reassignments; the major general had been known to assist his junior officers with their requests for transfers. When I started graduate school in the fall of ', was still looking for an apartment in Durham-or even in Newmarket, between Durham and Gravesend. I was looking halfheartedly, but-at twenty-four-I knew I had to admit to myself that what Owen had told me was true: that I was too old to be living with my stepfather or my grandmother.
'Why don't you move in with me?' Hester said. 'You'd have your own bedroom,' she added-unnecessarily. When her two previous roommates had graduated, Hester had replaced only one of them; after all, Owen was there much of the time-Hester having only one roommate made it less awkward for Owen. When the one roommate had left to get married, Hester hadn't replaced her. My first anxiety about sharing an apartment with Hester was that Owen might disapprove.
'It was Owen's idea,' Hester told me. 'Didn't he write you about it?'
That letter came along, after he'd settled into Fort Huachuca.
'IF HESTER STILL DOESN'T HAVE A ROOMMATE, WHY DON'T YOU MOVE IN WITH HER?' he wrote. 'THAT WAY, I COULD CALL YOU BOTH-COLLECT!-AT THE SAME NUMBER.
'YOU SHOULD SEE FORT HUACHUCA! SEVENTY-THREE THOUSAND ACRES! PRAIRIE GRASSLAND, ELEVATION ABOUT FIVE THOUSAND FEET- EVERYTHING IS YELLOW AND TAN, EXCEPT THE MOUNTAINS IN THE DISTANCE ARE BLUE AND PURPLE AND EVEN PINK. THERE'S A FISHING LAKE JUST BEHIND THE OFFICERS' CLUB! THERE ARE ALMOST TWENTY THOUSAND PERSONNEL HERE, BUT THE
FORT IS SO SPREAD OUT, YOU'D NEVER KNOW THEY WERE HERE-IT'S SIX MILES FROM THE WEST ENTRANCE OF THE FORT TO THE AIRFIELD, AND ANOTHER MILE TO THE HEADQUARTERS BARRACKS, AND YOU CAN GO EAST ANOTHER SIX MILES FROM THERE. I'M GOING TO START PLAYING TENNIS-I CAN TAKE FLYING LESSONS, IF I WANT TO! AND MEXICO IS ONLY TWENTY MILES AWAY! THE PRAIRIE IS NOT LIKE THE DESERT-BUT THERE ARE JOSHUA TREES AND PRICKLY PEAR, AND THERE ARE WILD PIGS CALLED JAVELIN A, AND COYOTE. YOU KNOW WHAT COYOTES LIKE TO EAT BEST! HOUSE CATS!
'FORT HUACHUCA HAS THE LARGEST HORSE POPULATION OF ANY ARMY POST. THE HORSES AND THE TURN-OF-THE-CENTURY ARCHITECTURE OF THE OLD HOUSES, AND THE WOODEN BARRACKS, AND THE PARADE GROUNDS-WHICH ARE LEFT OVER FROM THE INDIAN WARS-MAKE EVERYTHING FEEL LIKE THE PAST. AND ALTHOUGH EVERYTHING IS HUGE, IT IS ALSO ISOLATED; THAT FEELS LIKE THE PAST, TOO.
'WHEN IT RAINS, YOU CAN SMELL THE CREOSOTE BUSHES. MOSTLY, IT'S SUNNY AND WARM-NOT TERRIBLY HOT; THE AIR IS DRIER THAN ANY PLACE I'VE EVER BEEN. BUT-DON'T WORRY-THERE ARE NO PALM TREES!'
And so I moved in with Hester. I quickly realized that I had done her a disservice-to think of her as slovenly. It was only herself she treated carelessly; she kept the shared rooms of the apartment fairly neat, and she even picked up my clothes and books-when I left them in the kitchen or in the living room. Even the roaches in the kitchen were not there out of any dirtiness that could t'e ascribed to Hester; and although she appeared to know a lot of guys, not one of them ever returned to the apartment and spent the night with her. She often came home quite late, but she always came home. I did not ask her if she was being 'faithful' to Owen Meany; I wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt-and besides: who could even guess what Owen was doing? From his letters, we gathered he was doing a lot of typing; he was playing tennis, which Hester and I found unlikely-and he had actually taken a couple of flying lessons, which we found unbelievable. He complained that his room in the Bachelor Officers' Quarters-a dormitory-type room, with a private bath-was stifling. But he complained, for a while, of almost nothing else. He confessed he was 'BUTTERING UP THE COMMANDER'-& certain Major General LaHoad. 'WE CALL HIM LATOAD,' Owen wrote, 'BUT HE'S A GOOD GUY. I COULD DO A LOT WORSE THAN END UP AS HIS AIDE-DE-CAMP-THAT'S THE ANGLE I'M SHOOTING. FORGIVE THE EXPRESSION-I'VE BEEN SHOOTING SOME POOL IN THE COMPANY DAY ROOM.
'TYPICAL ARMY: WHEN I ARRIVE AND REPORT TO THE STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS COMMAND, THEY TELL ME THERE'S BEEN A MISTAKE-THEY WANT ME IN THE PERSONNEL SECTION, INSTEAD. THEY CALL IT 'PERSONNEL AND COMMUNITY ACTION' AT THE POST. I SIGN DISCHARGE PAPERS, I ATTEND THE OCS AND WARRANT OFFICER BOARDS-HAVE BEEN 'RECORDER' FOR THE LATTER. SCARIEST THING I DO IS PLAY NIGHT WATCHMAN: I CARRY A FLASHLIGHT AND A MILITARY-POLICE RADIO. IT TAKES TWO HOURS TO CHECK ALL THE LOCKS YOU THINK MIGHT BE JIMMIED AROUND THE FORT: THE SHOPS AND THE CLUBS AND THE STORAGE SHEDS, THE MOTOR POOL AND THE COMMISSARY AND THE AMMO DUMP. MEANWHILE, I KNOW THE EMERGENCY PROCEDURES IN THE STAFF DUTY OFFICER'S NOTEBOOK BY HEART-'UPON WARNING OF A NUCLEAR ATTACK YOU SHOULD NOTIFY . . . ' AND SO FORTH.
'IDEALLY, MAJOR GENERAL LAHOAD WILL CHOOSE ME TO BE THE BARTENDER AT HIS PARTIES-AT THE LAST PARTY, I BROUGHT DRINKS TO HIS FLUFF OF A WIFE ALL NIGHT; STILL COULDN'T FILL HER UP, BUT SHE LIKED THE ATTENTION. SHE THINKS I'M 'CUTE'-YOU KNOW THE TYPE. I FIGURE IF I COULD BE LATOAD'S AIDE-DE-CAMP-IF I COULD SWING IT-THE MAJOR GENERAL WOULD LOOK KINDLY UPON MY REQUEST FOR TRANSFER. THINK WHAT A BLOW IT WOULD BE TO THE PERSONNEL SECTION-HOW THEY WOULD MISS ME! TODAY I SIGNED A CHAPLAIN OUT ON LEAVE, AND I HELPED A HYSTERICAL MOTHER LOCATE HER SON IN
THE SIGNAL GROUP-APPARENTLY, THE BAD BOY HADN'T WRITTEN HOME.
'SPEAKING OF HOME, I'M TAKING TEN DAYS' LEAVE FOR CHRISTMAS!'
And so Hester and I waited to see him. That October, President Johnson visited the U.S. troops in Vietnam; but we heard no further word from
