“He looked at me as if I’d hit him in the face! Then he told me than an officer’s lady didn’t talk like an enlisted man’s riffraff. I told him that I certainly wasn’t an officer’s lady by choice and that the sooner Don was back to being a civilian, the better I’d like it.”
“It must be very hard for two adult people to jump into Navy life with both feet like you’ve had to,” Brannon said slowly. “I mean, those of us who are Regulars have been at it since we left high school. The Academy, all that. Usually we marry a Service brat and she knows what it’s all about. Or we marry a young girl who’s adaptable and the older wives help her out.
“Gloria wasn’t a Service brat but her father was a quarterman in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, a leading shipfitter. She knew all about the long separations, the lousy quarters they give to junior officers.
“You should have seen the shack we lived in when we were sent to Panama! Roaches big enough to carry off a bag of groceries, if we’d ever had enough money to buy a whole bag of groceries. The roof leaked in the rainy season and they wouldn’t fix it then because they couldn’t work in the rain. When the dry season came they couldn’t fix it because they didn’t know where it leaked!”
“What’s Mary Simms’ background?” Bernice asked.
“Civilian,” Gloria Brannon said. “She met Pete when she was working in some Senator’s office in Washington. He was attached to the color guard or something like that. He was a football player at the Academy, you know, big man on campus sort of thing. Very good looking, as he is now. She was much slimmer then, she’s let herself go a little since they had the baby.
“She told me once, when they were commissioning Mako, that he made her do thirty minutes of calisthenics every morning when they got up. Then he’d take his shower and she’d fix breakfast because he wanted his breakfast as soon as he was dressed. And then he’d chew her out for not being showered and cleaned up! He said she shouldn’t sit at an officer’s table in a robe and hair curlers!”
“Nice man,” Grilley said. “You had a little trouble with him at New London, didn’t you?”
“Just a little,” Mike said slowly. “He started getting on Nate Cohen, needling him because Nate’s Jewish. I stopped it.”
“Simms is a fool,” Grilley said. “Cohen is ten times as smart as Simms is ever going to be. Did you know he was studying for the Rabbinate, Mike?”
“Yes. The Skipper told me he saw it in his service jacket. I wondered,” Brannon’s face was solemn. “I never served with a Jew before, never even knew a Jew for that matter. I thought they had to eat special foods off special plates, things like that.”
“If they observe dietary laws, they do,” Grilley said. “But I think Nate would have asked for a dispensation because of service in a submarine in wartime.”
“You got along very well with Cohen?” Brannon was speaking slowly, picking his words.
“Yes,” Grilley said. “I had some Jewish professors in school. I admired them as men and for their learning.” He was conscious as he spoke of a subtle change in the room. The same sort of change that came about whenever Nathan Cohen walked into the Mako’s Wardroom was here in this slightly shabby room in this seedy house that the Navy had appropriated for Officer’s Quarters. There were only a few Jews in the prewar Navy. The Jew was unknown. Therefore he was dangerous. Grilley changed the subject abruptly.
“I think there’s something you ought to know, Mike. We, all of us in the Wardroom and I’m sure that everyone in the crew — we’re going to miss you. You were one hell of a fine Executive Officer. I know you’re going to make a hell of a good Skipper.”
Brannon blushed, the solid red flush mounting swiftly from his open shirt collar to his black hair. His bright blue eyes squeezed shut for a moment and then opened.
“Well, Don, that wasn’t necessary. I’m going to miss Mako, all of you.” He spread his hands, almost helplessly.
“You know, when you Reserves started coming in with us we resented you. Yes, we did! Called you shoe salesmen and ribbon clerks. You got ranks that some of us worked years and years to get. I think you can understand how we felt. We’d been doing our work for years, ever since high school and in you came and got braid some of us couldn’t get. And I, for one, want to go on record as saying that most of you people are damned smart!”
“It cuts both ways,” Grilley said softly. “Most of us who came into the Navy had a pretty low opinion of Regular Navy officers. We thought you were parasites, you’d been getting free hospital care, free dental care, a free education and that sort of thing and we’d been on the outside, fighting to get through school in the Depression years. And most of us have found out that most of you are damned good men, damned good.
“I found out that it isn’t much different in here than it is outside in many ways. You have a system. In the oil fields you learn very quickly to lean on the chief rigger. He’s the man who knows everything. Here you lean on the Chief of the Boat. He knows everything.”
“Let’s end this mutual admiration society,” Bernice Grilley said, “before you wind up crying on each other’s shoulders. When do you have to leave, Gloria?”
“We’ve got about another eleven days,” Mike Brannon said. “We get to go together, privilege of command. But we’ll be together for only a few weeks, and then Eelfish will go to sea. Gloria is going to stay in the States, with her folks.”
“I don’t like that part,” Gloria said. “I won’t be here to see Mike bring his ship in at the end of his first war patrol.”
“I don’t think you’d see that anyway,” Mike said. “Bob Rudd told us at lunch yesterday that Nimitz is thinking of sending most of the new submarines to Australia. Down there we’ll be closer to the islands the Japs have captured and closer to their supply ships.”
“Do you know anything about this new Captain we’re getting?” Grilley asked.
“I know Capt. Arvin Mealey,” Brannon said. “His father was an Admiral. I served under him in R-Boats in Panama.”
“What’s he like?” Grilley asked, his voice as casual as he could make it. He could feel the atmosphere in the room change. Reservists didn’t ask leading questions about Regular Navy officers.
“He’s a strict Commanding Officer,” Brannon said slowly. “He lives by the Book, by the rules and regulations of the Navy. If you know the Book, if you live by it, you’ll get along with him just fine. If you don’t, well, I’ve seen some who didn’t. They had a lot of trouble. I got along with him pretty well.”
“How about the man who’s taking your place?”
“I don’t know him,” Brannon said. “He’s a Reserve, I was told, an engineer from M.I.T. You didn’t go there, did you?”
“No,” Grilley smiled. “Oklahoma. A Reserve as the Exec? Pete Simms will have a fit! He thinks he’s going to be the new Executive Officer of the Mako!”
“I think he should be,” Brannon said slowly. “I don’t know of any other Fleet Boat with a Reserve for an Exec I don’t know how Captain Mealey will like that. He may not like it at all!” He rose and Gloria went into the front room to get little Glory.
“You people take good care of Mako,” Brannon said as he reached the front door. He walked through the door quickly so Grilley wouldn’t see the tears filling his eyes. Once he was away from the house and in the shadow of a tree he turned.
“You keep a sharp lookout when you’ve got the deck, Don. You’ll see the Eelfish one of these days!”
Chapter 10