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RIO RICHLIN—CAMP ZIGZAG, TUNISIA, NORTH AFRICA

“What was it like?” Jenou asks “That first time? What did you feel?”

Rio Richlin sighs wearily

Rio and Jenou Castain, best friends for alreen blanket spread over the hood of a burned-out Gers dangling down in front of the armor-covered radiator The track is sleeker than the American version, lower in profile, normally a very useful vehicle But this particular Ger Spitfire some weeks earlier, so it is riddled with holes you could stick a thuie whe

els driving the track are splayed out, and both tracks have been dragged off and are now in use as a relatively clean “sidewalk” leading to the HQ administrative tent

The road ht once have been indifferently paved but has now been chewed to gravel by passing tanks, the ubiquitous deuce-and-a-half trucks, jeeps, half-tracks, bulldozers, and tanker trucks It runs beside a vast field of reddish sand and loose gravel that now see like a farm field with olive drab tents as its crop The tents extend in long, neat rows made untidy by the way the tent sides have all been rolled up, revealing cots and sprawled GIs in sweat-soaked T-shirts and boxer shorts Here and there are extinguished campfires, oil drums filled with debris, other oil drums shot full of holes and mounted on rickety platforms to make field showers, stacks of jerry cans, wooden crates, and pallets—some broken up to feed the fires

The air sarettes, with just a hint of fried Spa roars of passing vehicles, and the roup of people, plus the outraged shouts of NCOs, curses and blaspheht expect

At the edge of the ca softball with bats, balls, and gloves assees It’s possible that the rules of this gaa and tackling going on

Both Rio and Jenou wear their uniform trousers rolled up to above the knee, and sleeveless olive drab T-shirts Cat Preeling, fifty feet away and playing a game of horseshoes with Tilo Suarez, is the only female GI with the nerve to strip down to bra and boxers She’s a beefy girl with a cigarette hanging from her downturned mouth Tilo, like many of the off-dutyoff a taut, olive-co much more closely if only Tilo were six inches taller

The bra and boxers look is a bit too daring for Rio and Jenou, but Cat see unwanted n that reads: Don’t bother Even the ever-ah the shoes in question are actually brass rings roughly cut fro is a bayonet

Rio and Jenou both have brown-tanned faces, necks, and foreare of pink where the skin is beginning to burn

“What hat like?” Rio repeats the question slowly She has a wet sock laid over her eyes to afford some shade There is a half-empty bottle of Coca-Cola beside her It was almost cold once and now is the temperature of hot tea Jenou has a book held up to block the sun, The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, in a paperback edition

It is the summer of 1943 in Tunisia, and it is hot Desert hot Co wo

“You know,” Jenou insists “The first tiet an idea”