Steve Koffler didn’t have to go out to the Studebaker to find Yeoman Daphne Farnsworth; she was standing in the foyer, just outside the corridor to the library.
"I had to go to the ladies’," she said.
"You found it all right, I hope?"
"Yes, thank you."
"Something’s come up," Steve said.
"I heard, I went looking for you."
"I don’t know how long this will take," Steve said. "I’m sorry, I should have taken you home first."
"Are you in some kind of trouble? About taking the car, maybe?"
"No, I don’t think so. I thought I would be when I saw that Captain Pickering was here, but I think they want me to jump in with the radio. Otherwise, I think my ass would have been in a crack."
"You’re sure?"
He nodded. "I’m sorry you have to wait. I was going to tell you to wait in there," he said, pointing toward the sitting room. "There’s couches and chairs and a radio."
"All right," Daphne said. "You’re sure you didn’t get in trouble coming out to see me?"
"I’m fine," he said, smiling. "No trouble. Things couldn’t be better."
He turned and went back down the corridor. Daphne walked into the sitting room. She sat down on a couch and picked up a magazine, and then threw it down angrily.
That American Navy captain and Steve’s major and lieutenant and Donnelly didn’t come here on a Saturday evening to discuss a training mission. I know what the Marines are doing here with the Coastwatchers. If they’re going to parachute him anywhere, it will be onto some island in Japanese hands. And the only reason they would do that is because there’s some sort of trouble with the Australian already there.
She looked impatiently around the room. Her eyes fell on several bottles, one of them of Gilbey’s gin. She walked over to it, looked over her shoulder nervously, and then took a healthy pull at the neck of the bottle.
" ‘Otherwise,’" she quoted bitterly, " ‘I think my ass would have been in a crack!’ Oh, Steve, you bloody ass!"
Then she capped the Gilbey’s bottle and walked down the corridor to the library door, where she could hear what was being said.
"I’ll try to get to the airfield to see you off, Steve," Captain Fleming Pickering said, "but if something comes up ... good luck, son."
"Thank you, Sir," Steve said.
They were standing on the porch of The Elms. All that could be done tonight had been done. The officers, except Lieutenant Howard and his girlfriend, were leaving.
"You’ve been taking some kidding, I’m sure, about being a corporal, as young as you are," Pickering went on.
"Yes, Sir. Some."
"Well, it’s going to get worse," Pickering said. "As of this moment, you’re a sergeant."
"Sir?"
"I think, Ed," Pickering said to Banning, "that between us we should have the authority to make that promotion, shouldn’t we? I’m not going to have to trouble the Secretary of the Navy with an administrative problem like that, am I?"
"No, Sir," Banning chuckled. "I don’t see any problem with that."
"Then good luck again, Sergeant Koffler," Pickering said, and patted Steve, a paternal gesture, on the arm. He went down the stairs and got in the Drop-Head Jaguar.
"I will see you and Lieutenant Howard at half past six, Sergeant, right?" Lieutenant Donnelly said. "At the airfield."
"Aye, aye, Sir."
"Don’t get carried away with your girlfriend tonight, Sergeant, " Banning said softly. "Have fun, but be at the airport at 0630."
"She’s not my girlfriend, Sir," Steve said.
"Oh?"
"I wish she was, but all she is ... is a very nice lady."
"I see."
"I’ll be at the airport on time, Sir."
"Goodnight, Steve," Banning said.
He got in Pickering’s Jaguar. Steve stood on the porch until both cars had disappeared down the driveway, then went looking for Daphne. He suspected that she would probably be sort of hiding in the sitting room. It would have been very embarrassing for her if Lieutenant Donnelly had seen her. He would have gotten the wrong idea.
Daphne Farnsworth was not in the sitting room. Nor in the toilet off the corridor. Nor in the kitchen, Nor anyplace.
Jesus! What she did was walk all the way to the goddamned road, so that she can try to catch a ride!
He ran to the Studebaker. Daphne’s bag was not in the backseat.
She’s even carrying her goddamned suitcase!
He got behind the wheel, squealed the tires backing out and turning around, and raced down the drive between the ancient elms. She was not in sight when he reached the highway. He swore, and then drove toward Melbourne. Once he thought he saw her, but when he got close it was not Daphne sitting on her suitcase, but a pile of paving stones, neatly stacked by the side of the road.
Finally, swearing, he gave up, and drove back to The Elms.
At least she didn’t have to carry that heavy goddamned suitcase; I would have carried it to her in the morning.
And that would have at least given me the chance to say "so long."
When he got back to The Elms, he saw there was only one light on, on the second floor. That meant Lieutenant Howard and his girlfriend had gone to bed. Together.
Jesus, talk about good luck! Having your girlfriend right here.But then he considered that. Maybe it would be better if she wasn‘t here, especially since she knows what’s going to happen tomorrow. The minute they were alone, she probably started crying or something, and that would be hard to deal with. And then he considered that again. At least they could put their arms around each other and not feel so fucking alone.
Steve went into the library. He thought he would write his mother. But when he was sitting at the little writing table with a sheet of paper in front of him, he realized that was a lousy idea.
What the hell can I write? "Dear Mom, I’m fine. How are you? I’ve been wondering when I’m going to get a letter from you. Nothing much is happening here, except that I’m living in a mansion outside Melbourne; and tomorrow or the next day they’re going to jump me onto an island called Buka. I don’t even know where it is."
I can’t even write that. This whole thing is a military secret
He thought about going into the kitchen and maybe making himself an egg sandwich, but decided against it; the last time he’d done that, he’d awakened Mrs. Cavendish, and he didn’t want to do that tonight.
He went up the broad staircase to the second floor, and down the corridor to his room.
Tomorrow night, or maybe the night after that, I’ll be sleeping in the goddamned jungle with bugs and snakes and Christ knows what else. I should have known a good deal like this couldn’t last- a room of my own, with a great big bed all for myself.
He pushed open the door to his room and turned on the light.
Yeoman Daphne Farnsworth was in his bed, with the sheet pulled up around her chin.
"Jesus Christ!" Steve said.
"I saw you drive off in the car," Daphne said. "I didn’t know when, or if, you would be back, so I decided to go to bed and worry about getting into Melbourne in the morning."
"I was looking for you," he said. "When I couldn’t find you downstairs, I thought you had probably tried to hitch a ride into Melbourne."