War Stories Read online

  ‘We’ll ski some time.’

  ‘In two months there will be skiing at Mürren,’ Catherine said.

  ‘Let’s go there.’

  ‘All right,’ she said. We went on past other windows and turned down a side street.

  ‘I’ve never been this way.’

  ‘This is the way I go to the hospital,’ I said. It was a narrow street and we kept on the right-hand side. There were many people passing in the fog. There were shops and all the windows were lighted. We looked in a window at a pile of cheeses. I stopped in front of an armourer’s shop.

  ‘Come in a minute. I have to buy a gun.’

  ‘What sort of gun?’

  ‘A pistol.’ We went in and I unbuttoned my belt and laid it with the empty holster on the counter. Two women were behind the counter. The women brought out several pistols.

  ‘It must fit this,’ I said, opening the holster. It was a grey leather holster and I had bought it second-hand to wear in the town.

  ‘Have they good pistols?’ Catherine asked.

  ‘They’re all about the same. Can I try this one?’ I asked the woman.

  ‘I have no place to shoot,’ she said. ‘But it is very good. You will not make a mistake with it.’

  I snapped it and pulled back the action. The spring was rather strong but it worked smoothly. I sighted it and snapped it again.

  ‘It is used,’ the woman said. ‘It belonged to an officer who was an excellent shot.’

  ‘Did you sell it to him?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘How did you get it back?’

  ‘From his orderly.’

  ‘Maybe you have mine,’ I said. ‘How much is this?’

  ‘Fifty lire. It is very cheap.’

  ‘All right. I want two extra clips and a box of cartridges.’

  She brought them from under the counter.

  ‘Have you any need for a sword?’ she asked. ‘I have some used swords very cheap.’

  ‘I’m going to the front,’ I said.

  ‘Oh yes, then you won’t need a sword,’ she said.

  I paid for the cartridges and the pistol, filled the magazine and put it in place, put the pistol in my empty holster, filled the extra clips with cartridges and put them in the leather slots on the holster and then buckled on my belt. The pistol felt heavy on the belt. Still, I thought it was better to have a regulation pistol. You could always get shells.

  ‘Now we’re fully armed,’ I said. ‘That was the one thing I had to remember to do. Someone got my other one going to the hospital.’

  ‘I hope it’s a good pistol,’ Catherine said.

  ‘Was there anything else?’ the woman asked.

  ‘I don’t believe so.’

  ‘The pistol has a lanyard,’ she said.

  ‘So I noticed.’ The woman wanted to sell something else.

  ‘You don’t need a whistle?’

  ‘I don’t believe so.’

  The woman said good-bye and we went out on to the sidewalk. Catherine looked in the window. The woman looked out and bowed to us.

  ‘What are those little mirrors set in wood for?’

  ‘They’re for attracting birds. They twirl them out in the field and larks see them and come out and the Italians shoot them.’

  ‘They are an ingenious people,’ Catherine said. ‘You don’t shoot larks do you, darling, in America?’

  ‘Not especially.’

  We crossed the streets and started to walk up the other side.

  ‘I feel better now,’ Catherine said. ‘I felt terrible when we started.’

  ‘We always feel good when we’re together.’

  ‘We always will be together.’

  ‘Yes, except that I’m going away at midnight.’

  ‘Don’t think about it, darling.’

  We walked on up the street. The fog made the lights yellow.

  ‘Aren’t you tired?’ Catherine asked.

  ‘How about you?’

  ‘I’m all right. It’s fun to walk.’

  ‘But let’s not do it too long.’

  ‘No.’

  We turned down a side street where there were no lights and walked in the street. I stopped and kissed Catherine. While I kissed her I felt her hand on my shoulder. She had pulled my cape around her so it covered both of us. We were standing in the street against a high wall.

  ‘Let’s go some place,’ I said.

  ‘Good,’ said Catherine. We walked on along the street until it came out on to a wider street that was beside a canal. On the other side was a brick wall and buildings. Ahead, down the street, I saw a streetcar cross a bridge.

