Canidy laughed. “What are you doing here? Better late than never?” ,I,m sorry about that,” Whittaker said. “The Air Corps was being beastly to me. Does the Navy use the phrase ‘exigencies of the service’?”
“All the time,” Canidy said. nd “In the Air Corps, it means, “Fuck you, you’re Reserve seco lieutenant you don’t get no leaves, whittaker said.
Canidy laughed. enior of them a full Ed Bitter cringed as three officers, the most s commander, sitting at a table across the foyer glanced their way in disapproval.
“Tell me about China,”Whittaker said.
“I probably know less about China than you do,” Canidy said. “But I’ll have a go at it. What exactly would you like to know?”
“Why are you going there, wiseass?”
“For a discharge from the Navy, and six hundred bucks a month,” Canidy said. said. “They were “The American Volunteer Group 9 11 Whittaker recruiting at Randolph Field, too.” dy said.
“Regular little Charley Chan, aren’t you?” Cani “Chesty and Bill Donovan were in Texas, is how I found out,” e contract for expanding the place, Whittaker said. “The firm’s got th and for satellite airfields. Anywayl they had me to dinner at the novan, the base commander, and me. My Main Club. Chesty, Do squadron now treats me with a lot more respect.”
Bitter laughed.
“So I asked what the volunteering was all about, and Donovan told me.”
“What did he tell you?”
“That patriotic, courageous, highly skilled, and ergo not too bright pilots were being recruited to go to China and pretend they Ir, the Chinese Air Corps until Roosevelt can get us in the war. He didn’t put it in quite those words, but stripped of the bullshit, that was what he meant.”
Canidy chuckled.
“Not that I was asked,” Whittaker went on, “but I wouldn’t touch the AVG with a ten-foot pole. What did you do, go crazy?”
“I told you, it got me out of the Navy,” Carridy said. “I figured if I stayed until my four years was up, there’d be a war on and I’d never get out.”
“From what Donovan told me,”Whittaker said, “the American Volunteer Group is a euphemism for throw some Christians to the Japanese lions.”‘
“We should not be having this conversation in a public place,” Bitter said. “If we should be having it at all. I don’t want to sound stuffy, but that’s-”
“I always try to be kind to naval aviators,” Whittaker said. “But this ringknocker sidekick of yours is trying my patience. Does he always interrupt serious conversations this way?”
“He means well,” Canidy said. “And he’s probably right. Let’s 90 to our room, so we can get out of these uniforms.”
“So you can pack,” Whittaker said. “You’re not going to spend the night here. Either of you.” He saw the look of confusion on Bitter’s face, and explained. “I’ve got a house here. Plenty of room for everybody. It will be easier all around.”
“Not only that, it’s free,” Canidy said. “Say “Thank you, Jim,’ Eddie.”
“Thank you,” Bitter said.
He had decided that prudence dictated he join them. For he did not wish to have to tell Commander Porter, at 0800 the next morning, that he had no idea where Lieutenant Canidy was. Since Whittaker and Canidy were two of a kind, together they were liable to do anything.
As they walked up the wide stairway, Whittaker touched Bitter @s arm. “No offense about the ring-knocker remark?
“Not at all,” Bitter said. “We ring-knockers always make an allowance for civilians in uniform “It does have a sense of humor,” Whittaker said. “I think I like it.” -screw you ” Bitter said. He had to laugh. The word to describe Whittaker, he thought, was “effervescent.” It was impossible to take offense at anything he said.
“And you have my sympathy, Sour,” Whittaker said. “I have trod where you are treading.”
“Bitter” Bitter corrected him, before he realized his leg was be ing pulled. “Trod where, Whitefish?”
“Sleeping with Canidy,” Whittaker said. “It isn’t so much the snores as it is the smell.”
“Well, we do have something in common, then, don’t we?” Bitter said.
“Dick and I go back a long way,” Whittaker said. “I was his hack at school.”