by Mac Hyman
So I took off then and run and jumped in the back of the trunk myself. And then they slammed down the top of it with it so dark inside that we couldnt even see each other, and then they drove off with the tire and the jack bouncing around in the back and banging up against us every time we moved so that it warnt very comfortable, but I didnt mind as I got right excited over how surprised Ben would be to get that medal. And I was right glad he couldnt see my face there in the dark, because I know it would have give it all away for sho.
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Anyhow, I finally got comfortable in the back even though it was too little for me so I had to get kind of doubled up in it; but I managed to hold the jack down under my feet and get a grip on the tire so it wouldnt bounce no more, and finally got right comfortable and got to sleep for a while, and I guess we must have slept for a long time because by the time we stopped, it was already dark outside. Somebody pulled up the top of the trunk and all I could see was a bunch of men standing around with flashlights and things, but I knowed we was out in the woods somewhere because I could smell it and could hear some frogs and crickets chattering away. And then I recognized the General behind one of the flashlights saying, “All right, boys, here we are. Come on and hop out now.”
So I crawled out and said, “Come on, Ben. Get up and see where we are now,” and he stirred and sat up and looked around at all the flashlights and things, blinking his eyes and looking worried again. So I said, “Come on, hop out, we’re going to get everything straightened out now, like the General says,” and he finally clumb out, looking this way and that, and I followed him, feeling all stiff from being curled up inside the trunk for so long. We looked around at things, trying to make them out—I didnt know where we was, though, except that it was out in the woods. There was another car parked down the way with its lights on, and over next to it was this old cabin with the roof of the porch leaning down, looking like nobody lived in it. Then I made out some of the others standing around—there was the General and the Captain and the Lieutenant and Sergeant King, and another fellow with a bunch of papers under his arm, and another older man standing over by the side with a star on his collar. They was all walking around holding flashlights and talking low, their feet crunching over pine needles and sticks and things. I looked at the other older man for a second and then the General said, “Boys, this is General Pollard. I’ve told him about our little mix-up and he’s offered to help us out. We better go in the cabin now because we’ve got a lot of papers to fill out, and then I think everything is going to be all right.” Then he looked at General Pollard and said, “We’ll just have to find a good place to send them.”
“Well, dont worry about that,” General Pollard said. “I know this place at Fort Jennings in Georgia, and Colonel McGee will handle it nicely.”
So they talked a while longer and the fellow kept typing, and I wanted to get the General off to the side so Ben couldnt hear, but he kept going over to the typewriter and getting these papers for us to sign, and kept explaining them to us. “This one is a letter to your folks that says you are on a secret mission and not dead after all, but that they shouldnt mention it to anybody because of the secret mission. And this is a document which swears that you have never been stationed on your last base and have never been under my command and have never been in an airplane crash in your life, and this other one has your new serial number on it; and this other one is a document whereby you swear never to tell anything at all about all this because we’re listing it as Top Secret, and you’re liable to be court-martialed if you do, you see. You boys understand that now?”
“Yessir,” Ben said, and he signed, and I done the same.
“You’re sure that’s clear now?”
“Yessir,” I said. “There’s just one thing I . . .” but then I stopped because Ben was setting there.
Anyhow, he went on that way for the longest sort of time with us signing papers just as fast as he could get them out of the typewriter, and it looked like I warnt going to have a chance to talk with him at all. But when he brought out the last batch and left them with us and went out on the porch, I got a hold of the pen first and signed mine before Ben, and followed him out there. And this time I got him aside where nobody else could hear, and I said, “What about them medals, General? Like I was telling you, Ben takes a lot of stock in medals and parades and things like that, and he’s real upset now and I was thinking . . .”
And he turned and stared at me for a while, but then he said, “Oh, yes, I did say I would see about that, didnt I? Okay, I dont guess it will hurt anything. I might as well do that too. Like I say, if you boys co-operate with me about this and keep your mouths shut, I’ll co-operate with you. You just wait here a minute.”
So then he went over to the typewriter and whispered something to the fellow and then come back to me and said, “I’m getting him to type up the papers a little different leaving out the deceased and so on, you know. I still have the medals in my pocket; I’ll just slip them to you and you can give one to Ben and you can get the papers as soon as he finishes with them. Just dont let anybody know about it, though. They might not understand and . . . well, just dont . . .” And then he started fumbling in his pocket for the medals, shaking his head and saying, “Boy, you do drive a hard bargain, but I kind of agree with you in a way. I dont believe in doing anything halfway myself. . . .”
And then he was trying to hand the medals to me, but I didnt take them. I said, “Yessir, that’s what I figgered. That’s the reason I was wondering if you couldnt do it up right for Ben because he takes a lot of stock in things like that. I know he would appreciate it. I was thinking . . .”
“Do what now?”
“I mean like you give them out to Lieutenant Bridges and them. You know, standing up there stiff and saying a lot of words and things like that. . . .”
“You mean you want me to present them? Out here in the woods? You . . . ?”
“Well, it’s just Ben is always talking about medals and things, you know, and he’d kind of like it done up right and all.”
And then he kind of seen what I meant and I think he kind of got excited about it too after thinking it over for a bit because it looked like to me he just started quivering all over, so to speak. And he finally give a kind of deep breath and said, “Okay, I guess I’ve got it coming. I know when I’ve had it, boy. Now if I didnt have twenty-eight years in and my whole career, right now I would . . . well, never mind. Okay, you go in there and sneak Ben out here and we’ll all go over yonder behind a tree and . . .”
“That’s good,” I said. “I was thinking maybe we could turn one of these cars around here so we could get some light, and they could line up over yonder and everybody could kind of stand at attention and everything.”
And he kind of liked that idea too because he just started to quivering all over again. He stared at me and thought about it and kind of rolled his eyes up in the air thinking about it, and started biting on his lips and everything, and finally he said, “All right, I’ll do it. I’ll do it. I’ll do it, by God!” And then he went back over to the fellow at the typewriter and said, “Corporal, get those things typed up, and when you finish with them, come out here with them. Sergeant King, get one of these cars turned around so the lights are shining up this way, and then get out and stand at attention.”
“Do what, General?”
And then the General he quivered some more, looking at Sergeant King, and said in this low voice, “Just do what I said and quit standing there like an idiot. If it hadnt been for you, this whole thing . . .” but then he stopped, because he had thought of something else. He called out, “Captain, you and the Lieutenant come out here a minute!” Then when they come out, he took a deep breath and said, “You men stand over there at attention.”
“Do what, General?”
And then the General got right up in his face and said to him, “Look, if you dont mind, I dont want anybody else questioning me. You just get over there like I s
aid. And Corporal, you get over there too. And if you dont mind, dont say ‘Do what’ to me; just get over there.” And then he stood there a little bit, quivering some more while they got all lined and really done a nice job on it. Once he got the idea, he was just as excited about it as I was. He finally turned to me again and said, “You do understand why we dont have a band here, dont you? I hope this will be all right for you and Ben. You do understand how it was that it slipped my mind to bring the band along, dont you?”
“Sho,” I said. “I wouldnt worry about it none. This’ll be all right, I think.”
“Well, I hope so. I hope it lives up to Ben’s standards all right.” And then he stood there breathing real deep and said, “Now if you’ll just run along and quit standing there looking at me, I think I can handle the rest of the arrangements all right. There’s not anything else you can think of at the moment, is there?”
“Well, I was thinking that maybe if you could get General Pollard to stand over there then we would have two generals and . . .”
And that kind of got him I think because he hadnt thought of it himself. He kind of swelled up and said, “By God!” and stood there staring at me some more, but finally once he seen the idea, he settled back down again real good. He said, “All right; if you’ll just get away from me now . . . If you’ll just go on in and get Ben, and get away from me now, I think I can probably handle the rest myself.”
So I went on in even though I did have one other pretty good idea about how they could all probably hum one of them marches so that Ben would have something to walk in time to, but I didnt say nothing else about it because you could tell he was already bothered about not having thought up a lot of stuff that I had, and I didnt want him to feel no worse about it. I went on in to where Ben was and he couldnt figger out what was going on, and I got a kick out of it too. The General was outside trying to get Sergeant King to do things right; he was saying, “If you say ‘Do what, General,’ to me one more time, Sergeant . . . And would you mind getting that stupid look off your face? And when we get through with this goddamned ceremony, would you mind stepping inside there too? Because I think I’m going to want you to sign a few papers too. Yessir, I think I will. Do you hear that, Corporal—as soon as this is over, you type up a few papers for Sergeant King too, only let’s dont use that title any more—we’ll just make it Private King from here on out.”
Anyhow, Ben kept looking this way and that saying, “What’s going on out there? What’s the matter?”
“You just wait,” I said. “The General is fixing up a surprise for you.”
“Everybody’s outside,” Ben said. “Maybe we better get out there. Maybe . . .”
“No, not yet. The General will call us when he’s ready. He said for you to just wait here.”
But it took a little while because at first General Pollard didnt quite understand what he was supposed to do, and when the General said, “Vernon, would you mind?” he said, “Now, by God, Jack, I’ll do a lot of things for you but if you expect me to stand at attention out here in the woods for a couple of privates . . .” but the General said, “Look, Vernon, I know how you feel, God knows, but if you’ll help me out this time and let me get this over with, someday I’ll make it up to you. I really will because that fellow has got me where he wants me and . . .”
