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“I did it with Strand.”

“You were tough with . . .” The silence stretches and stretches as slowly Jenou realizes what she means.

The confession seems to hang in the air between them. It takes Jenou a solid minute before she can ask, “You mean, just now, after he crashed?” When Rio doesn’t answer she says, “Tunis? Tunis? And you didn’t tell me?”

“I knew how you’d react. Like it was this terribly important thing.”

“It’s not?” Jenou is flabbergasted.

Rio shakes her head and wipes furtively at a tear. “Look around us here, Jen.” Rio waves a hand to encompass the beach and the whole island and indeed the whole war. “Look at all of this. What’s important compared to this? What

does anything matter when we’re doing this?” Each “this” sounds like a curse word.

“But, honey, Rio, we’re going home someday. We’re going home to Gedwell Falls, and so is Strand, and it’s not like either of you can just forget what happened. My God, this means you have to get married.”

“Really?” Rio’s laugh is a sneer. “Suddenly you, Jenou Castain, are the voice of morality?”

“Well, no, but I’ve never—”

“You lie!”

“Don’t you call me a liar!”

“You’ve told me you . . . you . . .” But Rio’s memory is not giving her what she wants. She’s searching and not finding any moment when Jenou ever actually said she’d lost her virginity.

Jenou shakes her head and looks at Rio sideways, as if tilting her head will show her a new picture of her friend. “Everything but that,” Jenou says. She makes a cross over her heart. “Hope to die.”

Rio closes her eyes and stands swaying, tired, so tired. And more than tired, disturbed, twisted around inside. There’s a rage boiling inside her again, a rage with no target, a rage she can’t put into words.

Do not start crying again!

“Well, it happened,” Rio says at last. “And I killed more Krauts. A lot more Krauts.” Suddenly Rio drops to her knees. “I’m tired. I’m really tired, Jen.”

She slumps sideways and falls instantly asleep, curled up in the sand twenty feet from passing tanks.

Jenou summons Cat and together they carry a completely unconscious Rio out of the line of traffic. They erect a shelter over her and Cat finds Jillion to borrow a piece of paper.

Rio sleeps for fourteen hours and wakes to find herself sore, stiff, and in desperate need of a latrine. And she finds Geer’s Miss Lion curled up beside her.

She crawls out of the shelter and sees the note Cat has pinned to it.

Danger: Explosives! Disturb at Your Own Peril!!!

Rio tears the sign down and goes in search of chow, which is, once again, SOS.

22

FRANGIE MARR—GELA BEACH, SICILY

“I’ve got a request for a field medic,” Dr. Frame says. “Some of our boys are heading up to the front. There are three qualified medics who could be seconded to a company and go up.”

“I’ll do it,” Frangie says quickly.

Dr. Frame steps close and in a low whisper says, “You aren’t my first choice, Marr. You’re good, you give a damn, and you work your ass off. I’d rather keep you here.”

For what feels like an embarrassingly long time, Frangie just stares at the caduceus on his collar. It is without a doubt the best compliment anyone has ever paid her. Ever. And for a terrible few seconds she feels she might start crying. And when she remains silent—not trusting herself not to start blubbering—Frame shrugs and says, “But I guess the boys at the front deserve the best care. Some of the field medics . . .” He lets that hang and shakes his head in a woeful way.

Frangie nods, the maximum she can do right then. She turns away quickly, just as a tear goes rolling down over her cheek. And an hour later—there is paperwork to be done—she presents herself to Fourth Platoon of the all-black 407th Battalion, and its new platoon sergeant, Walter Green.