Show I 1 I 1 P I 1 1 W W P aft ut tate am ric hara powell 11 0 h A ta ansier Ns N ieR P R SANC ruai ARAB A DV BLAU r it I 1 wartime washington was quite until anul in my y wife arab arrived of course there had been a certain upsetting q quality u a lity about it like living inside a co concrete n arte mixer but until arab came cam e there had been positively no chance for me ine to win a decora tion lor for valor posthumously like most of arabs actions her arrival to in washington was unannounced noun ced I 1 w was as sitting at my desk studying the latest A 2 cables from my theater As usual they dian didn t give the answers to half the questions the general was sure to ask nobody could answer all his questions short of the german high cam command you cant however tell a general please to refer his questions to the german high command and so I 1 was worrying along and not noticing things including what felt vaguely like something brushing the back of my neck A voice behind me complained even if there thera are eight girls to every man in washington when I 1 kiss one I 1 expect him at least to realize hes got company I 1 jumped up and gasped arab I 1 I 1 and grabbed her my colonel cleared his throat like a B 24 warming up and remembered an errand down the corridor my one fourth of a secretary dove into the flies files and my two majors picked up their telephones and called each other I 1 held arabs slim body closely and for a minute the grim mass of the pentagon seemed to spin and dip like a rickety merry go round she pushed dished me backi back to arms length finally and laughed chokilo and salil said oh andy its been so long ard and it if been overseas overs eai I 1 could have managed but I 1 stand it just a hundred and forty miles away and P 1 I should have dragged you down here by the hair two months ago I 1 said abut but you were being patriotic and saying useless people move to washington and and you are going to stay arent you arent you really want me ill give up my rubber heels I 1 babbled ill take my old fash a bipeds without sugar they can the car tor for scrap I 1 wont deduct you from my income tax ill be patriotic any other way but oh were still patriotic darling swell how im not going to be useless see she ripped flipped the identification tag she was wearing it was the type they hand out to new employees for use until their photograph badges are ready goehl does that mean youre going to work here uh huh im going to take a job as a secretary that ended the pause tor for romance you can whisper here comes the general or greer gartong Gar song sons in the corridor and cause less general disturbance tur bance than it if you say heres a girl looking for a job as a secretary my one fourth of a secretary looked up from her files as if she had heard the first words of a new eman emancipation c proclamation my majors s dro dropped aped their phones and swung around dolfis wolfis wolfishly aly my colonel got back in the room and up to us like a commando heading for an objective jec tive where did you sign up I 1 a asked s ked grimly well andy it was this way I 1 just happened to where did you sign AU all right with ordnance oh lord I 1 said shotguns were bad enough around the house now be bazookas bazoukas bazo okas im awfully sorry arab said but id pay tuition to work for or ordnance the chlela chiefs fist hit the desk like an antipersonnel bomb its an outrage he said 1 I wont stand tor for kill how do they expect us to oper F tea te either they get me another girl or I 1 put in tor for a transfer four officers and one secretary and we cant get halt half the work out id trade any two officers tor for a good t typist throw myself in too ordnance Ord nancel I 1 guns I 1 he took a deep breath then growled got a place to live A M N not yet blake thinking of 01 letting you come to washington before he gets a place for or youa you better start looking goodby good by mrs blake clear out blake help her get settled I 1 said sir I 1 was wai going to stay tonight and finish up the report lor fop on my theater major ingliss cen can do it IUS his theaters quiet 1 I cant take andy away from toe the mr ar arab protested it young lady the tha colonel said finding ending a place to live in was washington hing Is twice as tough as winning this war and he added gloomily it may take twice as a long I 1 I 1 grabbed my service cap and we irne tweaked aked out 0 f the office while bekind us colonel parker was starting to complain that he personally would throttle th next man who showed urn om a secretary he have sure I 1 sald said im glad to see you the way a guys glad to see his right arm when he wakes up in the morning the way way hes glad theres enough air to breathe the way look I 1 cant say these things properly you couldery could try you could start courting me all over again you only spent about two weeks at it last spring andy and I 1 always felt a little bit cheated cheated I 1 said bold how about me on our honeymoon you got us in a shooting scrape so fast we almost used the wedding flowers tor for a joint funeral you needed to be stirred up andy you were turning into a vegetable you were in a rut vegetables are in furrows and im afraid she said looking at me seriously youre in one now youve been here two months youre still a first lieutenant no citations no ribbons not even a badge for pistol marksmann marks marksmanship mans hip I 1 growled the way I 1 handle guns ill get a pistol badge and a military funeral at the same time I 1 youre getting fat andy I 1 bet your joints are starting to creak att I 1 ai i W 4 1 I 1 andy its been so long in other words meet lieutenant blake of the chair borne infantry no hero just a guy doing a job that calls for a uniform I 1 know all that what am I 1 supposed to do about it 1 I dont know yeti yet darling but im going to find out how is the war getting on AU all right I 1 guess she said softly this Is october oct ober 1942 