Blue.Blue was the regiment drunk. He looked just like W. C. Fields with the big red nose and everything. He was useless but he was the sweetest guy, not a mean bone in his body. He was just a drunk, is all. Drunk morning noon and night. Drunk from the minute he opened his eyes until the minute he shut them. The Army took everyone then. One time we went out on a mission on our gunboats and when we got pretty deep into the bay we discovered our compasses didn't work. They were skewing all over the place. We thought it was some kind of magnetism thing but then we figured out they'd been drained. Compasses then were built so the needle floated on a little sea of alcohol. Blue had been sentry for the second shift and he carefully opened each one and drank the juice and then put them back together. We sat there in the dark for a minute, no one talking. Get Blue over here, says the lieutenant. Blue gets hustled over from another boat. He's drunk. Bristol, says the lieutenant. You drank the alcohol from the compasses. Yes, sir, says Blue. Putting the regiment in danger. Yes, sir. That's a crime, Bristol. Blue doesn't say anything. That's jail time, Bristol. Blue doesn't say anything. Treachery Treachery See also Treason. Aaron plots downfall of Titus. [Br. Lit.: Titus Andronicus] Achitophel traitorous Earl of Shaftesbury. [Br. Lit. , Bristol. We all sit there silent for a minute and there's no sound except the lap lap lap of the little waves against the boats. We should move, sir, says Mahon. In a minute, Mahon, says the lieutenant, and something in the way he says it makes us realize what's happening. He's had enough. Blue has stolen food and gas for booze Booze sold cheap whiskey in a log-cabin bottle. [Am. Hist.: Espy, 152–153] See : Drunkenness , he traded his rifle for booze, he stole a truck and traded it for booze. He went AWOL and caused a wreck WRECK, mar. law. A wreck (called in law Latin, wreccum maris, and in law French, wrec de mer,) signifies such goods, as after a shipwreck, are cast upon land by the sea, and left there within some county, so as not to belong to the jurisdiction of the admiralty, but to the common law. , and he was the reason Gabe got shot at Ormoc. I should shoot you in the head, Bristol, says the lieutenant. Blue smiles, a little confused and a lot drunk. Or leave you in the bay, says the lieutenant. He'd make noise, sir, says Mahon. Not if I shoot him in the head first, says the lieutenant. We all sit there for another minute listening to the lap lap lap of the little waves. I don't think the gunshot is a good idea, sir, says Mahon. I'm sorry, sir, says Blue, sensing something bad. Tie him to the gunwale, head down, says the lieutenant. Sir? says Mahon. He can drink all he wants with his head in the water, says the lieutenant. Mahon and I are the nearest to Blue and we have no choice but to hang him over the side of my boat and tie him to the gunwale. Blue's sobering a little now but he's not sober enough to fight back and he hangs over the side like a dead dog. The top of his head is in the water and as soon as the boat starts up he'll drown drown v. drowned, drown·ing, drowns v.tr. 1. To kill by submerging and suffocating in water or another liquid. 2. To drench thoroughly or cover with or as if with a liquid. 3. if the bucking of the boat doesn't smash his brains out. Mahon and I straighten up Verb 1. straighten up - straighten oneself; "He drew himself up when he talked to his superior" draw up, pull up straighten - get up from a sitting or slouching position; "The students straightened when the teacher entered" and wait for what's next. Hey, you Hey, You is the debut EP of Japanese band Mono. Track listing
guys, says Blue faintly. Back to base, says the lieutenant. He'll drown, says Mahon quietly. That's the idea, Mahon. That's murder, sir, says Mahon. No, Mahon, says the lieutenant. It's the punishment he deserves. When we get back to base, he goes to jail. He'll die on the way, says Mahon. People die, Mahon, says the lieutenant. This is murder, sir, says Mahon. Mahon, you are relieved of duty. Get in Gabe's boat. Mahon has no choice but to get in Gabe's boat. The lieutenant goes back to his boat. Each boat has two men, a gunner and a pilot, both of whom are also mechanics. Mahon is my gunner. Blue is supposedly a gunner, but he's never fired a gun and no one would let him near the pilot's seat. Mostly when we were going somewhere he just sat in the bow and held on. He had sea legs sea legs pl.n. The ability to adjust one's balance to the motion of a ship, especially in rough seas. sea legs Noun, pl Informal , I give him that--maybe because they were so rubbery. But he never got sick or anything. He was getting sick now, though, all over himself, either from fear or from hanging upside Upside The potential dollar amount by which the market or a stock could rise. Notes: This is basically an educated guess on how high a stock could go in the near future. See also: Bull, Downside down drunk with his head in the water. If you stop your boat, says the lieutenant to me, you go to jail. Do you understand me? Yes, sir, I said. Back to base, said the lieutenant, and all the boats started up and swung around to follow Gabe, who had a pocket compass he always carried no matter what. It was a gift from his father, who had been in the Army in the first war and was real proud of his son in the second war. I heard his father nearly went crazy when Gabe got shot at Ormoc. I didn't know what to do, so I started the engine too and swung around. Blue was yelling yell v. yelled, yell·ing, yells v.intr. To cry out loudly, as in pain, fright, surprise, or enthusiasm. v.tr. To utter or express with a loud cry. See Synonyms at shout. n. , but the little waves were gagging gagging, n an involuntary retching reflex that may be stimulated by something touching the posterior palate or throat region. gagging the swallowing-vomiting activity of the gag reflex. him. I could hear the lap lap lap from where I sat and the sound he made when he tried to catch his breath between the little waves. I should explain that we were Army, not Navy, even though we spent all our time in boats. We were the 592nd Engineer Boat and Shore Regiment of the Army's Boat Battalion. No one remembers now that the Army had a boat battalion, but there were a lot of us in the Pacific, and we landed at Leyte, Tacloban, Ormoc, Luzon, Corregidor, and Wadke Island off New Guinea New Guinea (gĭn`ē), island, c.342,000 sq mi (885,780 sq km), SW Pacific, N of Australia; the world's second largest island after Greenland. . Also we were on Bataan. Also we blew up Fort Drum Fort Drum may refer to:
Before I gunned the engine, I reached down real quick and loosened the knot and Blue fell in. His feet banged the gunwale. We were within a couple hundred yards of two little islands, and the water was maybe 20 feet deep. We'd tucked behind these little islands to be out of the sight line from the shore. I took off fast. He might have made it. He was mostly sober by then, and the water was warm. When we got back to base, the lieutenant looked at the loose rope and didn't say anything and I didn't say anything. I told Mahon what happened, but he didn't say anything either. The regiment moved the next day, and we never got back that way. I thought about Blue every day. After the war I met a boxer named Atlas Adams who had grown up with Blue. He said Blue's sister was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. Blue was going to be a boxer, too, but he was a drunk. His sister married a guy who used to be a priest, and they moved west. This was after the war. You should have seen this girl, said Adams. She was the most amazingly beautiful girl. You couldn't believe it when she opened her mouth and talked to you like she was a regular person. When she married the priest, the mother cried and cried and the father just about went crazy. He used to stand in the street and just stare at their house, night after night, until finally they moved away. BRIAN DOYLE
Brian J. Doyle (born April 7, 1950) was the deputy press secretary for the United States Department of Homeland Security. is the editor of Portland Magazine Portland Magazine is an award-winning monthly magazine based in Maine. Founded in October of 1985 by Sargent Publishing, Inc., it has featured world-renowned writers such as Pulitzer Prize winner Lewis Simpson, and writers Frederick Barthelme, Jason Brown, C.D.B. at the University of Portland The University of Portland (UP) is a private Catholic university located in Portland, Oregon. It is specifically affiliated with the Congregation of Holy Cross and is the sister school of the University of Notre Dame. Founded in 1901, UP has a student body of about 3,200 students. and the author of Credo Credo A Latin word which means "a set of fundamental beliefs or a guiding principle.” For a company, a credo is like a mission statement. Notes: For example, Sam Walton, founder of Wal-Mart, established the "Three Basic Beliefs” as his company's credo. , a collection of essays. His book Saints Passionate & Peculiar will be published this September by St. Mary's Press. |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion