"I never imagined myself doing this," she said, without looking at him.
"Doing what?"
"Running after a boy," she said, and corrected herself: "A man."
"I'm not surprised," Pick said.
She looked at him quickly.
"For one thing, McCoy's quite special," Pick said. "And for another, I saw the two of you in the Oyster Bar."
She did not seem at all embarrassed to hear that. Just curious.
"What were you doing there?"
"McCoy had led me safely through the wild jungles of Quantico," Pickering said, "protecting me from unfamiliar savage beasts. I thought it only fair that I return the favor."
"Protect him from me, you mean? Thanks a lot."
"I didn't know who it was until I saw you," Pickering said.
"Where did you meet him?"
"On a train from Boston," Pickering said. "He had just escorted prisoners to the Naval Prison at Portsmouth. And then he showed up, wholly unexpected, at Quantico." "Why unexpected?"
"Because our peers were… our peers. McCoy was a noncom of the regular Marine Corps, just in from years in China."
"He told me about China," she said. "He took me to a tiny little Chinese restaurant off Mott Street, where he talked Chinese to them."
"As I say, he's something special." "Isn't he?" she said. Then she looked up at him. "Four hours after I met him, I took him to bed." "He told me," Pickering said.
"I don't know what you think of me, Pick," Ernie Sage said. "But that's not my style."
"He told me that, too," Pickering said, gently. That surprised her. She looked into his face until she was sure that she had not misunderstood him.
"Pretty close, are you? Or did he proudly report it as another cherry copped?"
"Actually, he was pretty upset about it," Pickering said. "But not too upset to tell you all about it?" "We are pretty close," Pickering said. "I don't know. It's something like having a brother, I guess."
"You heard about his brother? The one who was offered the choice of the Marine Corps or jail?"
"I even know that was the choice they gave him, too," Pickering said. "Like I say, Ernie, we're close."
"Okay, so tell me what happened? I have six letters, all marked 'REFUSED.' "
"He found out you were rich," Pickering said. "Oh, God!" she wailed. Then the accusation: "You told him. Why the hell did you have to do that?"
Pickering shrugged his shoulders helplessly and threw up his hands.
"Now I'm sorry that I did," he said. She turned her face away from him. Then turned back, frowning.
"But I suppose I was thinking that the bad news better come gently, and from me. I didn't want that shocking revelation suddenly thrust upon him."
"If you came from a background like his, it would upset you, too," Ernie Sage said, loyally. "He has pride, for God's sake. I know he's a fool, but-"
"Did he tell you about the lady missionary?"
"What lady missionary?"
"There was a lady missionary in China who apparently gave him a bad time. Strung him along. Hurt him pretty badly."
"I'd like to kill her," Ernie Sage said, matter-of-factly.
"You've really got it pretty bad for him, don't you?"
"As incredible as it sounds," she said, "I'm in love with him. Okay? Can we proceed from that point?"
"Love, as in 'forsaking all others, until death do you part'?"
"I was disappointed when I found out I wasn't pregnant," she said. "How's that?"
"I hope you know what you're getting into," Pickering said.
"It doesn't matter, Pick," she said. "I have absolutely no control over how I feel about him. I thought that only happened in romantic novels. Obviously, it doesn't only happen in fiction."
"I'm jealous," Pickering said.
"What have you got to be jealous about?" Ernie asked, and then she understood. "You should be," she said. "But that's your problem. What do we do about mine?"
"I don't know," Pickering said. "If you're really sure about this, Ernie, Big Brother will think of something."
"I have never been so sure of anything in my life," she said. "It's either him and me, hand in hand, or to hell with it."
"For what it's worth, with the caveat that I am relatively inexperienced in matters of this kind, I would not say it's hopeless."
Ernestine Sage brightened visibly.
"Really?" she asked.
"Really," Pickering said. "For reasons I cannot imagine, Lieutenant McCoy seemed to be more than a little taken with your many charms."
"God, I hope so," she said, and then asked, "what's he doing in Hawaii?"
"They made him an officer courier," Pickering said. "He carries secrets in a briefcase."
"I never heard of that," she said. "How long did you say he'll be gone?"
"He's going to Hawaii. He got there today. Or will get there today. There is something called the International Dateline, and I've never figured it out. And from there, he's going to Manila, and then back to Hawaii, and then back here."
"And what are we going to do when he gets back here?"
"We'll arrange for him to find you in a black negligee in his bed," Pickering said. "As a Marine officer, he would be duty-bound to do his duty. You can play the ball from there."
"If I thought that would work," she said, "I'd do it."
"I think, Ernie," Pick Pickering said seriously, "that all it would take would be for him to find you sitting there, just like you are now."
She looked at him and smiled. Then she got up and walked to him and kissed him on the cheek.
"And I was really afraid that you'd be a shit about this," she said.
"My God! Me? Pick Pickering? Cupid's right-hand man?"
She chuckled and looked at her watch.
"I was so sure of it, that I reserved a compartment on the three-fifteen to New York. I've still got time to make it."
"Maybe," Pickering said, "you should get some practice riding coach."
She looked at him curiously for a moment until she took his meaning.
"If that's what it takes, that's what I'll do," she said. "But the next time. Not today."
He smiled at her and walked with her to the door, where she kissed him impulsively again.
He had just rearranged himself in the chair with his feet on the pillow and The Miracle of Flight propped up on his belly when there was another knock on his door.
"Jesus H. Christ!" he fumed as he went to answer it.
It was Ernie Sage, and he could tell from the look in her eyes that something was terribly wrong.
"A radio," Ernie said. "Have you got a radio?"
"There's one in here," he said. She pushed past him into the sitting room.
She had the radio on by the time he got there.
"Repeating the bulletin," the voice of the radio announcer said, "the White House has just announced that the Navy Base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, has been attacked by Japanese aircraft and that there has been substantial loss of life and material."
"Jesus Christ!" Pickering said.
"If he's dead," Ernestine Sage said melodramatically, "I'll kill myself."
"You don't mean that," Pickering said.
"Oh, my God, Pick! Your mother and father are there!"
He hadn't thought of that.
Somehow, he wound up holding her in his arms.
"Everything is going to be all right, Ernie."
"Bullshit!" she said against his chest.
And then it occurred to him that he was a Marine officer and that what he should be doing now was getting into uniform and reporting for duty.