The Far Reaches

by Homer Hickam

  He marched them, even ran them, demanding that they sing cadence as they trotted along with Sampson held up between Tucker and Garcia. And so they did, with the villagers watching in astonishment as the marines struggled by, singing:

  Ain’t no use ingoing home.

  Jody’s got your girl and gone.

  Ain’t no use in feeling blue.

  Jody’s got your sister, too.

  Ain’t no use in lookin’ back.

  Jody’s got your Cadillac…

  “Sir, let’s be honest,” Tucker said to Burr during a short break. “None of us give a shit about Jody no more, nor Cadillacs. We got all we need right here.”

  “Don’t say that!” Burr shouted. “You’re in these latitudes courtesy of Uncle Sam, and it’s your duty to miss back home and all its creature comforts, including Hershey bars, Coca-Cola, and American women, even if Jody, the rat bastard draft dodger, has stolen them all away.”

  Sampson was brazen in his reply. “Don’t need no Cokes or Hersheys, sir, and I never met no American woman like the ones right here. You just wouldn’t believe how sweet they are. Maybe you ought to get yourself one.”

  “Shut up!” Burr roared. “If I needed a woman, the Corps would’ve made her issue! Now, we’re gonna run, boys, run like we’re chasing Tojo himself. Now, up! Up, I say, and on your feet! Foot for you, Sampson! You’re marines, and I’m not gonna let you forget it!”

  So the sun rose, and the heat increased, and Burr and the marines marched and sweated and ran up and down the road and the beach. The villagers watched in awe while trying to imagine the purpose of such relentless exercise. The marines’ women even went to Chief Kalapa to complain about Curbur, as the colonel was called. The chief in turn went to Josh, whom he found making a new batch of charcoal.

  Josh inclined his head, listened to the cadence calls for a long second, then laughed. “Listen, Chief. It is good that the marines are being reminded who they are. We will need them to be marines if Colonel Yoshu comes, which could be any day. As for their women, sometimes I know something, though I don’t know how I know it. If you let the colonel and his marines get through the day, and maybe tomorrow, I think things will settle down. This island takes hold of a man. I think it might even take hold of Montague Singleton Burr.”

  To the relief of the chief, Josh’s speculation proved to be entirely correct. On the third night of his self-exile on Tahila, Burr retreated to his quarters, which had been Ready’s house, now already known as Curbur’s House. There he lay on a palm frond mat and stared up at the high-pitched roof. Although he didn’t mean to, meant only to sleep, Burr began to contemplate his life. He rose in the dark and went outside and felt the wafting breeze against his face and sniffed the fragrance of the frangipani and the riotous scent of the gardenia. He heard the scrambling of lizards, the distant call of the Forridges kukaboo bird, and the sound of lovemaking in the various houses of the village. He thought about all that he’d done with his life, and why, and what it all meant, and then he was very sad. He was sad be-cause of his ambition to receive a star on his collar, which he finally accepted was never going to be realized. He was also sad for the men whose careers he had destroyed through one stratagem or another in his quest for that star, and for the women he’d loved and lost for the same reason. By morning, he required conversation, a first for a man who liked to talk but seldom listened. He therefore visited Josh Thurlow, his ancient nemesis, who bade him to sit and have a cup of joe.

  “Well, Montague, what’s on tap for the Marine Corps today?” Josh asked as the man sat down in a driftwood chair and took the offered cup. “A fifty-mile hike with full packs? Or how about running up and down yon mountain a few times through the devil vine?”

  Burr didn’t answer directly. Instead, he took a moment to savor the delightful aroma of the wonderful coffee in his cup, rather than tossing it scalding down his throat as he did in ordinary times. “I think I have fallen ill, Josh,” he said finally, then sipped delicately at the rim of the cup. “I seem to have heightened sensibilities. Last night, I considered my life. This morning, I feel as if every nerve in my body has been stripped bare. Do you think perhaps I have been drugged?”

  Josh gave the question some honest thought. “There is something about this island that makes a man think. It’s dangerous that way.”

  “Do you have a suggestion for what I should do?”

  “That depends. What do you want to do?”

  “I’m not sure. I think I might figure it out if I stayed here for a while.”

