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Show "Can't you do something?" I pleaded. "We need your h e l p . " 5~o? The gunnery sergeant smiled at me and lowered his eyes. "Well...I'd stake most anything on our being able to straighten t h i s mess out in no time at a l l . You come on back here tomorrow and we'll see what we can do." "What time?" Hope set my blood t i n g l i n g. "Oh., .about noon." The next day as I was dressing to go downtown, the telphone rang. "Gunnery Sergeant Wilkerson here. Just checkin' if you'd still be here for lunch." "Lunch?" "Well, I thought as long as you'd be here at noon, I ' d just as well make r e s e r v a t i o n s . Shall I plan on i t ?" My head swirled. If I said no, perhaps he wouldn't help me. If I said yes, there was no t e l l i n g what I would be g e t t i n g myself into. But a f t e r a l l , i t was only lunch, and I wanted to know about Brian, wanted him home. Whatever i t took. "My husband...did you find out a n y t h i n g . . ." The gunnery sergeant chuckled. "We'll t a l k about that when you get here." We went to an American Legion club down the s t r e e t from the recruiting s t a t i o n . I ordered chef salad and lemonade. He ordered Scotclyand watched me chew l e t t u c e, "Well, Sergeant, what did you find out?" "Call me Gunny - Jeannie, if I may c a l l you Jeannie. I like Gunny, short for gunnery sergeant, you know. My men used to c a l l me t h a t ." |
