| Occasionally a shell would burst in the jungle nearby, but they hardly caredThe battle had been threatening all evening like a thunderstorm which never breaks, and by now it would have taken a barrage to move themBesides, they were too weary to dig holes
It took Red longer to fall asleep than any of the othersFor many years his kidneys had bothered him whenever he had too much exposure to dampnessThey were throbbing now, and he turned several times on the wet ground, trying to decide if it would be less painful to sleep with his back against the moist earth or exposed to the night airHe lay awake for a long time thinking, his mood turning through a small gamut from weariness to sadnessHe was thinking of a time when he had been caught in a small town in Nebraska with no jobs to be had, and had had to wait until he could catch a boxcar out of townIt had seemed very important to him then not to beg for something to eat, and he wondered if he still had that pride"Oh, I've been tough in my time," he muttered to himself"Lot of good it does me The air was cold on his back, and he turned overIt seemed to him that all his life he had been sleeping in bare wet places, seeking for warmthHe thought of an old hobo saying, "Half a buck in your pocket and winter coming," and replica chanel cc earrings felt some of the gloom he had known on cold October twilightsHis stomach was empty, and he got up after a while and rummaged through his packHe found a K ration and chewed the fruit bar, washing it down with water from his canteenHis blanket was still wet from the evening storm, but he wrapped it about him and found a little warmthThen he tried to go to sleep again, but his kidneys were aching too muchAt last he sat up, fumbled in the first-aid kit on his cartridge belt, and withdrew the little paper bag of wound tabletsHe swallowed half of them and drank about half the water remaining in his canteenFor a moment he thought of using them all, but then he remembered that he might be wounded and need themIt brought back his dejection, and he stared solemnly into the darkness, being able to discern after a time the bodies of the sleeping men around himToglio was snoring, and he heard Martinez mutter softly in Spanish and then cry out, "I no kill Jap, God, I no kill him Red sighed and lay down againWhat men sleep easy? he thought
A trace of an old anger passed through himI don't give a damn about anything, he said to himself, and listened uneasily to a shell sighing overheadThis time it sounded like the branches of a tree murmuring in a winter windHe remembered once montre cartier ronde striding along a highway as evening cameIt had been in the eastern coal-mining towns of Pennsylvania and he had watched the miners driving home in their battered Fords, their faces still dark with the day's accumulation of soot and coal dustIt had not looked anything like the mining country in Montana he had left years before, and yet it had been the sameHe had walked along brooding about home, and someone had given him a ride and treated him to a drink in a noisy barThat night had a beauty about it now, and he remembered for a moment the sensation of leaving a strange town on a dark freightThings like that were only glints of light in the long gray day of those yearsHe sighed again as if to grasp something of the knowledge he had felt for an instantNobody gets what he wants, he said to himself, and this deepened his mood of pleasurable sorrowHe was growing drowsy, and he burrowed his head under his forearmA mosquito began to whine near his ear and he lay still, hoping it would go awayThe ground seemed crawling with insectsThe little buggers are one thing I'm used to, he thoughtFor some reason this made him smile
It was beginning to rain, and Red covered his head with the blanketHis body was slowly sinking into a weary slumber in which different parts of him fell asleep louis vuitton bag sale at separate intervals, so that long after he had stopped thinking, a portion of his mind could feel the quivering of an exhausted limb or a cramp in one of his limbsThe shelling was becoming steady, and a half mile away from him a machine gun kept firingAlmost asleep, he watched Croft return and spread out a blanketAfter a time, he no longer heard the artilleryBut even when he was completely asleep, one last area of his mind noticed what was happeningAlthough he didn't remember it when he awoke, he heard a platoon of men march by, and was conscious of some other men beginning to push the antitank guns to the other side of the bivouacThere's a Jap road leads into the bivouac, he said in his sleepThey're going to protect it nowProbably he was feverish
He dreamed until he heard a voice shout, "Recon? Where's recon?" The dream ebbed away, and he lay there drowsily, listening to Croft spring to his feet and holler, "Here, over here!" Red knew he would have to be moving in a few minutes, and he burrowed deeper into his blanketsHis body ached and he knew that when he stood up he would be stiff"All right, men, on your feet"Come on, get up, we got to move
Red pulled the cover off his faceIt was still raining and his hand came away wet from the top surface of the knock off tiffany jewelry blanketWhen he replaced the blanket in his pack, his pack also would become wet He cleared his throat with disgust and spat once or twiceThe taste in his mouth was foulGallagher sat up beside him and groaned"Goddam Army, why don't they let a guy sleep? Ain't we done enough tonight?"
"We're heroes," Red saidHe stood up and began to fold his blanketIt was sopping wet on one side and muddy on the otherHe had slept with his rifle beside him, covered under the blanket, but it too was wetRed wondered how long it had been since he was dry"Fuggin jungle," he said
"Come on, you men, snap it up," Croft saidA flare lit the wet ugly shrubs about them and flickered dully against their wet black clothingRed saw that Gallagher's face was covered with mud, and when he felt his own face, his hands came away soiled"Show me the way to go home," he hummed"I'm tired and I want to go to bed
"Yeah," Gallagher saidThey made their packs together and stood upThe flare had gone out and they were blinded for a moment in the returning darkness"Where we going?" Toglio askedThey expect an attack there," Croft said
"We sure are a hard-luck platoon," Wilson sighed"At least we're done with them antitank gunsAh swear Ah'd fight a tank with mah bare hands 'fore Ah'd rassle with one of them sonsofbitches chanel jewelry a |
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