Semper Fi by W. E. B. Griffin

Author:W. E. B. Griffin [Griffin, W. E. B.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: historical, Marines, military, WW II
ISBN: 9780515087499
Publisher: Jove Books
Published: 1986-10-15T04:00:00+00:00

"Where is he?" McCoy asked.

"He's in Saint Francis's, I'm sorry to say," the young priest said, and repeated, "Can I help you?"

Saint Francis's was a hospital near Philadelphia. It was where they sent you if you were going to die, or if you went crazy.

"I'm looking for Anne-Marie McCoy," he said. "She used to be in this parish, and then I heard she was at the Sisters of the Holy Ghost as a novice. But when I asked at the convent, they told me she wasn't there. And they wouldn't tell me where she went."

"What's your interest in her?"

"She's my sister," McCoy said. "I've been away."

"I see," the priest said.

There was recognition now in his eyes. McCoy thought the young priest had probably heard all about the grief and pain the incorrigible son had inflicted on good ol' Pat McCoy before they ran the incorrigible off to the Marines. Nobody but his family would believe it, but when good ol' Pat wasn't glad-handing people at the used-car lot or the KC or the 12th Street Bar & Grill, good ol' Pat McCoy was pouring John Jamieson's into his brain. Only his wife and kids knew it, but good ol' glad-hand Pat was a mean, vicious drunk who got his kicks slapping his wife and his kids around. Sometimes he beat them because there was some kind of reason like not showing the proper respect, or for bad grades or a note from one of the Sisters or the Brothers, or for leaving polish showing when you'd waxed one of the cars on the lot.

More often he beat them for no reason at all.

Kenneth J. McCoy would never forget the time when good ol' Pat had dragged him in front of the judge:

"God knows, Your Honor," Pat McCoy told the judge, the Honorable Francis Mulvaney, a fellow knight at the KC, "I have tried to do my best for my family. God knows that. I sent them to parochial school when it was a genuine sacrifice to come up with the tuition. I made them take Mass regular. I tried to set an example."

He paused then to blow his nose and wipe his eyes.

"And now this," his father went on. "Maybe God is punishing me for something I done in my youth. I don't know, Your Honor."

"I'll hear your side of this," His Honor said to the incorrigible.

Who replied that good ol' Pat had slapped his eldest-just turned seventeen-son one time too many. And his eldest son (otherwise known to this court as the accused, Kenneth J. McCoy) had seen red and given him a shove back. And good ol' Pat, the loving father who had sent the accused to parochial school even when that had been a genuine financial sacrifice, had been so drunk that he fell down and tore his cheek when he knocked over the coffee table.

And that had made of loving Father so pissed that he came after die accused with the base of the table lamp.

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.