  ‘We can get a cab up at the bridge,’ I said. We stood on the bridge in the fog waiting for a carriage. Several streetcars passed, full of people going home. Then a carriage came along but there was someone in it. The fog was turning to rain.

  ‘We could walk or take a tram,’ Catherine said.

  ‘One will be along,’ I said. ‘They go by here.’

  ‘Here one comes,’ she said.

  The driver stopped his horse and lowered the metal sign on his meter. The top of the carriage was up and there were drops of water on the driver’s coat. His varnished hat was shining in the wet. We sat back in the seat together and the top of the carriage made it dark.

  ‘Where did you tell him to go?’

  ‘To the station. There’s a hotel across from the station where we can go.’

  ‘We can go the way we are? Without luggage?’

  ‘Yes,’ I said.

  It was a long ride to the station up side streets in the rain.

  ‘Won’t we have dinner?’ Catherine asked. ‘I’m afraid I’ll be hungry.’

  ‘We’ll have it in our room.’

  ‘I haven’t anything to wear. I haven’t even a night-gown.’

  ‘We’ll get one,’ I said and called to the driver.

  ‘Go to the Via Manzoni and up that.’ He nodded and turned off to the left at the next corner. On the big street Catherine watched for a shop.

  ‘Here’s a place,’ she said. I stopped the driver and Catherine got out, walked across the sidewalk and went inside. I sat back in the carriage and waited for her. It was raining and I could smell the wet street and the horse steaming in the rain. She came back with a package and got in and we drove on.

  ‘I was very extravagant, darling,’ she said, ‘but it’s a fine nightgown.’

  At the hotel I asked Catherine to wait in the carriage while I went in and spoke to the manager. There were plenty of rooms. Then I went out to the carriage, paid the driver, and Catherine and I walked in together. The small boy in buttons carried the package. The manager bowed us toward the elevator. There was much red plush and brass. The manager went up in the elevator with us.

  ‘Monsieur and Madame wish dinner in their rooms?’

  ‘Yes. Will you have the menu brought up?’ I said.

  ‘You wish something special for dinner. Some game or a soufflé?’

  The elevator passed three floors with a click each time, then clicked and stopped.

  ‘What have you as game?’

  ‘I could get a pheasant, or woodcock.’

  ‘A woodcock,’ I said. We walked down the corridor. The carpet was worn. There were many doors. The manager stopped and unlocked a door and opened it.

  ‘Here you are. A lovely room.’

  The small boy in buttons put the package on the table in the centre of the room. The manager opened the curtains.

  ‘It is foggy outside,’ he said. The room was furnished in red plush. There were many mirrors, two chairs and a large bed with a satin coverlet. A door led to the bathroom.

  ‘I will send up the menu,’ the manager said. He bowed and went out.

  I went to the window and looked out, then pulled a cord that shut the thick plush curtains. Catherine was sitting on the bed, looking at the cut glass chandelier. She had taken her hat off and her hair shone under the light. She saw herself in one of the mirro
rs and put her hands to her hair. I saw her in three other mirrors. She did not look happy. She let her cape fall on the bed.

  ‘What’s the matter, darling?’

  ‘I never felt like a whore before,’ she said. I went over to the window and pulled the curtain aside and looked out. I had not thought it would be like this.

  ‘You’re not a whore.’

  ‘I know it, darling. But it isn’t nice to feel like one.’ Her voice was dry and flat.

  ‘This was the best hotel we could get in,’ I said. I looked out the window. Across the square were the lights of the station. There were carriages going by on the street and I saw the trees in the park. The lights from the hotel shone on the wet pavement. Oh, hell, I thought, do we have to argue now?

  ‘Come over here please,’ Catherine said. The flatness was all gone out of her voice. ‘Come over, please. I’m a good girl again.’ I looked over at the bed. She was smiling.

  I went over and sat on the bed beside her and kissed her.

  ‘You’re my good girl.’

