He turned and pointed out the window. "Right out there. Two miles away. Any questions?"
A girl giggled.
"Any vehicles?" another asked.
"Yes. Five trucks, five small command cars, two tanks."
"That"s too easy," laughed the girl, slender fingers fussing with her hair.
"That"s all," said the officer. He started from the room. "Go to it," he added and, under his breath, "Monsters!"
He left.
"Oh, me," sighed one of the girls, "here we go again."
"What a bore," said another. She opened her delicate mouth and plucked out chewing gum. She put it under her chair seat.
"At least it stopped raining," said a redhead, tying her shoelaces.
The seven girls looked around at each other. Are you ready? said their eyes. I"m ready, I suppose. They adjusted themselves on the chairs with girlish grunts and sighs. They hooked their feet around the legs of their chairs. All gum was placed in storage. Mouths were tightened into prudish fixity. The pretty little girls made ready for the game.
Finally they were silent on their chairs. One of them took a deep breath. So did another. They all tensed their milky flesh and clasped fragile fingers together. One quickly scratched her head to get it over with. Another sneezed prettily.
"Now," said a girl on the right end of the row.
Seven pairs of beady eyes shut. Seven innocent little minds began to picture, to visualize, to transport.
Lips rolled into thin gashes, faces drained of colour, bodies shivered pa.s.sionately. Their fingers twitching with concentration, seven pretty little girls fought a war.
The men were coming over the rise of a hill when the attack came. The leading men, feet poised for the next step, burst into flame.
There was no time to scream. Their rifles slapped down into the muck, their eyes were lost in fire. They stumbled a few steps and fell, hissing and charred, into the soft mud.
Men yelled. The ranks broke. They began to throw up their weapons and fire at the night. More troops puffed incandescently, flared up, were dead.
"Spread out!" screamed an officer as his gesturing fingers sprouted flame and his face went up in licking yellow heat.
The men looked everywhere. Their dumb terrified eyes searched for an enemy. They fired into the fields and woods. They shot each other. They broke into flopping runs over the mud.
A truck was enveloped in fire. Its driver leaped out, a two-legged torch. The truck went b.u.mping over the road, turned, wove crazily over the field, crashed into a tree, exploded and was eaten up in blazing light. Black shadows flitted in and out of the aura of light around the flames. Screams rent the night.
Man after man burst into flame, fell crashing on his face in the mud. Spots of searing light lashed the wet darkness- screams-running coals, sputtering, glowing, dying-incendiary ranks-trucks cremated-tanks blowing up.
A little blonde, her body tense with repressed excitement. Her lips twitch, a giggle hovers in her throat. Her nostrils dilate. She shudders in giddy fright. She imagines, imaginesa a A soldier runs headlong across a field, screaming, his eyes insane with horror. A gigantic boulder rushes at him from the black sky.
His body is driven into the earth, mangled. From the rock edge, fingertips protrude.
The boulder lifts from the ground, crashes down again, a shapeless trip hammer. A flaming truck is flattened. The boulder flies again to the black sky.
A pretty brunette, her face a feverish mask. Wild thoughts tumble through her virginal brain. Her scalp grows taut with ecstatic fear. Her lips draw back from clenching teeth. A gasp of terror hisses from her lips. She imagines, imagines. a A soldier falls to his knees. His head jerks back. In the light of burning comrades, he stares dumbly at the white foamed wave that towers over him.
It crashes down, sweeps his body over the muddy earth, fills his lungs with salt water. The tidal wave roars over the field, drowns a hundred flaming men, tosses their corpses in the air with thundering whitecaps.
Suddenly the water stops, flies into a million pieces and disintegrates.
A lovely little redhead, hands drawn under her chin in tight bloodless fists. Her lips tremble, a throb of delight expands her chest. Her white throat contracts, she gulps in a breath of air. Her nose wrinkles with dreadful joy. She imagines, imaginesa A running soldier collides with a lion. He cannot see in the darkness. His hands strike wildly at the s.h.a.ggy mane. He clubs with his rifle b.u.t.t.
A scream. His face is torn off with one blow of thick claws. A jungle roar billows in the night.
A red-eyed elephant tramples wildly through the mud, picking up men in its thick trunk, hurling them through the air, mashing them under driving black columns.
Wolves bound from the darkness, spring, tear at throats. Gorillas scream and bounce in the mud, leap at falling soldiers.
