364
PARTISAN REVIEW
But Smitty put on
his
field jacket and made for the side exit
when the lieutenant left.
"I'm not worried about you," he told me.
I followed him out. Margaret was at the factory gate, watching
his coming. Her hands were on her hips and her feet spread, planted
solid as a buttress. He grabbed her arm and put his face to hers,
his body tensed with pleading. I didn't hear what he said, nor did
I hear her response. But I saw
him
twitch
his
length like he was a
strummed bow. He grabbed her other arm and tried to pull her
from her roots. She was stronger than he and gave him a full, un–
flinching regard in accompaniment to her speech. She looked like
a boss discharging an employee. When I reached them, he was wild.
He emptied himself of all the abuse he'd mastered in his three
years as a G
I.
"lowe you nothing," I heard her say. "I did not ask for you.
They lock you up like a naughty boy when you are mean to the
Russians."
We caught him as he leaped on her. He foamed at her and it
required four of us to drag him away. She wasn't frightened.
The Russian officer came again.
This
time he arrived at our
CP in a German command car, chauffeured by a professional, a
Russian in tanker dress and a lumpy hard face.
"My man was attacked," the Russian said calmly. He lighted
a cigarette that was thrust into the holder. He surveyed our ranks
indifferently. "Is this the way you greet friends?"
"Tell him
his
men had no right being here," the lieutenant
ordered.
The officer shrugged. "And for this you club my man with a
rifle? That man you struck had his family destroyed by Germans. He
has been fighting for five years. When you Americans were still
enjoying the comforts of peace, he was at war. He is an impatient
man. He has much to settle with the Germans. Impatience is a small
crime. In another week justice will be done." He stared insolently
at the lieutenant, who flushed . "It is not good for the future that
you are not concerned with justice."
"Recht"
he said in German.
"I'm only a soldier. Tell him that. I obey my superiors. He's
under the same orders. Tell
him
the man who struck his soldier
will be punished. Tell him I've made a full report to our command.
