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Jenou nods “Uniforms, hot chow, and a shohich is available for women from ten am toWell, you could just ives Rio her hand, and hauls her to her feet “Follow me”

The shower is a fifty-five-gallon drum raised on a platfor not in a showerhead, but in a simple valve that releases a moderate stream of icy cold but mud-free water The four shower pipes are set up in a canvas-walled enclosure An official stenciled sign reads: GI Janes Only, 10 to 2 An unofficial, handan found on the premises between 10 and 2 will be removed and sent to the mess tent

Rio finds a scrap of soap resting in a round But before she can employ soap she first lets the water sluice away unbelievable layers of filth, filth in every crack and every orifice

And then: soap

Rio is crying by the time she lathers the soap and covers her hair, her face, her body—every inch of her body Soap! Soap! The smell of it The feel of it It’s a small, slippery piece of humanity and civilization She lathers and rinses, and then does it all again

When at last she can no longer take the cold, she finds Jenou standing by with a neatly folded and astoundingly clean uniform

From there it’s to the ht in SOS without a co on scraes and wonderful, fluffy, freshly made biscuits with butter(!) and jaical beverage There’s a great, stea tureen of coffee, all the coffee in the world, and it’s hot, and it’s not ravel or leftover corned beef

Rio eats and drinks like an ani, until she is full And then she keeps eating and drinking but uses her fork and spoon

Jenou doesn’t sayher friend eat and drink When Rio is at last sated, Jenou says, “You’re going to want to sleep some more”

“I slept plenty,” Rio says

“Uh-huh,” Jenou says, and leads her back to the tent Rio says she just wants to close her eyes for a minute and wakes up ten hours later

It is night when she opens her eyes For a while she can’t tell where she is It takes a while before vagueup to her conscious mind

She sits up and looks around her Jenou, asleep, snoring lightly Cat, asleep, snoring not so lightly Jack sitting in his cot, writing a letter by the light of a sing things in short stacks: packs of smokes Stick, passed out, facedown in his cot

“Where’s Geer? And Pang?” Rio asks, dreading the answer

Jack sets his letter aside and s, I believe they are playing poker in another tent Quite healthy, I assure you, though I iet back”