I almost blurted out “I’d love to”—which was the natural thing to say—but I caught myself and said instead, “Gosh, I’d like to, but it can’t be done to-night because I’m so busy I don’t know when I’ll be free, and it can’t be done to-morrow because we’re leaving, I think, to-night. Thanks a lot, though.”
“You’re leaving? Really?” he seemed completely astounded at this, but he came back quickly, “Well—” He extended his hand again, “Good luck, Leon. Be careful what you do with those mademoiselles and don’t drink too much cognac on an empty stomach!”
“Don’t worry about the mademoiselles!” I replied with a laugh. “And good luck to you. Hope we’ll meet over there.”
We parted and I breathed a mile-long sigh of relief. But after I reached the office, I could smile at the thought of this odd meeting, and particularly at the idea of Jay-Jay’s being so utterly dumb. I was sure that if I saw my Captain in dresses and black paint, I’d recognize him without any trouble at all—and I only saw him once in my life. Jay-Jay certainly must have been stupid.
About fifteen minutes after this meeting, luck came my way for once. The General decided suddenly that I could do some purchasing for him in town. “Get a pass for an hour and pick up these things for me,” he said, handing me a list of half a dozen things. I needed no urging; got the pass from the non-com in charge, and departed at once.
You can guess what the first thing I did was: hunt up a telephone booth that was secluded enough to allow me to say all I wanted to say. I found one in a lunch room and put in a rush call to Wakeham.
I spent fifteen hectic minutes waiting for the call to come through and when it did, I almost died of shock, for who answered the phone but my dear darling twin!
I was speechless for a moment. Adequate words for my feelings could not be spoken over the telephone, but I did try to give him a general idea of what I really thought of him for not leaving very early that morning.
“But your Special Delivery just came, about five minutes ago,” he declared. “I’ll leave in another five minutes.... But how am I going to get in there again? How are we going to change back?”
“How the devil do I know? You get here! The rest can wait. I’ll wait for you at the headquarters building.”