No Time For Sergeants by Mac Hyman

Author:Mac Hyman [Hyman, Mac]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Humor
Publisher: Distributed Proofreaders Canada
Published: 1954-07-03T05:00:00+00:00

15

Anyhow, Sergeant King was all right the next day, but then he had took to worrying about everything again. He said to me, “Will, you might not get to be a gunner being as you dont see too good, but that dont mean you’re going to have to stay here in my barracks all the time. Now what we’ll do, I’ll talk some fellow from another barracks into putting in an official request for you, and then you can go see the Captain about moving, and maybe we can work it out that way, if there is a request and everything.”

“You got it wrong,” I said. “I see all right. I . . .”

But he was thinking so hard he didnt half hear; he said, “Well, just that you dont see too good then . . . I mean, you aint got a chance of passing that eye exam as far as I’m concerned, but maybe we can get you transferred to some place where you can maybe get ahead and . . .”

“I dont care nothing about getting ahead,” I said. “If I dont get to be a gunner, I had just as soon stay here. But I’m still planning on being a gunner and . . .”

But he said, “Oh, no,” right quick. He said, “No, you dont get the outlook, see? The thing is, there wouldnt be no room for advancement if you stayed here with me. And you’ve got to think of getting ahead, Will. And I mean I’m going to see that you get in another barracks if it’s the last thing I ever do.”

So for the next day or two, Sergeant King went around from barracks to barracks, but things didnt work out the way he had planned it, I guess, because didnt nobody ever make no official request for me, so he got all down in the dumps again.

Well, anyhow, all that week some of the boys in the barracks had been talking to me about going into town one night for a party, saying how they were going to show me how to shoot snooker. All week long they talked to me about playing snooker, and how it costs so much to play and all. I had thirty-four dollars, and they asked me about it nearly every day. They would come in and say, “Will, you still got that thirty-four dollars?”

And I’d say, “Yeah, but that seems a awful lot to pay to play a game. I . . .”

“Well, it’s a real expensive game, Will,” they’d say. “Fact is, it’s a kind of gambling game. But we’ll teach you all right. We sho will, as you say.”

Anyhow, I hadnt paid too much attention to them; they were always taking on that way; but one day I happened to walk into Sergeant King’s room and there was four or five of them in there talking, and Sergeant King looked like he felt a lot better all of a sudden. Just as I

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