removed his tie, folded it neatly beside his hat, freed his cuff buttons and rolled his sleeves back to midarm. Watching him move about the room, performing mundane tasks, she became awed that such simple movements could stir her, make her feel carnal in a way she never had before. She welcomed the feeling, eager for the moment when she could loose it upon him.
He stacked both bed pillows and sat against them, with one foot outstretched, the other on the floor. The pose accentuated the masculinity already underscored by the uniform-the brilliant shine on his brown dress shoes, the sharp crease along his trousers, the fine press on his collar. She remembered him in scuffed cowboy boots, faded jeans hanging from lean hips, a crinkled shirt with sweat-stained arms. It struck her that the change in his clothing made him appear not only masculine and clean, but important and intelligent, and that this aspect of his appearance affected her as much as any other. It caught her in the hollow between her breasts like a sharp blow, made her heart leap and her blood sing. He reached into his breast pocket, removed a pack of Lucky Strikes and methodically tapped one against his thumbnail. Next he produced a book of matches, lit up and sat idly smoking, studying Elly through the rising skein of gray. She became mesmerized by the sight of his well-kept hands with the cigarette held deep between his fingers while he closed and opened the matchbook between drags, all the time watching her with his eyelids at half-mast.
'When did you start smoking?'
'A while ago.'
'You never told me in your letters.'
'I didn’t think you’d like it. Everybody does it. They even give us free cigarettes in our K-rations. Besides, it calms the nerves.'
'It makes you seem like a stranger to me.'
'If you don’t like it I’ll-'
'No. No, I didn’t mean that. It’s just… I haven’t seen you for so long and when I do you’re wearing clothes like you never had before, and a haircut that makes you look different, and you’ve got new habits.'
He inhaled deeply, expelled the smoke through his nostrils. 'Inside I haven’t changed though.'
'Yes, you have. You’re prouder.' When he made no reply, she added, 'So am I. Me and Lydia we talked about it. At first I told her how I hated having you go, but she said that I oughta be proud you’re wearing a uniform. And now that I’ve seen you in it, I am.'
'You know something, Elly?' She waited while he twirled the cigarette coal against a glass ashtray, rubbing ashes off. At last he looked up. 'These’re the nicest clothes I ever owned.'
His remark made her understand as she never had before the extent of his early deprivation, and that in the Marines he was like everybody else, no longer the odd man out.
'When I saw you at the station-well, it was a funny thing. All the while I was on the train I pictured you like you looked back home, and me too. But then I saw you and-well, something happened-here.' She touched her heart. 'This crazy knocking, you know? I mean, I wanted you to be the same, but I was glad you weren’t. Those clothes…' Her eyes flicked over his length. 'I can’t believe how you look in those clothes.'
He smiled crookedly and kept his eyes steady on hers, but somehow she knew they wanted to rove. 'The same thing happened when I saw you. Just sitting there in that chair, you make it happen all over again.'
They studied each other while Lizzy suckled. Will’s eyes fell to Elly’s naked breast and he drew deeply on the cigarette.
'Aren’t you going to eat your hamburger?' she asked.
'I’m not very hungry right now. How’s yours?'
'It’s delicious.' But she had laid the sandwich aside, half-eaten, and they both realized why. She took a drink of milk. A droplet of condensation fell from the cool glass onto Lizzy’s cheek and she awakened with a start, releasing Elly’s nipple with a snap, her face and fists rebelling against the sudden interruption.
'Shh…' Elly soothed, and transferred her to the right breast.
Will’s eyes homed in on the abandoned one with its wet, distended tip. Abruptly he swung off the bed, crushed out his cigarette and disappeared inside the bathroom. Elly dropped her head back, closed her eyes, and felt herself growing ready for him.
Inside the bathroom the water ran, a glass clinked, then silence… tense silence before Will appeared once more in the doorway, staring at her, wiping his hands on a white towel. He tossed the towel aside, skinned off his outer shirt and stood in a T-shirt that rode his muscles as closely as a skiff rides the sea.
When he spoke his voice was low, on the edge of control. 'I want you like I never wanted a woman before in my life. You know that, Elly?'
'Come here, Will,' she whispered.
He flung his shirt aside and moved behind her chair, stretching a hand over her naked shoulder, his fingers trailing over her breast. He dropped his head and she tipped hers to give him access to the side of her throat. She lifted her free arm, looped it around his head, feeling the unfamiliar stiffness of his bristly hair. His skin smelled of unfamiliar soap as his hand slipped over the unoccupied breast.
Her eyes drifted closed. 'How much time do we have?'
'I have to report back at 1800 hours tomorrow.'
'What time is that?'
'Six P.M. I catch a train at two-thirty. Lizzy’s done eating. Can’t we put her down now?'
She smiled at Will upside down and asked, 'Is it always like this for you?'
'Like what?' he asked, his voice soft and gruff.
'Like you’re gonna die if you have to wait another minute?'
The hand on her breast closed… lifted… molded. A thumb ran across its hardened tip.
'Yes, since the day I stood at the well with egg on my face and fell in love with you. Get up.'
She rose and watched Will hurriedly push the chairs back together, counting seconds as he spread them with a quilt. When she bent to lay Lizzy down, his hand rode her naked shoulder. She straightened and they stood on opposite sides of the chairs, staring at each other, anticipating, suffering one last self-imposed hiatus that only made their blood beat stronger. He reached out a hand and she laid hers in it, feelings pouring already between their linked fingers.
His grip tightened, drawing her along the length of the makeshift crib while their eyes clung, dark with intent.
When they met it was lush and impatient, two bodies starved for one another, two tongues parched by months apart. It was love and lust complementing each other to the fullest. It was impact and immediacy following one upon the other, a fast hard seeking to touch all, taste all, even before their clothing was removed.
'Oh, Elly… I missed you.' His hands skimmed low, drew her in.
'Our bed was so lonesome without you, Will.' She ran her hands over his trousers, reaching for his buckle.
Their clothing fell like furled sails. Murmuring, they fell to the bed.
'Let me see you.' He pulled back, let his hands and eyes travel over her, kissing where he would.
She fell back with arms upthrown, becoming the chalice from which he sipped. Likewise, she tasted him, and their timidity fled, chased by the distant acknowledgment of last chances.
Joined at last, they fit exquisitely.
They spun a web of wonder and trembled upon it, suspended in the sweet awaited union of hearts and bodies. They locked out the specters of death and war, those unpretentious intruders, and steeped themselves in each other, accepting gratification as their mortal due.
'I love you,' they reiterated again and again in hoarse whispers. 'I love you.'
It was the sustenance they would take with them when they left this room.
The sun was setting somewhere on a horizon they could not see. A bell buoy chimed in the distance. The smell of humid salt-air drifted in the window. An arm, wilted and weighty, lay across Elly’s shoulder, a knee across her thigh.
She hooked his lower lip with a finger, let it flip back up. He grinned tiredly, but his eyes remained closed.
'Hey, Will?'
'Hm?'
'Am I ever glad I came clear across Georgia on them dirty trains.'
