“But what I’m trying to tell you is that in the army you’ll really be pushed around, and you’ll not like it. But you’ll have to take it. You’re in for the duration.”
“What do you mean?” she had asked soberly.
“You’ll be put in a place and told to wait, when you want action. You’ll want to do things worse than you’ve ever wanted to do anything before, and you’ll be told you can’t do them.”
“I know! I was there!” His voice had risen. “It’s no one’s fault. It’s war, that’s all. And because it’s war you’ll have to take it.”
“Well then, if it’s war I’ll take it,” had been her response.
She smiled a little as she recalled those words now. Only a few weeks before she had found herself up against what seemed a stone wall. She had been told that no WACS would be allowed to go with the army into Burma and China. No indeed! But here she was going in ahead of the army! She had very little notion how it had come about, nor how long her luck would last. One thing she did know—she was not being pushed around—not yet.
All of a sudden the car lights dimmed, then the car slowed down a bit.
“What’s up, Jan?” she asked.
“Nothin’. Dim out. That’s all,” was Jan’s quick response. “Colonel’s orders. We’re getting into a zone where there’s not supposed to be a road,—only a trail. The honorable enemy mustn’t be allowed to know about this road.”
A little further on the whole procession halted, then moved on, halting every thirty seconds.