sobbingly under his breathing. The smashing of the bottle brought a reproving murmur from the audience, but none of them moved to stop him. Warden, still grinning sanguinarily, waited for him, his hands out before him like a wrestler, ready to grab if he got the chance. But as the man ran past Stark at the bar, Stark stuck his foot out delicately and blasely. The running knifer crashed.to the floor, still trying to reach Warden with his bottle. Warden stepped back and let him hit the floor and then stepped up again and kicked him carefully in the head. It had lasted perhaps six minutes. But already, from down the street, shrilled the urgent and ever-alert whistles of the MPs getting nearer. Charlie Chan, who was still wringing his hands, began to cry. Tears streamed down his face. "Now blingee goddam MP. Was so fine day. Now luin blisniss. Closem up tight." "Here they come, Texan," Warden said, laughing witlessly. "Come on. I know a place." He jerked loose the rest of the hanging pants leg and stepped out of it, and then they were shoving and elbowing out through the still-gathering crowd. They ran down the block toward River Street, Warden still laughing riotously, away from the approaching urgent whistles. "That Rose," Stark laughed breathlessly. "She really fell for you, buddy. Next time you go back there you better wear your groin cup or she wont even let you wait till she gets you home, before she rapes you." "Thats why I aint figuring on ever going back," Warden laughed. "Come on, this way." He turned left into the alley in the middle of the block, still laughing brainlessly happily. It was the same alley where he had stood and talked to Prewitt that night before they went across the street for a drink, the last time he had seen him. He thought of it momentarily, running, and ran on. "This'll be the first place they'll look for us," Stark said. "Never you mind. Come on. I know where I'm going." Halfway through the alley Warden called, "This way!" and turned left again up the middle of the block, back the way they had come. They passed the back door of the Blue Chancre. Then he ran left over the cinders to the back of the next building where there was a fire: escape and began to mount. Stark followed him up and crouching, hearing the urgent whistles down below in the babble, they ran lightly over three or four roofs before Warden stopped. "Lets see," he said. "I think this is the one. Yes, its this one here." He leaned across the three foot chasm of shadows and rapped sharply on a window of the next building. He waited impatiently, then rapped again. From up here, on the third story roof, they could see the roofs of the whole town below Beretania down the hill, sloping away toward the harbor at the foot of Nuuanu. In the bright sunshine glinting on the deep blue of the water down there, out beyond the upright finger of the Aloha Tower and in the Sand Island channel, a ship was pulling out. One of the Matson liners; the Lurline, it looked like. Involuntarily surprised, both of them stood and watched it. The big ship slid on, silently and pitilessly, as resistless and impossible to stop as a birthday or a moving clock. The bow was already out of sight behind one of the big bank buildings. They watched it until the whole ship, foot by foot silently, had slid behind it and on out of sight. "Well," Stark said raspingly, "are we goin in this goddam place, or aint we?" Warden swung around and looked at him, his eyes wide and violent, as if he had not known he was there. As if Stark had slipped up on him and he had not known he was there. He looked at him that way a moment, widely, violently, silently. Then he turned to the window and rapped again. "Who is it?" a woman's voice said this time. "Let us in, Gert," Warden laughed. "The MPs is after us." The woman opened the window. "Who is that?" "Its Milt. Why dont you wash your windows? Come on, get out of the way." He stepped from the parapet down across to the window sill and squeezed through. Stark took one more look down at the empty blue bay and then followed him. They were in a long empty hallway, ending in a big barred metal door. The woman was tall and narrow-faced, of about forty-five or fifty. She wore a beautiful evening gown with a corsage of gardenias at her throat. "Mrs Kipfer!" Stark said disbelievingly. "Well, shoot me for a Jap." "Why, Maylon Stark!" Mrs Kipfer said. "I know this one," she frowned at Warden. "But I never thought I'd see you coming in the back door." Warden laughed uproariously. "Why, Sgt Stark is the hero and savior of the evening, Gert. If it hadnt been for Sgt Stark here and his quick thinking, yours truly might have even got hurt. Who knows? maybe left for dead in one of these rotting Honolulu alleys through which we so elusively eluded the strong arm of the Law and claimed sanctuary in your Church of All Souls." "It appears to me you're hurt anyway." She stepped closer and inspected his mouth primly, with the efficient reproving air of a trained nurse. "Oh, Milt! You've lost two of your teeth! What a shame. And for what. All for some silly brawl with no purpose but entertainment. When are you going to grow up?" "I'll have you know I was defending the cause of chivalry," Warden grinned at her charmingly. "I was protecting that fairest of all the sexes, the female." He bowed to her. Warm golden glints in his eyes shone down at her laughingly. "Besides, the Army'll buy me new ones." Mrs Kipfer shook her head hopelessly to Stark. "What are you going to do with one like that?" "He's a character, aint he?" Stark said. "Are you hurt, too, Maylon?" "No, Maam," Stark said. "Nothing but this." He touched a sizeable lump on his cheekbone that was gradually spreading a purple sunset up into the hollow of his eye. Mrs Kipfer examined the eye and clucked her tongue. "Hows your First Aid, Gert?" Warden said. His eyes sparkled at her devilishly. "You think you need a refresher course?" "I wish you would stop calling me Gert," Mrs Kipfer said irately. "Its vulgar. To me the name Gertrude always has the connotation of a whore." Warden laughed out loud. "And you know it, Milt Warden. If I