The Occupation of Joe by Bill Baynes

Author:Bill Baynes [Baynes, Bill]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-78535-823-4
Publisher: John Hunt Publishing
Published: 2018-08-31T04:00:00+00:00

10

Joe

Four bells. Dawn over Tokyo Bay.

Salmon pink skims over the water like cursive across a page, revealing dozens of huge creatures, gunmetal gray, dozing in the gentle swells.

Prehistoric. Posthistoric.

The Allied Fleet, the destroyed city still in darkness.

Officer of the Deck on the morning watch, Joe has been on duty since 4:00 a.m., drinking mud, musing… r.

… on the new world order, the winners and losers, the apparatus of the Occupation filling the harbor.

… on being a cog in a military machine 6,000 miles from home in someone else’s country. In ordinary times, he’d never be here. He’d never have met her.

Scattered across his consciousness, his last few moments with Aiko. Her smile of apology after the boy stormed out, her unspilled tears as she turned away. The way she tilted her head into his hand when he took a chance and brushed the smear from her face.

“I … I’ve got to see you. Can I see you?”

And she said: “Joe-san.”

That’s all. “Joe-san.” And she put her hand over his.

He’s aflame with the memory.

His moods are brittle. One moment he’s unaccountably elated, another in ambushed depression for no apparent reason.

Why did the boy leave? Where did he go? Why didn’t he want the sandwiches?

It’s December. What happens to them in a month when the Chourre sails?

Why didn’t he tell her he’s shipping out? How can he tell her anything when everything he says must sound like gibberish to her?

Churning with worries, Joe is not very good company. He shows his short temper when the “fellas” rehash the food riot during a darkroom break.

“Ya got somethin’ goin’ with Sam’s mom, don’t ya?” Wade asks abruptly.

“No, not really. She’s a woman trying to feed two children with nothing.”

“Ha. Ya didn’t go to all that trouble for nothin’. Ya were trying to impress her.”

“You’re Section 8, Wade. You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“I don’t? Look, don’t go to so much trouble. Just take what ya want.”

“Maybe that’s the way they do it in the big city,” Joe snaps, “but not where I’m from.”

“You’re a long way from where ya came from.”

“There’s nothing you can do, Binky.” Doc shakes his head. “You’ve got to let them go.”

“I can’t. I won’t.”

The best way to punch Joe’s stubborn button (he has a big one) is to tell him he can’t do something.

“I can leave them with money,” he says.

“It will run out,” Doc says, “sooner or later.”

“I can go to GHQ and get them a job.”

“For the child or the woman with a baby?”

“They’ll laugh at ya,” Wade says

“I’ve made a connection with these people,” Joe says. “I can’t undo it.”

He is pining for her, but he decides to be with Sam. He thought he established a bond when the boy broke down in his arms. He doesn’t know what happened since then to turn Sam against him, but he figures it will be easier for Aiko if he can mend his rift with her son.

He locates the sack they took from Matsushiro and removes a bat, two gloves, and several balls.

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