"Joe Haldeman - 1968" - читать интересную книгу автора (Haldeman Joe)

"Flunk out? College, I mean."

"Yeah, yes and no. Got shafted. Filed an appeal but then I got my draft notice. I think the fuckin' college
got in touch with the draft board." Spider did have a legitimate grievance. He flunked out of college
because of an F in a five-hour chemistry course. He'd been getting Bs all along and studied hard for the
final, and in fact breezed through it with no effort. He was the first person to hand in his blue book, which
turned out to be a fatal error: the graduate assistant left it lying on the table when he collected all the
others, and, not knowing one student from the other, assumed Spider had not been there and recorded
his grade as a zero. When Spider got his F, it was his word against the graduate assistant's. By the time
his appeal was processed, the graduate assistant had gone home to Iran. Ten years later he would die,
defending the Shah. Spider would have cheerfully killed him now. "You go to college?"

"Shit, no. Got a wife and kid, kept me outa the draft for a while. They're gettin' hard up. Be draftin'
college guys before long, don't evenhave to flunk out."

Spider was tempted to tell him the whole stoiy, the fuckin' towel-head grad assistant who lied, but he'd
told it too often and sometimes people didn't believe him, especially if they hadn't gone to school.
"How're they gettin' along? She got a job?"

"No, she went back with her folks. She could get her old job back, waitin' tables, but you know. Fuckin'
Jody." "Jody" was the archetypal civilian, probably a draft-dodger, who had an insatiable appetite for
soldiers' wives and girlfriends.

"Get to see her at R&R?"

"Naw, no way we could afford Hawaii. I just went to Bangkok, try some of that slope pussy."

"How was it?"

"Out. standing." He closed his eyes. "I couldn't fuckin' walk for a week."

"Sounds great." Actually, Spider didn't have much information to go on (see "Spider's sex life [1]"), other
than pictures. Everyone who went to Bangkok brought back Polaroids.

He didn't think he would go to Bangkok if he were married to Beverly. But he wasn't sure, of that or a lot
of other things.

Love letter

January 6th, 1968

Dear Spider,

Thanks for the long letter. I'm sorry you aren't safe in an office any more, but it must have been awful,
working with all those dead boys. It made me want to cry and throw up at the same time, you know
what I mean, the way you wrote about them.

You know there was that red dust all over your letter, inside and out. I can't imagine, it must be like flour.