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She unfolded the wad and extended it to him. He took three of the hundreds.

“Thank you,” he said, and then curiosity got the better of him. “What are you doing with all that money?”

“I thought I might need it in Germany, so I cashed a check.”

“You’re going to Germany, Miss Howell?” Major Derwin asked.

“Yes, I am,” she said. “Pay the bill, please, Jimmy.”

“Oh, you’re from an Army family?”

“Not yet,” Marjorie said. “Thank you for entertaining Jimmy until I could get here, Major.”

[ THREE ]

Marjorie took Jimmy’s hand as they left the officers’ club and led him to a bright yellow 1941 Buick convertible.

“I’ll drive,” she said. “You’ve been drinking.”

He got in beside her.

“Where the hell did you get the car?”

“On a lot on Ninth Street. One look and I had to have it.”

“You bought it?” he asked incredulously.

“And since it was parked right in front of the lot, I thought I could buy it quicker than anything else they had. I didn’t know how long it was going to take me to get here.”

“What are you going to do with it when you go to Midland?”

“I’m not going to Midland. Weren’t you listening? I’m going to Germany.”

“We have to talk about that,” he said.

“I don’t like the way you said that.”

She turned to face him. Their eyes met.

“Jimmy, you sound like my mother trying to reason with me . . .”

Their conversation was interrupted when the proximity of their faces caused a mutual involuntary act on both their parts.

A minute or so later, Jimmy said, “Jesus H. Christ!” and Marjorie said, a little breathlessly, “Don’t let this go to your head, but as kissers go, you’re not too bad.”

A moment after that, she said, “No! God, Jimmy, not in the car!”

“Sorry.”

“Let’s go to a motel,” she said. “God, I can’t believe I said that!”

He put his hands on her arms and moved her back behind the steering wheel.

“About you coming to Germany,” he then said. “Do you remember what the major said, that he asked, ‘Oh, you’re from an Army family?’”

“What’s that got to do with anything?”

“The only way you’re going to get into Germany, Squirt, is as a member of an Army family. The Army calls them ‘dependents.’”