  “Then stay as long as you like. With luck, you’ll have some days to relax, nap, and dream a little before the Japanese attack us and we’re up to our necks in blood. Such an opportunity rarely comes to a marine, or any man.”

  Burr mulled Josh’s words, then nodded. “I have misjudged you, Josh. You are perhaps not quite the shallow bastard I’ve always detested. If I’ve been wrong all these years, I would like to apologize.”

  Josh smiled, though it was a sad smile. “I’m sorry you thought I stole Naanni from you up there, along the Bering Sea.”

  “I always blamed you for her death,” Burr answered.

  “Maybe you were right. But I have a confession to make. Those fellows that killed her, they didn’t live long to tell the tale.”

  Burr cocked his head. “You murdered them? I heard rumors…

  “I avenged my wife.”

  Burr drank his coffee, all of it, then poured himself another cup. “By God, I wish I could have helped you!” he swore. Then he said in a doleful tone, “Josh, I’m in disfavor, terrible disfavor with the Corps. They put me in charge of burying the dead on Tarawa, can you imagine? It’s as shitty a job as there is, and surely not a proper job for a combat commander. It was that foul-up on Noa-Noa that started my downfall, a foul-up that had your fingerprints all over it.”

  “I didn’t tell you to invade Noa-Noa, Montague.”

  “What did you think I’d do when I heard you were up there surrounded by Japs and cannibals? Let them cut out your liver and have it for lunch? Hell no. I got my Raiders together, shoved a boot up their patooties, and made one of the fastest operational landings ever in the history of the Corps. It was successful, too. It wasn’t my fault there weren’t any Japs on the island, nor much of anybody except you and that sad sack ambassador’s son, Jack Kennedy. The word came down from Halsey I was too quick on the draw, had an itchy trigger finger, all them cowboy attributes he usually likes but apparently not in me. Next thing I know, just after we’d landed on New Guinea and started to move up, my Raiders were absorbed into division as a regiment and I was made into a damned staff officer.”

  “The world, and that especially includes the Marine Corps, ain’t fair, Montague. You surely know that. The question is, what are you going to do about it?”

  Burr pushed out his heels into the dirt and contemplated his brown boots. “I’m going to follow your advice and give it all a good think. This does indeed seem a good place to do it.”

  “It is that,” Josh agreed, “but as I just alluded to, there’s a problem, that mad Japanese colonel who wants to wipe us out and take back what he believes is his, namely Mrs. Ready O’Neal.”

  Burr nodded. “There may be some action, a chance for battle, our own little Alamo.”

  “Hold on, Davy Crockett. This ain’t the Alamo. This is a village of innocents. What we really should do, and I keep trying to convince everybody of this, is load up the outriggers and head to the Gilberts.”

  “Yes, they have all told me your opinion, Josh,” Burr answered, “and I see the logic of it, sure. But have you thought of this? You get that many boats out on the ocean, you’re liable to get caught by that crazy Jap colonel. He’d wipe you out pretty easy then. No, I think it’s better to sit tight, wait for Captain Wells to return. Then I’ll go aboard his sub, get on down to Australia and convince the high and mighties to bomb Ruka down to bedrock. In the meantime, we’ll take that bastard’s measure if he tries to come
ashore.”

  Josh was astonished. “Damned if you don’t make sense for once, Montague.”

  “I’ve always made sense. You’ve just been too foolish to listen. Here’s some more sense. It may be the Japs saw our submarine. If so, they likely ran back to Ruka. Maybe we’ve bought ourselves some time.”

  Josh smiled. “It’s good to have a real military man to talk to. Have some more coffee, Montague. Wish I could sweeten it with Mount Gay.”

  “Thank you. Wish I’d brought some.”

  “Another thing we agree on,” Josh marveled and toasted an enemy that just might be turning into a friend.

  All the next morning, Tucker, Garcia, and Sampson waited as Burr had told them to wait with their rifles slung on their shoulders beside the schoolhouse while Mrs. O’Neal taught her class. When the colonel didn’t show up, they went home for lunch and a little afternoon ficky-ficky with their women and then afterward dutifully returned to the school. They found Colonel Burr there, watching with interest the lesson that was being taught, that of the different types of flowers to be found in Ireland. Though the marines sat down on the bench behind him, he did not even acknowledge their presence.

