The Stars and Stripes flew over the wreckage of the Confederate Capitol. U.S. soldiers prowled the cratered grounds of the Gray House, walking past twisted and overturned antiaircraft guns. Scrawny civilians got meals at a U.S. field kitchen.
'How long can the enemy hope to keep up his useless resistance in the face of overwhelming U.S. might?' the announcer asked, as if the soldiers watching the newsreel would be able to tell him.
The answer they were supposed to give him was, Not very long. Armstrong had seen enough propaganda to understand that. But this time the newsreel had outsmarted itself. The fearsome bomb that leveled Petrograd made you think twice. It made Armstrong think twice, anyhow. If the Confederates came up with one of those, or more than one, before the United States could, they were liable to win the war in spite of losing their capital and getting their country cut in half. Drop something like that on Philadelphia and New York and Boston, and the United States would really have something to worry about.
Drop one on Birmingham, Armstrong thought savagely. Drop one on New Orleans. Drop one on fucking Charleston. Like most people from the USA, he particularly despised the city where the War of Secession broke out.
After the newsreel came a short feature, with the Engels Brothers involved with an actor plainly meant to be Jake Featherston. 'I'll reduce your population!' he yelled, which made the Brothers get into a ridiculous brawl to see which of them would be eliminated. That was all propaganda, too, but it was funny. Armstrong and Squidface grinned at each other in the darkness.
And the main feature was a thriller, with the Confederates after the secret of a new bombsight and the heroine thwarting them at every turn. She was pretty and she had legs up to there, which might have made Armstrong root for her even if she saluted the Stars and Bars.
After the feature, he got to lie down on a real bed. He hadn't done much of that lately-oh, a few times, when he flopped in a house some Georgians had vacated, but not very often. With snoring soldiers all around him, he could relax and sleep deep. Out in the field, he might as well have been a wild beast. The least little noise would leave him not just awake but with his heart pounding and with a rifle or a knife in his hand.
Bacon and eggs and more hash browns and halfway decent coffee the next morning were wonderful, too. So was eating them without peering this way and that, afraid of holdouts and snipers and his own shadow if it caught him by surprise.
'You know, this is pretty damn good. I could really get used to this.' He was surprised at how surprised he sounded.
'It is, isn't it?' Squidface sounded surprised, too. Had he been in the war from the start? Armstrong didn't know. But he'd sure been in it long enough to turn into a vet.
'I think this is called peace. We used to have it all the time.' Armstrong didn't think about those days very often. He'd gone from high school almost straight into the Army. He'd been a boy then. If he wasn't a man now, he didn't suppose he ever would be.
'Not quite peace,' Squidface said. 'No pussy around. We went through that when we got here.'
'Well, yeah, we did,' Armstrong admitted. 'All right, it isn't quite peace. But it beats the shit outa where we were at before.' Squidface solemnly nodded and stuffed another slice of bacon into his mouth.
T hey gave George Enos shore leave after he helped bring the Tierra del Fuego back to New York City. They gave it to him, and then they forgot about him. He grabbed a train up to Boston, had a joyous reunion with Connie and the boys, and set out to enjoy himself till the Navy decided what the hell to do with him next.
The Navy took so long, George wondered whether he ought to look for a slot on a fishing boat going out of T Wharf. He could have had one in a minute; the Navy had sucked in a lot of first-class fishermen. But he had plenty of money as things were, with so much back pay and combat pay in his pocket. And if he was out a few hundred miles from shore when he got called back to active duty, there would be hard feelings all around. His wouldn't matter. The Navy's, unfortunately, would.
He was back from church one Sunday morning when the telephone in his apartment rang. He'd found he liked Catholic services. He'd converted for Connie's sake, and never expected to take the rigmarole seriously. But the fancy costumes and the Latin and the incense grew on him. If you were going to have a religion, shouldn't you have one with tradition behind it?
