Battle Stations by Roger Jewett & Irving A Greenfield

Author:Roger Jewett & Irving A Greenfield [Jewett, Roger & Greenfield, Irving A]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781913518622
Publisher: Sapere Books
Published: 2020-04-19T22:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 31

Warren sat across the table from Irene Hacker in Society Sal’s, a small French restaurant. The wavering light from a candle in a green wine bottle flickered across her face. She was in uniform and there was considerably less strain on her face than when he had seen her aboard the AKO-96.

They met outside the restaurant, acknowledged one another with a nod, entered, and were shown to the table by the hostess.

Warren ordered a scotch for himself and a rum and coke for Irene. Neither of them made any effort to speak.

Irene studied the menu, while Warren studied her.

Finally, looking over the top of the menu, she asked, “Have you decided what you want?”

Without hesitation, he answered, “You.”

“Onion soup and the medallions of veal with mushrooms for me,” she said.

“That sounds good to me,” Warren responded.

“What?”

“I’ll have whatever you have,” he said, offering her a cigarette from a case.

She nodded and took one.

Warren held the cigarette lighter for her and then lit his own.

“How did you find out about this place?” she asked.

Warren looked around. The walls were red brick. There were potted plants in the corners. “Don’t you like it?” he asked.

She smiled. “I’ll let you know after I’ve eaten,” she said. “But how did you find out about it?”

“I asked one of the guys at the BOO,” Warren explained.

The waitress brought a basket of hot French bread to the table and two small cups filled with butter. “One is regular, the other is flavored with garlic,” she explained; then she asked if they were ready to order.

“Both of us will have the onion soup and the medallions of veal with mushrooms,” Warren said.

“And would you care for wine?” the woman asked.

“A carafe of the house white —”

“I’d much prefer the red,” Irene said. “Though of course white goes with veal.”

“Make it a carafe of red,” Warren said, looking up at the waitress.

She nodded, smiled at him, and left the table.

“I’m glad you agreed to meet me,” Warren said, moving his eyes to Irene.

“More out of curiosity than anything else,” she answered. “I’d have to admit that I didn’t expect to ever see you again, let alone have you call and invite me to dinner.”

Warren stubbed out his cigarette. “I wasn’t sure I’d ever see Pearl again.”

The waitress brought the soup to the table and then the carafe of wine.

Neither spoke until they were finished with the soup. “I’m glad you got out,” Warren said finally. “Things were very bad when I left. I was supposed to take MacArthur and some others to Australia, but they were flown out instead.”

“I have bad dreams about Corregidor,” she said, looking down at her empty soup plate, “and worse feelings about being safe here.” She raised her eyes.

He reached across the table and squeezed her hand.

“I left some very good people —” Her voice cracked and she turned her head away. “Excuse me,” she said, “I’m sorry.”

Warren lit another cigarette and blew a cloud of smoke toward the ceiling. He had his nightmares too.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.