The Gallery by John Horne Burns

Author:John Horne Burns [Burns, John Horne]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Tags: War, Classics, Gay
ISBN: 9781590178072
Google: SaE9AQAAQBAJ
Barnesnoble:
Goodreads: 18630759
Publisher: NYRB Classics
Published: 1947-01-01T05:00:00+00:00

In October, 1942, Captain Motes was alerted for overseas movement. Washington was whirling softly and pregnantly. People ducked in and out of the Mayflower and the Willard. Briefcases tossed through the streets like flat somber Japanese lanterns.

And Captain Motes got a company of one hundred men. Daily he went with them on the range, insisting on their firing all the weapons in the training manuals. There kept recurring in his vocabulary phrases such as D-Day and Cut to Pieces. He scurried around tight-lipped and absent, forgetting to speak to old acquaintances.

One night, though they were alerted for staging, he slipped under the barbed wire and met Lucinda at Hampton Roads. It was forbidden to hold any communication from the port of embarkation, but Captain Motes knew that as an intelligence officer he could trust himself. Lucinda wept when he told her they were sailing the following morning. He told too the number of ships in the convoy. He guessed also that they’d land on the northwest coast of Africa.

—We must rig up a code, lovey, she said panting, so I’ll always know just where you are. And all the other pieces of information a wifey needs for her peace of mind.

—Not necessary, he answered smiling and patting her hand.

He looked around the restaurant with a hideous penetration, then took something with a wooden handle on it out of his pocket.

—Mercy, lovey! What’s that, a grenade?

—A base censor stamp. With this on the envelope I can write you every goddam thing that happens. . . . And . . . if I shouldn’t come back, remember me as I am tonight . . . and if I have ever hurt you . . .

She laid her head on the tablecloth and streaked it with the rivers from her eyes. Captain Motes kissed her on the hair and raced out into the night. That was the way he desired to remember Lucinda in the pelting of bullets and the screaming and battle fury of maddened and dying men.

On 7 November 1942, the great armada bobbed uncertainly. Word passed that they were off the coast of Africa.

—This is it, kids, was the word that flicked from mouth to mouth like a tight bit.

Captain Motes spent all his time with his men, though it was difficult to brake himself down to their tempo, which seemed maddeningly inert. They chewed gum and shot craps. He encouraged them and cracked jokes at them. He called up his store of warlike stories, even going back to Julius Caesar.

—One of the great moments in the history of the world! Goddam it, men, look at me!

Whereas the other officers on his ship seemed idiotically calm, like men playing in the shadow of doom. This was the way it had been at Pearl Harbor, Captain Motes told himself, pitying them their complacency.

—Captain, one officer drawled, you’re purple. How’s your blood pressure?

—Fine, fine, goddam it to hell! he screamed and raced about the deck with his field glasses.

Before dawn on 8 November 1942, a fearful roaring set up.

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.