  ‘I’m certainly yours,’ she said.

  After we had eaten we felt fine, and then after, we felt very happy and in a little time the room felt like our own home. My room at the hospital had been our own home and this room was our home too in the same way.

  Catherine wore my tunic over her shoulders while we ate. We were very hungry and the meal was good and we drank a bottle of Capri and a bottle of St Estephe. I drank most of it but Catherine drank some and it made her feel splendid. For dinner we had a woodcock with some soufflé potatoes and purée de marron, a salad, and zabaione for dessert.

  ‘It’s a fine room,’ Catherine said. ‘It’s a lovely room. We should have stayed here all the time we’ve been in Milan.’

  ‘It’s a funny room. But it’s nice.’

  ‘Vice is a wonderful thing,’ Catherine said. ‘The people who go in for it seem to have good taste about it. The red plush is really fine. It’s just the thing. And the mirrors are very attractive.’

  ‘You’re a lovely girl.’

  ‘I don’t know how a room like this would be for waking up in the morning. But it’s really a splendid room.’ I poured another glass of St Estephe.

  ‘I wish we could do something really sinful,’ Catherine said. ‘Everything we do seems so innocent and simple. I can’t believe we do anything wrong.’

  ‘You’re a grand girl.’

  ‘I only feel hungry. I get terribly hungry.’

  ‘You’re a fine simple girl,’ I said.

  ‘I am a simple girl. No one ever understood it except you.’

  ‘Once when I first met you I spent an afternoon thinking how we would go to the Hotel Cavour together and how it would be.’

  ‘That was awfully cheeky of you. This isn’t the Cavour is it?’

  ‘No. They wouldn’t have taken us in there.’

  ‘They’ll take us in some time. But that’s how we differ, darling. I never thought about anything.’

  ‘Didn’t you ever at all?’

  ‘A little,’ she said.

  ‘Oh you’re a lovely girl.’

  I poured another glass of wine.

  ‘I’m a very simple girl,’ Catherine said.

  ‘I didn’t think so at first. I thought you were a crazy girl.’

  ‘I was a little crazy. But I wasn’t crazy in any complicated manner. I didn’t confuse you did I, darling?’

  ‘Wine is a grand thing,’ I said. ‘It makes you forget all the bad.’

  ‘It’s lovely,’ said Catherine. ‘But it’s given my father gout very badly.’

  ‘Have you a father?’

  ‘Yes,’ said Catherine. ‘He has gout. You won’t ever have to meet him. Haven’t you a father?’

  ‘No,’ I said. ‘A step-father.’

  ‘Will I like him?’

  ‘You won’t have to meet him.’

  ‘We have such a fine time,’ Catherine said. ‘I don’t take any interest in anything else any more. I’m so very happy married to you.’

  The waiter came and took away the things. After a while we were very still and we could hear the rain. Down below on the street a motor car honked.

  ‘“But at my back I always hear

  Time’s winged chariot hurrying near,”’

  I said.

  ‘I know that poem,’ Catherine said. ‘It’s by Marvell. But it’s about a girl who wouldn’t live with a man.’

  My head felt very clear and cold and I wanted to talk facts.

  ‘Where will you have the baby?’

  ‘I don’t know. The best place I can find.’

  ‘How will you arrange it?’

  ‘The best way I can. Don’t worry, darling. We may have several babies before the war is over.’

  ‘It’s nearly time to go.’

  ‘I know. You can make it time if you want.’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Then don’t worry, darling. You were fine until now and now you’re worrying.’

  ‘I won’t. How often will you write?’

  ‘Every day. Do they read your letters?’

  ‘They can’t read English enough to hurt any.’

  ‘I’ll make them very confusing,’ Catherine said.

  ‘But not too confusing.’

  ‘I’ll just make them a little confusing.’

  ‘I’m afraid we have to start to go.’

  ‘All right, darling.’

  ‘I hate to leave our fine house.’

  ‘So do I.’

  ‘But we have to.’

