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Show 47 "Thera, please." Pulling over he stopped and gazed. The Japanese lived in some surprising places indeed, but hs had trouble reconciling this with her. "Here?" "I'll gat out. I live around the corner." "It's pouring," he said, and moved to shift into gear. "Plsase." She hsld out her hand. "Please no." Turning, he looked her full in tha facs, but the answer cama to him even as he gazed. "Nice" girls didn't go with GIs. She might work for the army, take a job in the club, but that was part of ths price for that disastrous war. Evsry post was infested with camp-followers, happy to bed down for a carton of cigarettss or a purloined blanket; but they wars not Kimiko. Shs might havs to work for ths Amsricans, but she did not go with them. At the same time Koontz felt a touch of chagrin. Though happy to find that she was not a "specimen" his ego had by no means abandoned the field; few girls had shown reluctance to be seen in his company. Sensing his reaction, she leansd torward him, laid her fingers gently on his sleeve. "It is not for you. You are kind. It is - " and she indicated the street, empty now in the slanting rain, tha gray walls, behind which lurksd a battery of eyes - "my people." |