| "You ought to seen me back when I was a civilianI knew how to dress, I had an interest in life, I was always the leader in everything I didI could be a noncom now if I wanted to buck for stripes, suck the way Stanley does, but it ain't worth itYou got your self-respect
"What do ya get worked up for?" Polack asked"You know I was makin' a hundred fifty a week, and I had my own carI was in with Lefty Rizzo, but 'in' There wasn't a dame in the world I couldn't make, models, actresses, good-lookin' twotsAnd all I'd work would be twenty hours a week, no, wait it was twenty-five, about four hours a night from five to nine, six nights a week, just collectin' the receipts from the numbers and turnin' them inYou hear me bitchin' now? Listen, it's all in the turn of the gucci backpack cards," Polack said, "all in the turnThe way to figure it is you're layin' low now, you're takin' it easy
Polack was about twenty-one, Minetta figuredHe wondered if he was lying about the moneyIt always made Minetta uncomfortable to realize that he never knew what went on in Polack's head, while Polack always seemed to guess what he was thinking aboutNot knowing what to answer, he attacked Polack"Just laying low, huh? You got in the Army 'cause you wanted to?"
"How do you know I couldn'ta stayed out?"
Minetta snorted"I know it 'cause nobody who's got a brain in their head would go in unless they had to He dumped his box on top of some others, and started back to the boats"You're out on a limb when you get stuck in the ArmyThey ain't a damn thing you can do if cartier replica watch ladies santos 100 steel somethin' happens to yaPoor bastard's wife dies, and he's stuck out here"You want to know why Gallagher feels bad?"
"I knowThere was a cousin of mine whose wife got killed in an accidentJesus, you shoulda seen the way he carried onFor what? For a dame? I tried to talk to him, I said to him, 'Listen, what the hell are you lettin' go all that water for? There's lots of damesIn six mont's you'll be shackin' up again an' you won't even remember what this one looked like' He looks at me and starts bawlin', 'Oh, oh, oh,' and I try to tell him againSo what does he say to me?" Polack paused
"All right, what?"
"He says, 'Six mont's hell, what am I gonna do for tonight?' "
In spite of himself, Minetta laughed"You expect me to believe that?"
Polack shrugged, and fendi chocolate b mix bag picked up a box"What do I care if ya believe itI'm tellin' ya, that's all"Hey, you know what time it is?"
"Two o'clock"Two more hours of this crap He trudged through the sand"Wait, I'll tell ya about this dame that wrote a book," he said
At three o'clock the platoon took its last break of the afternoonStanley sprawled out on the sand beside Brown and offered him a cigarette"Go ahead, you might as well take one, I'm supporting you on cigarettes anyway
Brown groaned, stretching his armsI'll tell you what, a man can't do the kind of work he's capable of out in this tropical heat
"Why don't you just admit you're goofing off?" A change had come about in Stanley's attitude toward Brown since he had made corporalHe no longer agreed with Brown completely, and he d |