  ‘All right. But we’re never settled in our home very long.’

  ‘We will be.’

  ‘I’ll have a fine home for you when you come back.’

  ‘Maybe I’ll be back right away.’

  ‘Perhaps you’ll be hurt just a little in the foot.’

  ‘Or the lobe of the ear.’

  ‘No I want your ears the way they are.’

  ‘And not my feet?’

  ‘Your feet have been hit already.’

  ‘We have to go, darling. Really.’

  ‘All right. You go first.’

  We walked down the stairs instead of taking the elevator. The carpet on the stairs was worn. I had paid for the dinner when it came up and the waiter, who had brought it, was sitting on a chair near the door. He jumped up and bowed and I went with him into the side room and paid the bill for the room. The manager had remembered me as a friend and refused payment in advance but when he retired he had remembered to have the waiter stationed at the door so that I should not get out without paying. I suppose that had happened; even with his friends. One had so many friends in a war.

  I asked the waiter to get us a carriage and he took Catherine’s package that I was carrying and went out with an umbrella. Outside through the window we saw him crossing the street in the rain. We stood in the side room and looked out the window.

  ‘How do you feel, Cat?’

  ‘Sleepy.’

  ‘I feel hollow and hungry.’

  ‘Have you anything to eat?’

  ‘Yes, in my musette.’

  I saw the carriage coming. It stopped, the horse’s head hanging in the rain, and the waiter stepped out, opened his umbrella, and came toward the hotel. We met him at the door and walked out under the umbrella down the wet walk to the carriage at the curb. Water was running in the gutter.

  ‘There is your package on the seat,’ the waiter said. He stood with the umbrella until we were in and I had tipped him.

  ‘Many thanks. Pleasant journey,’ he said. The coachman lifted the reins and the horse started. The waiter turned away under the umbrella and went toward the hotel. We drove down the street and turned to the left, then came around to the right in front of the station. There were two carabinieri standing under the light just out of the rain. The light shone on their hats. The rain was clear and transparent against the light from the station. A porter came out from under the shelter of the station, his shoulders up against the r
ain.

  ‘No,’ I said. ‘Thanks. I don’t need thee.’

  He went back under the shelter of the archway. I turned to Catherine. Her face was in the shadow from the hood of the carriage.

  ‘We might as well say good-bye.’

  ‘I can’t go in?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Good-bye, Cat.’

  ‘Will you tell him the hospital?’

  ‘Yes.’

  I told the driver the address to drive to. He nodded.

  ‘Good-bye,’ I said. ‘Take good care of yourself and young Catherine.’

  ‘Good-bye, darling.’

  ‘Good-bye,’ I said. I stepped out into the rain and the carriage started. Catherine leaned out and I saw her face in the light. She smiled and waved. The carriage went up the street, Catherine pointed in toward the archway. I looked, there were only the two carabinieri and the archway. I realized she meant for me to get in out of the rain. I went in and stood and watched the carriage turn the corner. Then I started through the station and down the runway to the train.

  The porter was on the platform looking for me. I followed him into the train, crowding past people and along the aisle and in through a door to where the machine-gunner sat in the corner of a full compartment. My rucksack and musettes were above his head on the luggage rack. There were many men standing in the corridor and the men in the compartment all looked at us when we came in. There were not enough places in the train and everyone was hostile. The machine-gunner stood up for me to sit down. It was a very tall gaunt captain of artillery with a red scar along his jaw. He had looked through the glass on the corridor and then come in.

  ‘What do you say?’ I asked. I had turned and faced him. He was taller than I and his face was very thin under the shadow of his cap-visor and the scar was new and shiny. Every one in the compartment was looking at me.

  ‘You can’t do that,’ he said. ‘You can’t have a soldier save you a place.’

  ‘I have done it.’

  He swallowed and I saw his Adam’s apple go up and then down. The machine-gunner stood in front of the place. Other men looked in through the glass. No one in the compartment said anything.

  ‘You have no right to do that. I was here two hours before you came.’