And they kept talking about it for a while until General Pollard understood where he was supposed to stand, and agreed on it, and it worked out mighty good that way, and looked mighty good too with them all standing at attention. And when the General called out, “All right, come on out here and get it!” Ben was so surprised, he didnt know what to do with himself.
“Go ahead, Ben,” I said. “You’re supposed to strut up to the General there and he’s going to give you a medal!”
“I dont believe it,” he said. “I . . .”
But then the general bellowed at him right loud, “Come on out, goddamnit! Come on out and get it!” and you should have seen the way Ben looked then. His eyes kind of brightened and his face lit up, and then he throwed out his scrawny little old chest, and started strutting. He went down the steps with me marching next to him, holding his head straight forward like you are supposed to, but still darting his eyes this way and that, he was so surprised. I walked along with him across the yard and past the car, going something like a drum with my mouth. I said, “Rat-tat-ta-tat” kind of clicking my tongue so he would have something to walk in step with, and he prissed along that way until he got up to the General, and then he stopped and throwed him a right snappy salute, and the General quivered a bit and give him one back, and everybody was standing there at attention, and it was something to see too. The Corporal held the flashlight and the General read off all the things on the paper, saying how we had pulled each other out of the burning wreckage of the airplane and how proud the Air Force was of us, and how we reflected glory and everything, and then he got through that and ended up by pinning the medals on our chests, and Ben was pretty swelled up by the time it was over. We shook hands with everybody and they congratulated us, and finally the General said, “Well, if that’s all you can think of you want from me, I guess that about does it. Hop in the car over there and the driver will run you out to the airport where I’ve got a special plane waiting for you.”
“Well, hit was mighty nice,” I said. “And we do want you to know how much we appreciate it.”
But he didnt answer, just stood there a minute and then turned away and started for the house again. But then he seen Sergeant King kind of standing around over behind the house where he had been for a while, and stopped and bellowed at him, “I see you, by God! You’re not going to get out of anything hiding back there. Come on in here and sign these papers! Because you’re going with them every step of the way, and you just better thank the Lord Almighty that Private is the lowest rank I can think of at the moment.”
So everything worked out pretty good that way and when I heered Sergeant King was going to get to go along with us, I felt pretty good about things. Me and Ben went out and sat in the car. And after a little bit, Sergeant King come out and got in the car too, and the driver started off; and I felt so lively and everything, I reached over and popped Ben on the back and said, “See there, Ben, you got a medal after all, and aint even dead besides. And you were right about the Air Force too because the medals . . .”
“Air Force?” the driver turned around and said. “You fellows are in the Infantry now.”
“Infantry!” Ben said.
“That’s right, buddie. As of now, you fellows are transferred. Your new uniforms are in the back and as soon as we get to the airport, you’ll have to change. Yessir, you’re in the Infantry now. You’ve had it, buddie.”
And then Ben looked at me with this big smile spreading across his whole face, and he reached up and touched the medal hanging off his chest, and said, “Well, I’ll be danged, we made the Infantry after all,” and seemed mighty happy about it. And Sergeant King was too, I think; he set there staring out the window for the longest sort of time, not saying a word, like he couldnt believe it almost. And when Ben said, “Yessir, we’re just like the Three Musqueteers; I’ll bet we’ll stay in the same outfits and everything all the time we’re in the Infantry!” Sergeant King got so excited over it, he set there and quivered, just like the General had done, all the way to the airport.
THE END
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mac Hyman was born in Cordele, Georgia, in 1923, and spent most of his life there until he went away to school. He attended North Georgia College, a military school, and then Duke University and Auburn. He was drafted in 1943, passed the Air Corps examinations and finally ended up a navigator. He went overseas with one of the first B-29 outfits as a lieutenant in photo-navigation, first to Saipan and then to Guam. Before the war was over he had flown about twenty-three combat missions over Japan.
After World War II he returned to Duke and began to write. Also at this point he got married to his chil
dhood sweetheart. Soon he was living in New York City, working for a time as a shipping clerk in a book store, and then in St. Augustine, Florida, where both he and his wife tried teaching school. He was broke when his first child was born, so he re-enlisted in the Air Force and ended up in Houston, Texas.
It was then that he began writing No Time for Sergeants. He continued working on it after he got out of the Air Force and while attending Columbia University under the G.I. Bill, and finally finished it down in Georgia on his father’s farm.
THE END
TRANSCRIBER NOTES
Misspelled words and printer errors have been corrected unless part of the author’s vernacular speech including words such as “git”, “heered”, and “Nosir”.
Inconsistencies in punctuation have been maintained. Author has used “didnt”, “dont”, “cant”, “shouldnt”, “couldnt”, “aint”, “arent”, “havent”, “isnt”, “wouldnt”, “yall”, “warnt”, and “ceptn” throughout as contractions.
Frontispiece illustration has been moved to the author biography page at the end of the book.
[The end of No Time For Sergeants by Mac Hyman]