(eng) Murray Leinster - SSC by Megapack 04

Author:Megapack 04 [04, Megapack]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

GEORGE IS A NOBLE GUY

THIS George is a good guy, as guys go, but he is so serious-minded that at times he verges on nobility. I drag him along as the unknown soldier on a double date, because my sugar ration’s mamma says double date or no date at all. She used to go out with soldiers in the last war, and she’s got a memory like a elephant. And on the way back to barracks, George tells me never no more.

“How come?” I ask. “You and this Carrie gal seemed to thrive!”

“Yeah,” says George. “I had fun. But it’s wrong for me to have fun on a date. It ain’t the right thing for me to do.”

He lets down his hair. He’s engaged to a girl named Gertrude, he says, and they were gonna get married, only his outfit got shifted and his furlough canceled. Gertrude was much upset. She’s still upset. In fact, she’s got him biting his left ankle because he ain’t heard from her in two weeks, and he don’t know whether she’s been run over by a jeep or whether she’s married Albert.

Albert’s a sort of human worm who gets a 4F classification after being Gertrude’s ideal from the sixth grade up. He has always been scornful of Gertrude until she announces her engagement to George, but then he shows interest. He is a worm in wolf’s clothing, in George’s view.

“Yeah,” I say, comforting, “but if a girl marries a guy named Albert in 4F, it plumb serves her right.”

“Usual it would,” says George, “but Gertrude’s alone in the world. There’s nobody cares what happens to her but me. So I’m honor bound to look after her.”

“Okay,” I says, indifferent. “Constancy is its own reward, and if a worm named Albert gets Gertrude, it ain’t ray funeral.”

SO I kinda write him off my list. In the next few days I notice he’s suffering plenty. He don’t get any mail. But I am noticing symptoms in myself, too. So when they get insupportable, I call up my half-pint of heaven. I’m sort of delirious, talking to her, and when I hang up, I’ve made another double date and absentmindedly I’ve agreed that Carrie shall be the other party. So I hunt up George and tell him.

“No!” he howls, when I stop talking.“I told you no! I’m goin’ crazy! If somethin’s happened to Gertrude, I’ll never forgive myself for bein’ mad like this! But if that guy Albert—”

He starts swearing, and I listen admiringly. But I say, “What you need, George, is competent advice.”

“You mean the chaplain?” he says.

“I mean a girl,” I tell him. “One woman understands another and why they like to give guys trouble. You come along and tell your stuff to Carrie, and she’ll straighten you out.”

“Maybe that’s an idea,” says George.

So he parts his hair careful and puts on bay rum and we go pick up the girls. I am somewhat nervous, because I have something on my mind, but we go

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