Honey Ko - A Novel

Chapter Twenty-Five

I scrunched my nose and puffed at the strand of hair tickling me between the eyes. It flew up, then settled back again. I resisted the urge to brush it away. Moving my hand meant effort. The tickling proved too much to bear, though, and I reached up to tie my hair back.

"Oh, I'm terribly sorry."

My elbow had jabbed a man in the abdomen. He grunted and stumbled against the table, then steadied himself with a hand on the back of Frank's chair. It was Senior Chief Kelly. I recognized him from Rufadora and the several times Shore Patrol had been called to remove him. His face was blotched from drinking. He leaned down to peer at Frank.

His voice was thick, and his foul breath washed across the table.

"Hey, it's the Flip lover. How you doing? Hello, Goody-Goody."

He brought his face close to Sam, who was quick to turn his head away. "Hey, who are you?"

I had been watching Frank with eyes half-closed. I began to worry when his jaw tightened. I knew the signs of a bar fight and didn't think he'd take the insult sitting down. He stood a head taller than the skinny senior chief and seemed to grow larger with anger.

"Senior Chief, why don't you go back where you came from and let us enjoy our drinks."

"What? It's too early to go back to base."

He noticed me on Frank's right and stared at me. A half-decent smile appeared on his face for a moment before turning into a mocking leer.

"Hey. Hey, I know you. You're the pure girl. The pure girl." He tripped as he laughed and spilled beer on his shirt. He ran his hand over it. "Ohh, that's cold."

"Hey." He called out loud enough to be heard at the next pier. "Hey, looky here, it's the pure barmaid."

People nearby stared at the commotion, probably weighing the odds of a fight between the giant and the drunk. I felt their eyes on me and moved closer to Frank. I appealed silently to him, telling him I wanted to leave before he beat the drunk to a pulp. Frank looked more annoyed than angry and clearly regretted the interruption for my sake.

"Senior Chief, I'm warning you." Frank's fists were balled, and a vein in his temple throbbed. His patience was wearing thin.

"No, no, no. You don't warn me. You're only a Chief, a little Chief." He indicated a little Chief with his thumb and index finger, then pointed at Chip. "He's the biggest Chief. I outrank you, and he outranks me. See?" He swayed on his feet. Bar patrons at the closer tables laughed while a group of Sailors a few tables away shook their heads.

"Hey. Little lady. Get me a beer, would you? Hey, what's the matter with your face? Did the little Chief hit you? 'Little Chief,' he laughed."

Chip left his seat and stepped between Frank and the senior chief.

"Why don't you head on back to the base, Paul? I think you've had enough to drink."

"You don't tell me what to do when I'm on liberty." His slurring worsened. "I don't take orders from you off-base."

"Paul, I'm going to ask you one last time to go back to the base, or I'll call Shore Patrol and have them take you back. I'm sure you don't want that now, do you?"

"I don't care what you do, big man. Screw you, anyway. You don't like me because I quit flying. You think I'm a coward." He hid his face in his hands and began to sob. "You don't understand. I'm not a coward. He was my friend. We flew together for six years. He was my friend. He was on fire. I watched him burn. I can't stop seeing him. He reached to me for help, but what could I do? I watched him burn." He picked up a beer bottle from the table and smashed it against the deck railing. "He was on fire. What could I do! What could I do? I can't stop seeing him." His shoulders heaved as he cried.