| Five years more, ten at most, and he might be having to buy it from womenWhen a big man's body started going, it fell apart quicklyThen he'd end up like Conn and to hell with itHe'd buy it and talk about it, and it was probably a damn sight easier than getting rid of women who had found something in him that he didn't have or he didn't care to give
"She looked at it, and she said, 'Major' -- I was a major then -- 'what are they gonna do next? White ones, silver ones, gold ones, they'll probably be puttin' the American flag on 'em' " Conn laughed and spat a little phlegm into the sand
Why didn't they quit? Hearn rolled over on his belly, and felt the sun warming his body to its coreHe'd be needing a woman soon, and short of ferrying to the next island, a couple of hundred miles away, where there were supposed to be native women, he was gucci bag silver going to find little comfort
"Hey," he said abruptly to Conn and Dove, "if you can't bring a whorehouse in, how about letting the women go for a while?"
"Beginning to get you down?" Conn asked with a smile
"It's brutal," Hearn said, imitating DoveHe lit a cigarette, shaking the sand out of the pack
Dove looked at him, tried another gambit"Say, I was thinking before, Hearn, is your father's name William?"
"Yeah
"We had a William Hearn who was a Deke about twenty-five years ago; could it be him?"
Hearn shook his head"Hell, no, my father can't even read or writeAll he can do is sign checks"Wait a moment," Conn said, "Bill Hearn, Bill Hearn, by God, I know him, has some factories in the Middlewest, Indiana, Illinois, Minnesota?"
"That's right
"Sure," Conn said, "Bill HearnYou look like him, come to think of itI met him when designer louis vuitton denim bags knock offs I was out of the Army in 'thirty-seven, organizing the stock for a couple of companiesHis father would throw back his straight black hair, and clap Conn on the back with one of his meaty moist hands"Hell you say, man," he could hear his father booming, "either you throw your goods on the table, and we talk a little turkey, or you can admit you're just a goddam fraud" -- then the twinkle, the charm -- "and we can just get potted together, which is what the hell we want to do in the first place But, no, Conn wasn't right; Conn didn't quite fit it
"I saw his picture in the papers about a month agoHave about ten papers sent to me regularlyI can see your old man's putting on a little weight
"Keeping about even, I guess He had been sick in the past three years and was down to almost the normal weight for a man his sizeConn didn't know his montre cartier ronde fatherConn wasn't even a first sergeant in 'thirty-sevenYou didn't quit the Army to organize companies when you were a staff sergeantAbruptly Hearn realized that Conn had not whored with Generals Caldwell and Simmons in Washington, oh, possibly once he'd had a drink with them, or more likely he'd served under them as a noncom before the war but the whole thing was pathetic, and a little disgustingConn, the big operatorEven now the watery sagging eyes, the paunch, the mottled bulbous nose, were staring at him with sinceritySure he knew Bill HearnIf they put Conn on the rack, he'd die swearing he knew him, believing he knew him
"I'll tell you what, when you see Bill Hearn again, you tell him you saw me, or write to him, tell him that
What had gone on in Conn's head for twenty years in the Army? Or particularly the last five when he had discount hermes discovered he could swim as an officer?
Pop! went Dalleson's carbineWhy don't you look him up? He'll be glad to see youI'd kinda like to see him againThey don't make them more sociable than your father With a delicious effort Hearn restrained himself from saying, Maybe he can give you a job at the gate, keeping people out
Instead he stood up"I'm going in for a dip," he announcedHe sprinted down the beach, hit the water flatly, and coasted under, feeling his mirth, his disgust, his weariness wash away in the delight of cold water against his heated fleshWhen he came up he spouted some water gleefully, and began to swimOn the beach the officers were still sunning themselves, playing bridge or talkingTwo of them were throwing a ball back and forthThe jungle looked almost pretty from the water
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