The daily monitor leader. [volume] (Mount Clemens, Mich.) 1942-19??, 1943-03-19
Copyright. te43
NeA Service, Inc.
BY oREN ARNOLD

ting on his bed, one Army dress
shoe off and one on, He still
held the off one in his hand, and
he was staring at nothing.
Wham.
The shoe hit wastepaper
basket, skittered over and stop
ped beside a chair. Throwing it
gave Jimmy a kind of release,
but il was no way to treat a
dress shoe, He picked 1t up
again. INSPECTED it, and rang for
bell hop. 800
Here four bits, pal" he
smiled at the boy, also giving
him both shoes. See that these
look like mirrors in the morn
ing"
Yes sir, sure, Captain Carr"
Then he sat with his feet on
the back of chair, body
sprawled on the bed. He en-
visioned Lorraine Stuart. Taffy
hair in perfect order. Lips and
rouge and eye business all per-
feet, as usual. A swell some
body. Only, damn it, she'd been
drinking He couldn't figure
that. He and Lorraine had agreed
that flying and drinking don't
mix. Jimmy Carr couldn't UNI
derstand anybody who didn't
keep agreements. Lora n e 5
broken promise, trivial as it
was. left him confused.
The truth was, he couldn't see
Lorraine as anything but the
lovely somebody she appeared
to be. Undeniably she was beau
tiful. She had been beautiful
when he first met her at an avi-
alton ball, and she still was. Oh,
she may have had some faults,
but who hasn't? Offhand he
couldn't remember any of Lor-
aine's. Until - today, tonight,
she had done a strange thing.
"She never did explain how
she came to be late for the start
of the trip" he said. II asked
her, and she acted mad!"
That didn't make sense, either;
Army life runs with clocklike
precision. Eleven o'clock is IL
o'clock exactly. Even Lorraine
should have understood that
And if she was so determined to
make that trip, why didn't she
telephone him if she couldn't
make it? And most of all, why
did she have to forge his name
in order to catch up?
Soon after his pilot friend, Ed
Bryan, telephoned him from Ell
mira, Jimmy went to sleep. If
sleep it could be called. He was
still upset about the whole stu
alton.
He was still upset about 1t
next morning at breakfast. He
felt better physically, but he felt
somehow awkward about start
ing with Pat and substituting
Lorraine as his passenger going
west.
mo. that's not fair" he ar.
gued. "Lorry got dirty break
at the start
He was trying valiantly to
stand up for his fiancee in his
own mind. Contrarily, though
he kept thinking of Pat with
favor too. He remembered how
Pat had been stricken with stage
tright as they approached
Cleveland, and tried so hard to
be nonchalant just talking about
the city. Making her speech, she
had still been like a school girl
at first. Then he had seen her
chin lift. and her violet eyes
show a little anger, and Pat had
made good speech after all. In
Chicago, she had vowed EN-
Had as much poise as veteran
trouper.
He wondered what Pat Friday
had done for a living before he
found her. Or she found him. He
grinned, remembering the way
she nervily took over his office
that morning in New York City,
bluffing a whole string of other
girls who wanted jobs. And Pat
had been the second fastest soar
ing pupil in his experience, the
other being a boy who already
had studied aviation. In barely
nine days Pat had made a sail
plane salute say yes ma am.
The waiter came to his table
with two morning newspapers,
the first Jim had seen since
leaving Elmira.
"Sa-a-ayr' he beamed at the
front pages.
/