“How can you eat a whole pie before dinner? Here it is one hundred twenty in the shade and you eat pie.” Allison shuddered.
“Just a snack,” O’Malley assured him. “I’m really off me feed on account o’ the heat.”
He had just finished the pie when another flier entered. He was tall and well-built, typically Yank. Allison waved a hand lazily. O’Malley just grunted.
Stan Wilson crossed the room and seated himself at the open window, being careful to avoid the berry stains. Back in the United States Stan Wilson had been a test pilot, then he had joined the Royal Air Force and spent savage months battling for Britain.
O’Malley let his feet slide to the floor with a thud. “I’ve been tellin’ Allison what a rotten hole this is. We’ll be seein’ no action out here.”
“I aim to, and right away,” Stan Wilson announced excitedly. “Of course you two bums will want to rest and enjoy the charming atmosphere of Singapore. But I’m on my way to a war.”
“See here, old fellow,” Allison began, “just because you’re a Yank and can get a release, you don’t have to sneak off and leave us to dehydrate. You have to stick around until we all get called back to London.”
“You’ll get action when the Japs cut loose, plenty of it. I think they’re about ready to grab Singapore while it’s still asleep. But I don’t want to wait that long,” Stan said.
“Wherever you’re goin’ I’m comin’ along,” O’Malley said. He had lost all of his laziness.
Stan grinned widely. “It might be arranged.”