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and offer my best wishes for a long and happy marriage?” he had said, knowing full well how the odds were stacked against that.
    â€œI am Mrs. Banning,” she said.
    It was the first time in her life she had ever said that. It sounded strange and made her want to cry.
    â€œSergeant Zimmerman, ma’am,” he said. “Fourth Marines. This is my woman, Mae Su, and our kids.”
    The woman nodded at Milla but did not speak. Milla, somewhat unkindly, thought they were a well-matched pair. Mae Su was built like Zimmerman, short, squat, and muscular, and looked no more intelligent.
    â€œHow may I help you, Sergeant?”
    â€œI don’t need any help, but Mae Su and the kids are probably going to need some help. Before he left, Killer McCoy said I should get the two of youse together. And before he left, I asked Captain Banning about it, and he said it was a good idea that the two of youse could probably help each other out.”
    â€œWell, if my husband said that, Sergeant, I’ll be happy to do anything I can for you,” Milla said, noting what she had said. It was the first time she had ever used the phrase “my husband.”
    This is insane. I’m insane. I’m in no position to help anybody. What I need is somebody to help me .
    â€œOkay,” Sergeant Zimmerman said. “The Killer said you was smart and would know how fucked up things are going to get around here once we get on that fucking ship and sail off.”
    The Killer said I was smart? Obviously, what has happened here is that Corporal the Killer was boasting to his friend the sergeant that he had met Captain Banning’s woman—my God, we weren’t married when the Killer went to America; that’s all I was to him, his Captain’s Nansen person equivalent of this Chinese peasant—and that the two women should get together .
    So why did this sergeant call me Mrs. Banning? Because Ed told him we were married? I don’t think so. He just decided that Captain Banning’s Nansen person woman would like to be called Mrs. Banning, it would make her feel less like a mistress, less like one more Nansen person whore .
    â€œExactly what did you have in mind, Sergeant?” Milla asked.
    â€œNothing now,” he said. “But sure as hell, something will fucking well turn up.”
    â€œWould you like to come in? Can I offer you a cup of tea?”
    Sergeant Zimmerman spoke to the woman, repeating her offer in what sounded like perfect Mandarin. The woman shook her head, “no.”
    â€œWe don’t have much time,” Sergeant Zimmerman said. “We looked for you first over at the Captain’s apartment, waited around for you, and then we come here.”
    â€œI see.”
    â€œWhat I think would be best would be for youse two to get together once I’m gone.”
    â€œWhatever you think is best,” Milla had said. She smiled at Zimmerman’s woman, who did not smile back.
    Sergeant Zimmerman put out his hand.
    â€œCaptain Banning told me I would like you,” he said, and added, “Would it be okay if I told you I think he’s one hell of a fucking officer?”
    â€œOf course.”
    â€œAnd if anybody can get you out of this fucking place, Mrs. Banning, the Captain can. That’s the real reason I wanted youse two to meet.”
    Could that possibly mean that Ed thought this woman, this Chinese peasant, could help me?
    Sergeant Zimmerman nodded at her, gestured for his woman to turn, and then walked away from Milla’s door.
    [SEVEN]
    For reasons she didn’t quite understand, Milla got all dressed up before driving Ed’s red convertible Pontiac to the Yangtze River wharf to watch the 4th Marines sail away from Shanghai aboard the President Madison .
    She was not, she saw, the only Marine’s woman to come to the wharf to watch her man—and her future—sail away. At least twenty Chinese women were there, many of them