A Choice of Enemies Read Online Free PDF Page B

crying her goddam heart out.”
    Nicky heard the police sirens in the distance. He turned away and began to improvise at the piano. That’s when Malcolm showed up, obviously drunken.
    “You were never my friend,” Malcolm said. “You with all your big words and big talk and big books. You yeah you. A college kid. Money? Stinking with money. You were pretending to talk like us and feel like us when all the time you were laughing at us behind our backs. Well, I’ll tell you something you Nazi-loving son-of-a –”
    “Rain, rain, go away, come again another day.”
    “And I’ll tell you something else. Don’t think –”
    “Lady-bug, lady-bug, fly away home, your house is on fire, your children all alone.”
    “And I’ll tell you –”
    “Go away, Malcolm. Breeze.”
    “Your little friend is upstairs going through the coats and purses.”
    Nicky stopped playing. The police sirens sounded closer.
    “Peggy sent for the M .P .s,” Malcolm said.
    “She sent for what? Oh, you fools!”
    And Nicky, seized by a sudden and uncontrollable anger, anger against Ernst’s betrayal, anger against Malcolm and the pretty girl’s soldier, anger against all things unbeautiful, pushed past Malcolmand, smashing a beer bottle against the wall and gripping the stub tightly in his fist, started up the stairs.
    Jimmy Marko took Nicky’s place at the piano and sang:
    “Ain’t misbehavin’
    Doodle-de-dum
,
    Ain
‘t
misbehavin’
    Dada-da-dum.”
    When the West Point man and his girl heard the thud above them, they broke apart, briefly thoughtful. But as no other sound followed immediately they embraced again.
    Malcolm had stepped outside to wait for the M.P .s, so he heard nothing.
    Harvey Jones, a slight corporal with rimless glasses who suffered from acne, cornered the professor. Harvey was a preacher. “Yes,” he said, “this is my last week here. Next Tuesday I’m being sent back to the Land of the Big P .X .’s. But I want you to know that it’s been a real joy to work here and that when I go stateside I’ll continue to work as a vital witness for Jesus.”
    “I’m glad you feel that way, son, but if you don’t mind –”
    Peggy heard the next thud and froze where she stood, trying, trying desperately, to hear something more above the din of the party.
    “Two years ago, when the letter came from my draft board, I was mighty sorrowful. The first question I asked myself that day was why,
why
has the Lord allowed me to be inducted? Wasn’t I spreading Christian fellowship at home? Was I being punished? Then, Sir, when the Lord sent me overseas again I asked myself why? Why has the Lord sent me overseas? The answer is as clear as crystal to me now. The Lord sent me overseas to spread His Word and, believe me, friend, it has been a real joy for me to do that very thing. The Lord –”
    “Excuse me, son, but –” a confidential nudge “-I think I’d better go and test the plumbing. All –”
    “The Lord has led me to some wonderful victories here in Germany.”
    “All this beer, you know –” and a sunny smile “– I’ll be right with you.”
    A soldier smoking on the patio ducked as glass came splashing down on the grass. A girl screamed. Two couples emerged from under the trees. “There’s a man,” a girl began breathlessly, “he –”
    “Some guy – he was all bloody – just jumped out of the window and took off into –” the soldier pointed “– That way.…”
    Two soldiers started after the man who had jumped out of Peggy’s window. After Ernst.
    Inside, everybody was swiftly conscious that something had happened. Couples broke apart. The boys adjusted their ties and the girls fiddled with their hair. A fat girl began to whimper softly. Then, mercifully, the M.P .s burst into the room.
    Peggy stared at the ceiling with tears in her eyes and prayed to God, please God, please, please he’s not hurt.
    The lights were switched on at last. Upstairs, a girl screamed.
    Malcolm started up