didnt know you were being playful, I'd really resent it." "I'm sorry, Gert," Warden grinned at her. "You know quite well I never mean to be vulgar." "I know," Mrs Kipfer said. "And thats the only reason I dont have you thrown out." "Noww, Gert," Warden grinned at her. "Well, come on," she said irritably. "You two cant go out front looking like this. You'll have to wash up, and I have some stray uniforms lying around you can both change into." She led them down the hall like a hostess conducting her guests, Warden keeping up a laughing patter all the way. "I've always said you missed your calling, Gert. You should of been a fraternity mother." Stark followed them, looking around curiously. It was the first time he had ever been out in back, in the "living quarters." The bathroom was scented with feminine powders and ointments and bathsalts, and a soap that smelled like gardenias. He was going to enjoy washing up, voluptuously. "Hey!" he said suddenly. He had his hand in his pocket. "Hey, my money's gone" Warden began to laugh. "Whats the matter. You didnt lose that precious hundred bucks?" "I cant find it," Stark said dully. Warden leaned back against the wall and began to laugh uproariously. Stark was still trying pockets. He tried them all, numbly, even the watch pocket. The folded sheaf of bills was gone. "Maybe," Warden said between peals of laughter, "maybe Gert's got a flashlight so you can hunt all up and down the alley. No, I forgot. Its still daylight, ain't it?" He began to laugh again, his head leaned back weakly on the wall, his big hands hanging at his sides. "Whats this about the alley?" Mrs Kipfer said. She was coming down the hall with an armload of CKCs. "Oh," Warden gasped, rolling his head back and forth on the wall and leaving a grease spot, "oh. Oh. This damn fool lost his roll in the fight. He is without doubt the biggest sucker I ever seen in my life. What'd you flash it for? Thats probly why they started the fight in the first place." "It was you started the fight," Stark said dumbly, his hands still working at the pockets. "Oh, thats right, I did, dint I? Oh," Warden gasped. "Oh Christ. Oh." "I think its unkind of you to laugh, Milt," Mrs Kipfer said. "It is," Warden said. He began to laugh uproariously again. "How much did you have in your roll, Maylon?" Mrs Kipfer said. "Hundred and thirteen bucks," Stark said dully. "Oh, that is too bad," she said. "Is there anything I can do?" "You can loan him a hundred and thirteen bucks," Warden said, still laughing. "Naw," Stark said. "I couldnt find it anyway." "Flashing a roll like that in that joint," Warden gasped. He burst out laughing uproariously again. "No wonder somebody rolled you. I'll bet it was Rose! What'll you bet; I'll bet it was Rose." "Naw," Stark said. "She was never near me." "Oh, Brother!" Warden gasped. He shoved himself away from the wall weakly. "You better re-enlist, Texan." "Well, I guess that cooks me," Stark said. "I'm done. I might as well go home." "You could sit out in the waiting room and wait for Milt, I suppose," Mrs Kipfer said sympathetically. "Of course, its terribly crowded," she added. "I doubt if you could find a seat." "Well, I guess I better get into this uniform," Stark said dully. "Wait a minute," Warden said. "Dont go yet. "I tell you what," he said. "Its crowded as hell out front. They're lined up outside all the way down to the corner. Its worse than Payday when the fleet's in." "Well?" Mrs Kipfer said cautiously. "I got two hundred and six bucks here, Gert," Warden said effervescently, getting out his wallet. "I'll give you a hundred and fifty of it, if you'll go out front and get me and my pal two of your lovely young ladies and bring them back here to us and let us have this place the rest of the day." Stark turned around and looked at him disbelievingly, the CKCs still hanging from his hand. "But they can make more money than that out front," Mrs Kipfer said carefully, "on a day like this." "I doubt it," Warden said irrepressibly. "I sincerely doubt it. But I tell you what I'll do. I'll go up to two hundred bucks, if you'll provide us with a bunch of steaks and half a dozen bottles." "Steaks!" Mrs Kipfer exclaimed. "Where on earth would I get steaks." "Dont kid me," Warden grinned. "Dont try to snow an old bull like me, Gert. I know you keep steaks around here for when the big brass comes down from Shafter for a party. Now what do you say? Two hundreds bucks, and you throw in the steaks and whiskey." "Well -" Mrs Kipfer said dubiously. "We'll cook them ourselves," Warden said. "I love to cook steaks. The Texan here is the best Mess/Sgt in the Army. If you furnish your own steak, I'll have him cook you one, too." "Heavens, no!" Mrs Kipfer said. "If I ate a steak today, the nervous strain I'm under, it would kill me. I dont know," she said doubtfully. "Yes, you do," Warden grinned. "You know you'll never get a better deal. And if you think you can get any more, you're crazy. Two hundred bucks is all I got. What do you say? Its nearly noon." "Its ten-thirty," Mrs Kipfer corrected. "Its nearly noon and we'll have to leave at five-thirty to make it home before the curfew. How about it? Take it or leave it. Is it a deal?" "Well," Mrs Kipfer said. "Its a deal!" Warden said irresistibly. "Its a deal. If you love me, Gert. You always said you did." He grabbed Mrs Kipfer and danced her, capering, around the hallway. "For goodness sake!" Mrs Kipfer said breathlessly. "Let go of me!" She stepped back, blushing, and smoothed her hair. "I'll go out and get them. You know where the icebox is. And the stove." "I want that new gal," Warden said, wiggling his eyebrows. "That Jeanette." "All right. Who do you want Maylon?" Stark, who liked to spend money himself, but who had been too flabbergasted to say anything at all, scratched his head. "I dont know. Lorene?" "Lorene left on the Lurline today," Mrs Kipfer said. "But Sandra's still here. She's not leaving till next month." "Well," Stark said. "Thats all right," Warden put in irrepressibly. "Thats all right. We'll suffer that inconvenience. This time." "Sure, thats all right," Stark said. "All right," she