A rhinoceros, leather skin glowing in the light of living torches, crashes into a burning tank, wheels, thunders into blackness, is gone.
Fangs-claws-ripping teeth-shrieks-trumpeting-roars. The sky rains snakes.
Silence. Vast brooding silence. Not a breeze, not a drop of rain, not a grumble of distant thunder. The battle is ended.
Gray morning mist rolls over the burned, the torn, the drowned, the crushed, the poisoned, the sprawling dead.
Motionless trucks-silent tanks, wisps of oily smoke still rising from their shattered hulks. Great death covering the field. Another battle in another war.
Victory-everyone is dead.
The girls stretched languidly. They extended their arms and rotated their round shoulders. Pink lips grew wide in pretty little yawns. They looked at each other and t.i.ttered in embarra.s.sment. Some of them blushed. A few looked guilty.
Then they all laughed out loud. They opened more gum-packs, drew compacts from pockets, spoke intimately with schoolgirl whispers, with late-night dormitory whispers.
Muted giggles rose up fluttering in the warm room.
"Aren"t we awful?" one of them said, powdering her pert nose.
Later they all went downstairs and had breakfast.
X a" FIRST ANNIVERSARY.
Just before he left the house on Thursday morning, Adeline asked him, "Do I still taste sour to you?"
Norman looked at her reproachfully.
"Well, do I?"
He slipped his arms around her waist and nibbled at her throat.
"Tell me now," said Adeline.
Norman looked submissive.
"Aren"t you going to let me live it down?" he asked.
"Well, you said it, darling. And on our first anniversary too!"
He pressed his cheek to hers. "So I said it," he murmured. "Can"t I be allowed a faux pas now and then?"
"You haven"t answered me."
"Do you taste sour? Of course you don"t." He held her close and breathed the fragrance of her hair. "Forgiven?"
She kissed the tip of his nose and smiled and, once more, he could only marvel at the fortune which had bestowed on him such a magnificent wife. Starting their second year of marriage, they were still like honeymooners.
Norman raised her face and kissed her.
"Be d.a.m.ned," he said.
"What"s wrong? Am I sour again?"
"No." He looked confused. "Now I can"t taste you at all."
Now you can"t taste her at all," said Dr. Phillips.
Norman smiled. "I know it sounds ridiculous," he said.
"Well, it"s unique, I"ll give it that," said Phillips.
"More than you think," added Norman, his smile grown a trifle laboured.
"How so?"
"I have no trouble tasting anything else."
Dr. Phillips peered at him awhile before he spoke. "Can you smell her?" he asked then.
"Yes."
"You"re sure."
"Yes. What"s that got to do with-" Norman stopped. "You mean that the senses of taste and smell go together," he said.
Phillips nodded. "If you can smell her, you should be able to taste her."
"I suppose," said Norman, "but I can"t."
Dr. Phillips grunted wryly. "Quite a poser."
"No ideas?" asked Norman.
"Not offhand," said Phillips, "though I suspect it"s allergy of some kind."
Norman looked disturbed.
"I hope I find out soon," he said.
Adeline looked up from her stirring as he came into the kitchen. "What did Dr. Phillips say?" "That I"m allergic to you." "He didn"t say that," she scolded.
"Sure he did."
"Be serious now."
"He said I have to take some allergy tests."
"He doesn"t think it"s anything to worry about, does he?" asked Adeline.
"No."
"Oh, good." She looked relieved.
"Good, nothing," he grumbled. "The taste of you is one of the few pleasures I have in life."
"You stop that." She removed his hands and went on stirring. Norman slid his arm around her and rubbed his nose on the back of her neck. "Wish I could taste you," he said. "I like your flavour."
She reached up and caressed his cheek. "I love you," she said.
Norman twitched and made a startled noise.
"What"s wrong?" she asked.
He sniffed. "What"s that?" He looked around the kitchen. "Is the garbage out?" he asked.
She answered quietly. "Yes, Norman."
"Well, something sure as h.e.l.l smells awful in here. Maybe-" He broke off, seeing the expression on her face. She pressed her lips together and, suddenly, it dawned on him. "Honey, you don"t think I"m saying-"
"Well, aren"t you?" Her voice was faint and trembling.
"Adeline, come on."
"First, I taste sour. Now-"
He stopped her with a lingering kiss.
"I love you," he said, "understand? I love you. Do you think I"d try to hurt you?"