SLPAD - 69

[Michael Bailey]

Even taking into account a certain dilatory pace, if he awoke at noon, and
took maybe an hour faunching around, getting a sandwich & slouching into an
assignation with Little Buttercup before leaving with Douglas - and an hour
or so drive time -

Still, they sit there until half past five. At least a couple hours.

(The sky is getting darker, but sunset that time of year is more like 8pm -
so maybe the cloud cover hasn’t dissipated, but thickened?)

They chat with a master sergeant, used to carnage
in battle, who’s driven to invoke deity to emphasize the wrongness of this
kind of mass death. (He recovers to note with approval a relaxation of
punctilio for the occasion)

“I was in Korea,” he said after one
               of the bodies had disintegrated from clumsy handling, “I can
understand guys shooting at each other, killing each other, but this—” He
shook his head. “Jesus
               Christ.” There were brass wandering around, but none of them
bothered Levine or Douglas.
               Despite its machine-like efficiency the operation had a
certain air of informality:
               hardly anyone wore hats, a colonel or a major would stop to
chat with the corpsmen.
               “Like combat,” the sergeant said. “All the rules are out.
Hell, who needs ’em anyway.”


Levine starts thinking about a shower, & Douglas tells him that a buddy of
his found and used one in a sorority house. Douglas seems well-informed, so
showers might not have been provided officially.

When they get back to the quad, Picnic’s been tending the radio & is ready
to be relieved  - at first glance, Levine’s brusque “Cut out” sounds rude &
officious, but his purport is surely welcome.