And then Captain Galloway, who was just as drunk as the others, said with great affection: “The truth, Colonel, is this sonofabitch can really fly; I couldn’t let him go; The Corps needs him.”
And she learned that Galloway had taken Pickering with him when they flew to some Japanese-occupied island and rescued some people who were there reporting on Japanese aircraft movement.
And that Billy Dunn had been the squadron commander while they were gone. He really looked like a college cheerleader, Carol thought. How could this kid be a Marine officer, much less a double ace and an acting squadron commander?
The first time she saw him in the hospital, she actually thought that he looked like a cheerleader wearing his big brother’s uniform. A drunken boy.
And then she remembered that Billy didn’t seem as drunk as the others, later on… that he’d been quiet and thoughtful. They stopped dancing after Colonel Dawkins came. At the time, she was grateful; she thought she was probably going to have to fight him off, the way he was dancing so close to her.
Especially early on, when he had an erection. But he was a perfect gentleman about that, Carol now recalled. He was terribly embarrassed, and swiftly moved his middle away from hers.
But it meant he was interested in her, excited by her. And that alarmed her: While she wasn’t a virgin, neither did she sleep around, especially with a kid she’d just met… especially with a kid five or six years younger than she was-at least five or six years.
Well, he hadn’t even made a pass at her, tried to steal a quick feel or anything like that. He was really a nice kid…. A kid? how could she call this man a kid? A double ace, who was going to get both the Distinguished Flying Cross and possibly the Navy Cross too, Colonel Dawkins said?
And then he just disappeared, even before Colonel Dawkins left. And this solved Carol’s problem of how to handle him when he made a pass at her. She didn’t want to hurt his feelings, but she was not about to go to bed with a kid… even if he was cute as a button and a genuine hero. And more mature, more of a man, than he looked like.
Well, it really didn’t matter. No harm done. No feelings hurt. Thank God. Colonel Dawkins said there would be a car at Muku Muku at five in the morning that would take them to Honolulu to catch the Pan American commercial flight to San Francisco. She’d probably never see him again. Which was probably a good thing, because the truth seemed to be that she was more attracted to him than was good for her.
She looked at herself in the mirror one more time, lifted the towel off of her head and brushed her hair out, then turned the light off and went out of the bathroom into the bedroom.
She could hear the surf crashing on the beach below. This was the first time this evening she was conscious of it. She went out onto the balcony and looked down. There was just enough light to see the surf. It was a beautiful night.
She stood there, looking out at the stars and the water for several minutes, and then she turned around and started back to her room. She would have to somehow wake up early enough to rouse Flo and get the both of them back to the Nurses’ Quarters before the other girls started to get up-and started to make wise-ass remarks about where they’d been all night.
And then, farther down the balcony, she saw the coal of a cigarette glow bright; and in the light, she could make out Billy’s face.
I could pretend I didn’t see that and just go back in my room. But he has seen me. And he knows that I have seen him.
She walked down the balcony to him. He was wearing a robe like hers; and when he saw her coming, he got up from the chaise lounge where he had been sitting.
“Couldn’t sleep?” Carol asked.