  “Mrs. O’Neal,” he said after the lesson, while still ignoring the marines, who followed him to the front of the school, “I would very much like to teach a lesson on the flora and fauna of Kansas, my home state. Would that be all right? Good. Thank you. Tomorrow, yes. I will be prepared.”

  Burr finally turned to his marines. “Now, boys, I’ve talked to Bosun O’Neal and Captain Thurlow and reviewed the plans for defending this is-land. It’s a good one. Go on home now, and do what you need to do for your women. All I expect is for you to man the machine guns at night and stay alert. Sampson, how’s that stump? I’ll see you get a Purple Heart. For that matter, all you boys, I’ll get you some medals and your back pay, too.”

  “Are you sick, Colonel?” Tucker asked.

  “Why do you ask?”

  “I don’t know. I thought you planned on working us some more.”

  “Do you need me to work you some more?”

  Threatened with useless work, the marines instantly disappeared, an ability they had learned beginning at boot camp. That night, as Burr sat on the porch of his house, one of the widows who had first provided a bed for Sister Mary Kathleen brought him a dinner of chicken and rice, spiced with lemon, a local pepper, and ginger, along with a pot of mangojack. She sat beneath a waving palm near the porch and waited patiently until Curbur ate the meal and slugged back the drink. Then she came to sit beside him. After many minutes of silence, she suggested that perhaps he might like some company for the night. Burr perused her in the light provided by a nearby cooking fire and noted her fine, mature figure and her pleasant face and her compliant nature. He accepted the offer and woke the next morning feeling positively mellow. He wrapped a lava-lava around his waist and followed the widow’s beckoning finger to the little pond. Along the way, he learned that her name was Nanura, which he shortened to Nan. On the path back, refreshed after his bath and eagerly looking forward to the big breakfast she had promised, he reflected on his present joy. “I’ve done it,” he said aloud. “I’ve gone Turk, gone around the bend, gone native, pulled up stakes, lit out for the territories. Who’da thunk it of Colonel Montague Singleton Burr, the marine’s marine?”

  “Curbur,” she said, daring to walk beside him while also trying out his name. “You belong Nan? Is good?”

  “Is good,” Burr replied with a satisfied smile, putting his arm around her and drawing her close as they walked. “It’s all good.”

  And damned if it wasn’t.

  49

  Josh woke with the roosters. Like most sailors, morning was his favorite time of the day. He took Rose in his arms and held her for a little while, marveling at how deep asleep she was, even though the roosters were vying with one another as to which could be louder and more obnoxious. Turu and Manda also slept through the raucous cock-a-doodle-doing. It made Josh softly chuckle to see them so securely asleep, without a single care. He knew it was because they trusted him to keep them safe. He loved his family, loved the island, loved the people and their village. He tried to think when he’d been as happy, and he guessed it was all the way back to Killakeet, maybe when he’d been a boy and his mother was alive. Though there were other times, such as when Dosie and he had held one another so close…

  His thoughts unwillingly turned to her. How was he going to explain Rose to Dosie? For that matter, what about Penelope? Not for the first time, he also made the guilty wish that Naanni might still be alive. If she were, he believed, neither Dosie nor Penelope and now Rose would have ever happened. Yet how much he would have missed!

  Josh tenderly pushed aside strands of hair from Rose’s forehead, kissed her there, then eased her back beneath the blanket. Eager for the day, he tied on his lava-lava, plopped on his navy hat, and went outside and down the common road to the beach. There he found the sun having a grand old time pushing out of the sea. It was a huge flattened molten ball with vast streamers of golden light trailing from it as if blown by an invisible wind. The clouds on the horizon had turned into gold fluff, rimmed in silver. He applauded the sun and the clouds, literally clapped his hands. “Well done, old boys!” he said while the stars winked off one by one. Second by second, the great golden orb gathered strength, parting the clouds as Moses had once parted the sea.

  Josh was distracted by voices. Down the beach came two of the marines, Sampson on his crutch and Tucker carrying an ammo box. Their duty at the eastern machine gun was done, and they were going home for breakfast and a deserved nap. Josh looked down the beach on the other side of the lagoon and saw Garcia and one of the fella boys also going off duty, trudging along the beach.

