bumps and grinds for a convoy of casualties going out to the hospital a few days ago? On the street?” Somehow he knew she would know what the word casualties meant.
“How long ago was it?” she said with a rich Southern drawl.
Landers had to count. “Ten, eleven days ago?”
She shrugged, and smiled with the same white-white teeth. “I could have. It’s possible. I don’t know. Why?”
“Nothing,” Landers said. “I was on it.”
Her name was Martha-Lee. But she preferred to be called Martha. She worked for a big insurance outfit up the street, as a claims analyst. She was unmarried, she had come up here from Montgomery, and she loved Luxor and was never going to go back. Since it was a weekday, Landers wondered if she didn’t have to be at work. He didn’t mind buying booze but he hated to waste the time, if she did. A little amazed at his own temerity, he asked her. She had been thinking about going in, Martha said, but now she had about decided she wouldn’t. She gave him her big white smile. Her mouth, Landers noticed suddenly, was really extraordinarily sensitive and beautiful. After about five drinks, he offered to buy her lunch somewhere. Martha said she did not feel like eating anything right now. He had not done anything about getting a room yet, Landers told her, but he would go and see about getting one, if she would wait right here, and they could continue drinking up in the room.
“You’ll never get one,” Martha said, and gave him her smile.
“What do you mean, I’ll never get one?”
“They’re booked solid. They always are by eleven. Or even ten-thirty. What do you think all those unhappy-looking boys are standing out there at the desk for?”
Landers just looked at her. “Looking for a room?”
“And failin’ miserably.”
Some sure instinct made him cover up, and hide his disappointment. He gave her back a grin he hoped was acerb and caustic, like all the other grins around. “You haven’t got an apartment we could go to and drink, have you?”
“Not one I can take anybody to,” Martha said, and smiled the white smile again. “This your first time in town on pass? It is, isn’t it?”
“It’s my first time on pass anywhere. For almost seven months.” She put her hand over his on the table, and smiled. “Wait here a minute. I oughtn’t to be very long. But if I am, you wait. Hear?”
“Okay.”
It was more than a minute. It was more than ten minutes. He had time to finish his drink and pour them both another bourbon and water. And had time to drink his new one. He occupied himself with thinking about his sudden new finesse with women, wondering where it had come from. Then she was back still smiling her white smile, and handed him underneath the table a hotel room key with a big leather tab attached to it. Landers put it in his pocket and started to pay the check.
“Take your time,” Martha smiled. “There’s no hurry. It’s not going to go away. Let’s have another here, first. Have you already got a bottle?”
Landers shook his head. “Just this one,” he said, and lifted the bourbon bottle in its paper sack from the floor by the table leg.
“Did you buy it at a package store just outside the bar in the corridor, at the top of the stairs down into the lobby?” Martha said. Landers nodded.
“Can you maybe buy another? Or maybe two?” Martha smiled. “We might need it.”
Landers nodded. “Get it on the way out. Where did you get the key?”
“It’s a friend’s. Someone I know,” Martha said. “Don’t worry about it. It’s perfectly safe. Nobody will be there.”
“Fine,” Landers said.
“What did you do to your leg, soldier?” she smiled. “Fall off a ladder?”
“Yes, as a matter of fact. That’s exactly what I did do,” Landers said, and was suddenly reminded of a day when he had been carrying a message across the floor of the valley for his pet colonel. He had looked up to watch a platoon attacking the crest, and had seen a man turn and jump out from the side of the hill exactly like a man jumping off a ladder. A Jap hand grenade had exploded black, seconds later, at the spot where he jumped. He had watched the man get back up and start toiling back up toward the crest.
“I guess you won’t be able to dance for a while, will you?” Martha