A Duchess in the Pacific

Four

The floor seemed wonderfully solid. It was comforting to know I had fallen

And

Could

Fall

No

Further

-Slyvia Plath

"Excuse me, Duchess?" John Basilone spoke over Duchess' shoulder. She turned around from where she was sitting and looked up at him.

"Yes." she answered, standing up. John looked at her up and down before speaking again. Duchess was already annoyed by the way he stared at her.

"Chesty thinks we should teach you some things, you know just in case you find yourself in a bad situation here." John stated, leaning in with flirtation in his voice. Duchess scoffed.

"Compared to the wonderful situation I'm in right now." Duchess remarked. John laughed awkwardly.

"yeah well. I'm just following the boss's orders." he said defensively.

Duchess exchanged a look with Leckie who was busy writing his letters to Vera to get involved. She looked back to John with an annoyed expression that said Well let's go then. As they walked, John offered his arm to Duchess and she reluctantly took it. It was now her third day on Guadalcanal and still nothing had happened. She didn't doubt there were Japanese somewhere on the expansive island In fact she was waiting for the other shoe to drop, so to speak. And the anxiety of that was almost as bad as the nagging feeling that she would never see her family again.

John lead her to a small clearing in the jungle not too far away from the regiment. JP and Manny were there. Duchess' heart began to race slightly just at the sight of Manny. He looked at her with suspicious eyes and winked at her. She forced herself to look away so she wouldn't blush.

"Chesty wants us to teach you how to fire a gun." John spoke, interrupting Duchess racing thoughts of Manny. Before Duchess could open her mouth to explain she already knew how to fire a gun and that she had done it many times, John shoved the rifle in her hands and moved to stand beside her. "Aim for that can right there." His breath was hot in her ear and he was moving closer to touch her. Soon his hands were around her, positioning hers in the correct spot. One was wrapped around her shoulders the other drifting down her side to her waist. Finally his touches had become too familiar for Duchess and she angrily shook him off her.

"I know how to do it." She nearly yelled. She immediately sucked in her bottom lip. Her mother always said a lady never yells. John chuckled at her and backed off with mocked offense.

"Sorry, Dutch. You should of just said so." He admitted to himself that he was coming on too strong. The poor girl had been through so much and here he was hitting on her. He backed away a couple steps, letting her have more space.

Duchess tried to focus as the three men watched her as if they were expecting her to mess up. But Jack Kingsley never stopped until his daughter was perfect at everything he taught her. So Duchess straighten her back, breathed in, slowly breathed out, pulled the trigger and hit the can directly in the center, sending it flying backwards. She lowered the gun, keeping it pointed towards the ground.

"It's not that easy when the japs are firing back." J.P spoke up in a huff. John nodded in agreement. Duchess exchanged a look with Manny who was rolling his eyes.

"I imagine it's not." Duchess said with a shrug and handed the gun back to John. "Is that it? Or do you have more fun ways to grope me?" Duchess remarked, her voice and tone soaked with sarcasm. Manny chuckled out loud.