Wright was embarrassed for several days after the incident — he was not comfortable receiving so much attention. Whenever he entered a room many of the men would stop whatever they were doing and pretend to hail him. Even the captain had thanked him for his quick thinking. The captain had asked him how he managed to know so much so quickly, and he did not know what to say. He had always been a fast learner, but he had felt more like he was on autopilot during the whole ordeal. He had had his head so deep in the books the last few weeks that submarining was starting to come to him naturally. Unfortunately, the good will extended toward him by the others was not extended by Tee.
“Did I say you could play again, asshole?” Tee snarled as Wright dealt the cards. “Don’t you have quals to work on?” “Leave him alone, Tee,” O’Connell said. “He’s way ahead on his qualifications, and you know it.”
“Yeah, because he gets the crew to blaze off his signatures, they like him so much.”
Before Wright could respond to the insult to his integrity O’Connell spoke up. “No, they just don’t like you, Tee. Why don’t you give it a rest?”
“Why the hell should I, Rudy?”
“Because maybe I’m sick of you, that’s why. Leave him alone.”
“Why are you always defending him? You guys must be butt buddies or something.” Tee smirked, then glared at Wright. “You know I think you’re a piece of shit, Wright. I think you just got lucky the other day. You didn’t know jackshit back there in the aft room, and then all of a sudden you saved the day by taking charge. I don’t buy it.”
“Face it, Tee,” O’Connell said. “You’re just mad because you didn’t get all the glory. I doubt you’d have even known what to do back there.”
“There he goes again, Wright,” Tee said, his eyes squarely locked on Wright. “He’s always standing up for you, you pussy. What have I got to say to get you to stand up for yourself, asshole?”
Wright ignored him and pretended to examine his cards. “Oh, I know,” Tee continued, with a sadistic smile on his face. “How about I tell you how I fucked the shit out of your dead friend’s sister the night before we left. How about I tell you how I fucked that whore for all she was worth. And I’ve got you to thank for it, too.”
Wright put his cards down and faced Tee. He didn’t care that Tee had had sex with Margie. It was the mention of his “dead friend” that had struck a nerve deep within him.
“Oh yeah,” Tee continued, obviously elated to see that he finally had Wright’s attention. “After she saw you that night, she was so pissed off that she let me do anything to her. I’ve got to say I did most of the work, but your dead friend’s sister is one great piece of ass, Wright.”
Wright stood up and began to move toward Tee, but O’Connell shot an arm out to hold him back. Tee’s face lit up with excitement and he brandished his fists, motioning for Wright to come closer.
“Sit down, Ryan!” O’Connell said. “Just forget it!” Wright leaned forward into O’Connell’s arm as he tried to break free in order to get to the object of his anger. O’Connell’s arm was all that stood between him and Tee’s laughing red face. He wanted to knock that grin right off his face. The big brute could probably knock him aside like a fly, but he desperately wanted to get in just one blow, one blow to make up for all the insults and ridicule he had taken since he had met this galoot.
“Sit down, Ensign!” O’Connell finally shouted, looking Wright straight in the eyes.
Wright saw stern compassion in O’Connell’s eyes and it made him think straight once again. He did not want to ruin his naval career over something so insignificant as Tee’s jeering comments. After a brief contemplative moment, he sat back down at the table and retrieved his cards, ready to play another hand.
Tee started to say something, but was cut short by O’Connell.
“Shut your damn mouth, Tee,” he snapped. “Just sit down and shut up. And leave Wright alone. If I ever hear you saying crap like that again I’ll report you to the XO. How the hell can you talk about your girlfriend like that anyway, you sick bastard? I don’t know what the hell she sees in you.”
“What the fu—” Tee started to speak but was again interrupted by O’Connell.
“And another thing. I’ve heard that you’ve been messing with my watchstanders again. Chief told me you had Eckhart down in the control room cleaning during my watch yesterday. If you’re going to play Navy Academy, Tee, do it on your own damn watch. My sonar operator is off limits to you. You got that?”
“Your guys always leave the control room looking like shit, Rudy,” Tee said and then looked to Hubley for support. “Carl and I aren’t going to have our guys clean it up, and I’m not going to stand watch with the control room looking like shit. The captain’s going to unload on somebody about it someday and it’s not going to be me or Carl.”
“Keep me out of this, Tee,” Hubley said. “Cluttered or not, Rudy’s right. You’ve got no business distracting his watchstanders. You’re lucky he doesn’t report it to the XO.”
Tee slammed his fist on the table, sending the cribbage pegs and board flying into the air. Veins bulged on his forehead and his face turned red with rage. He could see that he was outnumbered here. Even Hubley, his officer of the deck, was not taking his side. He jammed his thick finger in Wright’s face.
“You better stay out of my way, asshole,” he snarled, then stormed out of the wardroom, leaving the curtain swinging behind him.
As O’Connell picked up the fallen cribbage pieces, he winked at Wright.
“He’s easy to spin up,” he said.
“Thanks,” Wright said. He appreciated O’Connell’s interference but he knew that it would only make things worse in the long term. Tee now had another reason to hate him.
O’Connell had stuck up for Wright on more than one occasion since they had left port, and Wright had completely changed his initial opinion about the man. Being O’Connell’s junior officer of the deck, Wright had spent nearly the entire voyage with him. O’Connell had shown Wright the ins and outs of standing watch on the bridge, and had helped him immensely with his qualifications. During the past month they had stood watch together in all kinds of weather and sea conditions, during times when Wright learned just how powerful the ocean was. They had stood watch during dark stormy nights when they had to tether themselves to the bridge to keep from getting washed overboard by fifty-foot waves. They stood watch during beautiful tropical days when it was hard to remember there was a war on at all. During the monotonous times they had shared lots of thoughts about life and the world at war. Wright had gotten to know O’Connell quite well in that time. In fact, Wright even considered O’Connell to be a friend. O’Connell appeared tough on the outside, but Wright now knew that he was also a deeply religious man. He had been fighting in submarines since the beginning of the war, and Wright had nothing but respect for him.
“Won’t be long now,” O’Connell said as he looked over his cards. “We should be heading back in two or three weeks.”
“Yeah, we’ll be running low on fuel soon,” Hubley added.
“We haven’t seen much action out here, other than the one freighter,” Wright said. “I thought these waters would be much busier, being so close to Truk and all.”
“Listen to him, a real veteran now, huh?” O’Connell nudged Hubley. “Yeah, well, that’s the way submarine life is. One minute you’re praying that the next depth charge won’t break your boat in half, the next you’re praying for something … anything, to come your way. Intense action followed by long periods of boredom. That should be the submariners’ motto.”