'I bet that's my ma,' Connie said as she went to answer the call. 'She was saying she wants us over for dinner… Hello?' The pause that followed stretched too long. As soon as she spoke again, her tone told George it wasn't her mother on the other end of the line: 'Yes, he's here. Hold on… George! It's for you.'
'I'm coming,' George said. Connie's stricken face told him who the caller was likely to be. He answered formally, something he rarely did: 'This is George Enos.'
'Hello, Enos. This is Chief Thorvaldson, at the Navy Yard. The Oregon's going to put to sea day after tomorrow, and she's got a slot for a 40mm loader. You fit that slot, and you've had a long leave. Report aboard her by 0800 tomorrow.'
'The Oregon. 0800. Right, Chief.' George said what he had to say. Standing there beside him, Connie started to cry. He put his arm around her, which only made things worse.
'A battleship, Enos. You're coming up in the world,' the CPO said. 'You could hide your old destroyer escort in her magazines.'
'Sure,' George said, and hung up. He didn't much want to sail on a battleship. Like a carrier, it would draw enemy aircraft the way a dog drew fleas. But he couldn't do anything about that, either. With a sigh, he tried to smile at his wife. 'We knew it was coming, babe. War's getting close to over, so I probably won't be gone real long now.'
'I don't want you gone at all!' She clung to him fiercely. 'And things can still go wrong at the end of a war. Look at your father.'
He wished he'd never told her that story. Then he shrugged. He would have thought of it himself, too. He jumped when the telephone rang again. Connie picked it up. 'Hello?…Oh, hi, Ma. God, I wish you'd been on the line a few minutes ago…Yes, we can come, but we can't stay late. George just got a call from the Navy…The Oregon. Tomorrow morning…'Bye.' She hung up. 'Pa's got lobsters, so it'll be a good supper, anyway.'
'Won't see them in the Navy,' George agreed.
Lobsters, drawn butter, corn on the cob…It wasn't quite a traditional New England boiled dinner, which didn't mean it wasn't damn good. 'Enjoy it, George,' Connie's father said, sliding a Narragansett ale down the table to him. 'Navy chow ain't even like what the Cookie makes on a fishing boat. I know that.'
'It's the truth, Mr. McGillicuddy,' George said sadly. He took a pull at the cold bottle of ale. It wasn't bad, but he'd had better. He didn't say anything about that. Narragansett went back further than he did. 'How long have they been brewing this stuff, anyway?'
'It's been around about as long as I have, and I was born in 1887,' McGillicuddy answered. 'Can't tell you exactly, 'cause I wasn't paying much attention to beer back then, but that's about it, anyhow.'
'Sounds right,' George said. He was born in 1910, and Narragansett had been a Boston fixture his whole life long. He took another swig from the bottle.
What with all the food and the 'Gansett, he wanted to roll over and go to sleep when he and Connie and the boys got back to their apartment. But he wanted to do something else, too, and he did. Connie would have thought something was wrong with him if he hadn't. And God only knew when he'd get another chance. 'Gotta make it last,' he said, lighting a cigarette to try to stretch the afterglow.
'I should hope so.' Connie poked him in the ribs. 'Don't want you chasing after chippies when your ship gets into some port that isn't Boston.'
'Not me.' George lied without hesitation. Not very often, anyway, he amended silently.
'Better not.' His wife poked him again. 'Give me one of those.' He could reach the nightstand more easily than she could. He handed her the pack. They were Niagaras, a U.S. brand-they tasted of straw and, he swore, horse manure. But they were better than nothing. Connie leaned close to him for a light. He stroked her cheek. 'Thanks,' she said, whether for the smoke or the caress he didn't know.
He managed an early-morning quickie, too. Connie wouldn't have put up with that except on a day when he was shipping out. He kissed the boys good-bye-they bravely fought against the sniffles-and, duffel on his shoulder, headed across the Charles for the Boston Navy Yard.
Before he got in, Marine guards patted him down and searched the denim sack. Finding nothing more lethal than a safety razor and a clasp knife, they let him through. 'Can't be too careful,' one of the leathernecks said.
