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Show you kw H\is. \s irea/fy «- 4u If >/t«e." 'S V\^**Vcy*4uA^rkr^^ ' 182 But Ed Bland was in the kitchen, just came in, feeling no pain. He grinned at her and winked, easy with her because he was black too. "Ed, this is Celeste." "Hi, baby. I was just gonna have a l i t t l e drink. Care to j o i n me, you and your All-American Boy here." "Cut i t out, Ed." We had a couple of rounds, all of us putting them down on top of others, and they got to feeling pretty good talking to each other, me listening in. But Ed was tactful, said he'd better retire for the night, kissed Celeste goodnight and went upstairs. She flirted with every man-not that it mattered to me. "I'd better get home." "You'll never get a bus this time of night. It's nearly four." "Well I can't stay here." "Why not? Sleep down in my roem. I'll--" "Oh no! With all those spiders and things? Besides, it isn't proper." "Some Communist you are. Communist girls are supposed--" "Sure. And nigger girls do toe. Right? Well, Mr. Chess Brocken, it's a whole lot better than being a German. You Germans are racists." "My name is Dutch. It used to be y_an_ Brocken." "An aristocrat, huh?" "I hated the Germans! I was flying over there and I shot down nine Nazi planes. And two subs! Nobody hated the Germans more than I did!" By that time I almost believed I had downed those planes. Sometimes I could remember taking off from the carrier and climbing into the skies over the blue Mediterranean, headed toward Italy in the hazy distance, Mt. Etna |