  “Hidy, Captain Thurlow,” Tucker said when he and Sampson got near. “Helluva sunrise, weren’t it?”

  “I’d give this one top marks, Tucker,” Josh answered. “See anything last night?”

  “Nope. Quiet as a whore in church, sir.”

  “Well, thank you for looking after us. Get yourself some breakfast.”

  “Breakfast and love, sir,” Sampson said, stumping on. “What a great place this is!”

  You’ll get no argument from me, Josh thought, then called after the two.

  “How are you getting along with Colonel Burr?”

  “Ain’t seen much of him,” Tucker called over his shoulder.

  “My woman says that widow’s wearing him out,” Sampson added. “Been too long no ficky-ficky. Both of them.”

  Josh laughed heartily and turned for home. As expected, Rose was up, frying him some eggs on the piece of tin she favored for a griddle, along with some breadfruit fritters and, of course, the flavorful, aromatic coffee of Tahila, which apparently grew nowhere else, not even the other islands of the Far Reaches. If coffee wasn’t so cheap and anybody could brew it, Josh thought, I’d go home and open up a store and sell nothing but coffee. He laughed at himself. The idea that you could have a business where you only sold coffee was ridiculous. Anyway, he was no businessman. He was a Coast Guardsman, or at least that’s what he used to be. He ate his eggs, sprinkled this morning with a peppery spice that apparently also only grew on Tahila, and wondered what Frank Knox and the rest of the military establishment were doing at that moment.

  “What are you thinking, husband?” Rose asked.

  “I was wondering what is going on in the war.”

  “Do you miss the war?”

  He considered his feelings, then said, “What I miss is the might of the United States Army, Navy, and Marine Corps. I wish they’d waltz into the Far Reaches and solve our problem. But they won’t, and we’re on our own with a fight coming.”

  “You keep saying that, but nothing happens.”

  Josh had to confess that was true. Despite the evident scouting of the island by the Japanese, all had remained peaceful. “Maybe Curbur is right and the sub scared Colonel Yoshu away,” he mused.
/>
  “That makes a great deal of sense,” Rose agreed. “What else do you plan on doing with your day besides thinking about the war?”

  “I think I’ll carry the charcoal to Mr. Spurlock that he ordered. How about you?”

  “Turu wants to go fishing this afternoon. I will go with him. I have decided I like to fish. You taught me well, husband.”

  “That’s good,” Josh said, though he’d actually not paid any attention to what she’d said. He was thinking instead about how happy Spurlock and his women would be to have his charcoal, and he liked the idea of climbing the mountain, where he would have a view all around the island and its coast. He would look for that Japanese barge again.

  He lounged in his chair until he heard Kathleen ring the school bell, then escorted Manda and Turu down the common road and peeled off at the school. Kathleen waved to him. She still wore her long gown but lately had started cinching it at the waist, accentuating her fine figure. He watched her gather the children and begin her lessons. He admired the woman, no mistake, but he also believed she was selfish to put Tahila in danger. Then again, he reflected, she hadn’t been on Burubu and Yoshu had destroyed it anyway. No, she was stuck here, just as he was, and the battle would have to be fought, sooner or later.

  Josh returned to his house, dug out the boots Captain Wells had given him, and gathered some sacks for Spurlock’s charcoal. Rose was puttering around with her gardening tools. He supposed she was off to garden for the day. He was well up the path to his charcoal kiln before it occurred to him that he hadn’t told her good-bye.

  50

  Every day after school, Kathleen and Ready went sailing. “My husband is teaching me to sail,” she made a point of telling any villager who might be curious about her sudden interest in boating. In reality, they were practicing for their sail to Ruka to capture her child. At night, in the treehouse, they plotted how they would do it, how they might be able to slip together through the streets of the township of Ruka and reach Colonel Yoshu’s house, then somehow get past the guards to go inside, take the baby, and get back to the canoe. Kathleen eagerly approved all of Ready’s wild ideas, knowing that it didn’t matter. When they got within swimming distance of Ruka, she meant to slip from the canoe and go ashore, there to be captured and handed over to Yoshu. Her husband would have no choice but to turn back for Tahila.