the ile japs may take back guadalcanal Guadal canal the germans have hall half of stalingrad Stal ingrad the wars getting on all right he guesses I 1 gulped hes glad to see me the way a mans glad to see his bis right arm in the morning in other words he takes it tor for granted as long as its there andy blake youre not going to take me for or granted and youre not going to guess the wars getting along all right youre going to start worrying about things I 1 dont know how im going to do it but im going to uproot you if I 1 have to use dynamite I 1 shivered arab really means things like that its getting near r six ix I 1 mumbled can we have dinner first I 1 understand the t troops 0 often get a final hot meal before the jump off she squeezed my arm 1 I do love you andy so much that it aches and we well 11 get a nice apartment and have fun even it 11 I 1 do have to stir you up no apartment I 1 said glumly 1 I got a feeling we better rent a foxhole we walked silently through the building a half mile to so south uth parking where the temporary bus terminal was still located it had been raining lightly all afternoon and arab had come prepared tor for it with an umbrella and white raincoat we had to wait outside a while to get a twelfth and pennsylvania bus arab tried to lend me her umbrella I 1 explained loftily that umbrellas were contrary to the customs of the service and arab began worrying about me catching cold and I 1 began feeling better we went to ODon nells tor for dinner and had shrimp norfolk and that cheered me up even more then we tackled the problem of finding arab a place to sleep she had come down with only a suitcase which the had checked at union station and the made an attempt to wire ahead for a room probably it have mattered you have to be entered for or a wash ington hotel room almost at birth like getting into groton or st pauls I 1 was rooming with a family out near falls falla church in virginia they might put arab up tor for the night in an emergency but it would be better to get her a place of her own we checked the newspapers and made a few phone calls and located a couple of possibilities way out in chevy chase that made us feel very gay and carefree and we boarded an 15 L 5 bus tor for the circle and I 1 had no suspicion that it was the last carefree moment id have tor for a long time I 1 riding biding washington bus in any of the rush hours is like holding a wrestling match in a revolving door you dont even dare let out your breath all the way because then get somebody else in the hub and you have to give up inhaling until somebody gets oft the bus had traveled only a few ew blocks when arab gripped my hand and whispered did you hear what that man said the ons one behind in me e 11 no 0 what something about shipping loco mo motives tives to england I 1 think he men tinned twenty not so good I 1 muttered P people eople talk too much we listened a mom moment ent and a girls voice cut across the babble saying and he always used to write three times a week so when janei jane told me that I 1 said jane it if you had a letter in two weeks those parachute boys have moved out and his next letter w will IU have an APO number on arab whispered are they crazy dont they even know how to read she pointed up right in front ot of the man talking about locomotives was a car ad reading NEVER DIS CUSS MILITARY OR NAVAL IN FORMATION IN A PUBLIC VEHICLE arab went on Is there much ot of this kind ot of loose talk yeah I 1 suppose so go I 1 said something ought to be done about it it ought to and its going to be right cowl now listen arab I 1 said uneasily youve got to take things aas ler ier A lot ot of people are working on this business ot of loose talk and and maybe I 1 can help them im going through this bus and listen to what people are saying and make notes and im going to write letters to newspapers and do a report tor for everybody high up I 1 can think ot of and make speeches and everything I 1 tried to calm her without success she dug out a pocket notebook and a stubby pencil and scrawled a lew few lines ot of symbols it was my introduction to the arabella blake shorthand system a meth method d which combined the worst features ol of pitman gregg greg g and the way arab marks checkbook stubs you stay here she said im going to work my way up to the front ot of the bus she wriggled I 1 ed two feet up the aisle e and paused she swayed there looking like a dreamy schoolgirl it if I 1 been watching tor for it id nevy r have seen her make a flew few quick notes you have thought she was interested in anything more important than the relative merits of chocolate nut sundaes sundnes and malteds malters with ice cream floats in a lew few minutes she had edged her way up the als aisle le out of my sight gradually I 1 began to realize that something was wrong I 1 figure what the big capital transit bus was still rocketing up connecticut avenue through its bright tunnel of raindrops voices still chattered but there was a difference the passengers seem the same it was almost as it if I 1 had been transferred while I 1 drowsed to a bus filled with utter strangers the impression was so strong that I 1 looked carefully at nearby faces they changed here in the middle of washington in a brightly aly lt lit bus filled with mid dle aged civil service workers and government girls and housewives and businessmen a witch hunt was assembling sixty normal people were being slowly used fused into a mob A mob with one idea shreds of talk whipped by my ears like leaves in a gale it was a girl 11 while I 1 was talking about jane she standing right by me and listening a girl in a white raincoat listening to every word I 1 said 1 I was wai telling you about that british carrier and she had a notebook and 1 I peeked pecked down and she was writing in some kind of code 11 a girl in a white 1 Is hes up in the front of the bus now listening to every word I 1 said TO BE |