The Complete Collection. William Wharton

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СКАЧАТЬ me blood poisoning. So, I put the cage in the aviary with some egg food in it, wait till he goes in on his own, then jump up and close the door.

      I take the cage out of the aviary and hang it over my desk by the window. There’s all kinds of peeping and queeping back and forth. Alfonso is sure I’ve finally shown my true colors. I wonder what he’s telling Birdie about the situation. She’s torn between abandoning the nest for Alfonso and taking care of the babies. She flies over to the screen of the aviary and looks across at him. Alfonso breaks into a song of great bravado. I feel terrible. I hate it when people tell me they’re doing something for my own good, and here I am doing it to Birdie and Alfonso. I’m almost ready to put Alfonso back in the cage and take the chance. But, I know, they’d have another nest and it’d probably kill Birdie. It’s getting time for both of them to go into the yearly molt and they shouldn’t be having babies during this time. It’s a tremendous strain on birds when they molt and change their feathers.

      Birdie finally resigns herself to the fates, that is, me. She goes back to feeding the babies till they get out of the cage. As soon as they’re all down on the floor, I take out the nest. This time, Birdie shows no signs of nesting again. She goes out in the aviary and flies around.

      As soon as the birds are feeding themselves, I remove Birdie from the aviary and take out the breeding cage. I put Alfonso back in with the young ones. I want Birdie to have a complete rest. Anytime I’m in the room, I let her fly free. It’s like old times. She sleeps in the cage up on the shelf above my bed where it used to be.

      Al and I take the job dogcatching and I make enough money to pay my feed bills. I spend all my free time watching the birds. I’m trying to figure what’s the next thing to do.

      When I go for my session with Weiss, I can smell right away he’s going to work on me. I know for sure I’m not going to tell him anything; I’m certainly not going to tell anything about Birdy. I don’t want him to find out about Birdy feeding himself or standing up and walking around. I’m convinced Weiss can’t do Birdy any good. If only I can stay a little longer maybe Birdy’ll come around.

      We salute and he leans back, crosses his hands over his fat stomach and smiles at me. He’s got the folder open on his desk. He has another folder there, too. I’m willing to bet it’s my records from Dix. He’s working himself up a thing OK. There’s nothing I can do but play it by ear. I try to get myself into a good Sicilian mood. I pretend we’re sitting at a cafe in Cambria with sunshine streaming down on us. Weiss is a tribal chieftain from the other side of the hills.

      ‘Well, Sergeant. How did it go yesterday?’

      ‘Fine, sir. I talked to the patient about how we used to ice skate in the winter sometimes. I think he might have been listening to me, sir.’

      ‘What made you think he was listening, Sergeant?’

      ‘Just the way he was sitting, sir. He seemed to be watching me.’

      I’ll have to be careful here. Whatever happens, I don’t want Weiss charging into the ward. Birdy’d be sure I’m working against him. I back off some.

      ‘How is your jaw coming along, Sergeant? I have your papers here and you seem to have had a rather serious injury there. How long is it before you have another operation scheduled?’

      He’s the psychiatrist this morning, all right He couldn’t care less about me. He’s working up to something.

      ‘It’s fine, sir. Next week I have the final work done. They’ll put on the last layers and finish it off.’

      Weiss leans forward and pulls my folder in front of him. He flips open the cover. It’s my records all right; I see my name.

      ‘Sergeant, would you mind going into more detail about this court-martial you had at Fort Cumberland? What actually happened?’

      ‘I don’t see what that has to do with the patient, sir. It all happened a long time ago.’

      ‘Let me decide that, Sergeant.’

      Son-of-a-bitch!

      ‘Well, sir, if you think it might help, I’ll tell you all I can remember.’

      Some way I have to keep this shit away from Birdy. He’s sitting there smiling at me over his folded hands. I smile back, a Sicilian smile, the Southern smile which says, ‘You and I know all this is so much horseshit, let’s get on with it.’

      He leans back in his chair, exhales a deep sigh, closes his eyes behind his glasses while picking up a yellow pencil from the desk. He starts putting the pencil on its point, sliding his fingers down the pencil, then turning the pencil around so the eraser is on the desk, and sliding down again. He’s sort of subtly jacking off on the pencil. I consider sneaking away; I don’t want to talk about Cumberland. Boy, Birdy, the crap I’m putting up with for you.

      ‘Well, sir, I was in the Pennsylvania State Guard and in December they sent me to Fort Cumberland for induction and reassignment into the regular army.’

      I even have to show those assholes at Cumberland how to hook bayonet scabbards to the webbing equipment. There’s a hunky T-5 in charge, but he sits in the squad room all day long topping up his load. Hell, I’m taking over the barracks, going to make general in six months.

      The third morning, we’re called out and lined up in the company street. It’s so cold that when I spit it freezes before I can smear it with my foot. A second lieutenant and a Sergeant come out from a shed on the other side of the street. The Sergeant calls us to attention and there’s mail call. My feet are freezing, my nose is about to drop off, my fingers are stiff in the gloves. None of us is going to get any mail. Then, the Sergeant calls us to attention again and the lieutenant starts.

      ‘All right, men. After this, you’ll be dismissed to quarters. Chow at twelve hundred. First, Corporal Lumbowski will choose men for details.’

      The hunky T-5 starts walking down the line. He stops every once in a while and points. He comes to me, points and says, ‘Coal.’ Would you believe it, I’m proud I’ve been chosen. The rest are dismissed and about fifteen of us stay.

      Weiss is still lying back with a smile on his face, his eyes closed behind his glasses. I almost expect him to snore but he isn’t asleep at all. I’m wondering how much I can bullshit this without making him open his eyes.

      The T-5 calls us together. He’s a chunky bastard, not tall but square, true hunky type, reminds me of a Cheltenham Polack I pinned in the District finals. Pinned him first period; strong but dumb. The stupid shit cries while I’m pinning him. Tears are running down his red face while I’m tightening a half nelson and jacking up a crotch hold. The T-5 tells the coal detail to report to him at the shed next morning at oh-five-hundred. There are four of us.

      Back in the barracks it looks as if the shit hit the fan. Everybody’s thrown all their gear on the floor and crowded around the stove. I start high-kneeing up and down the barracks, jumping and dodging all the crap on the floor. I hate to think of going into combat with fuck-offs like these.

      Next morning, a PFC flunky wakes me and I get down to the kitchen for chow. I’m the first one there and I even made up my bunk before I left. The kitchen is warm and steamy. I eat while the rest of the detail comes straggling in.

      After that, we stand for ten minutes in the dark on the company street, waiting. I’m wearing two pairs of socks, but my feet are already cold. My arms are stiff СКАЧАТЬ