The Bridges at Toko-ri by James A. Michener Page B

made everyone proud he served aboard a good ship like the Savo . Admiral Tarrant went aboard at noon and toward four Beer Barrel staggered up the gangplank with his two golf bags. Brubaker had obtained permission for Nancy to see his quarters but when she found how astonishingly small the room was and how her husband slept with his face jammed under two steam pipes she said she felt penned in and would rather stay on deck.
    In the meantime hundreds of sailors and their Japanese girls had crowded into Yokosuka and in the lead were Mike Forney and Nestor Gamidge, accompanied by seven girls from the dance halls of Tokyo, Yokohama and Yokosuka. “I never knew there were so many girls,” Nestor said to one of the plane captains. “Best thing ever happened to Mike was losing Kimiko to that ape from the Essex .”
    Mike agreed. When he had kissed his girls goodbye he swung onto the quay, elbows out, and pointed to the Savo : “Greatest flattop in the fleet.” Then he stopped dead for he saw that the Essex was alongside and there stood beautiful Kimiko, wearing the expensive plaid he had bought her. She was kissing her ape from the Essex and things went black. Clenching his fists, Mike lunged toward the lovers but little Nestor grabbed him.
    Mike stopped, slapped himself on the head and muttered, “Sure, what’s one girl?” With grandiloquent charm he approached Kimiko, kissed her hand and said loudly, “The flower of Japan.” Then he grabbed the Essex man warmly and proclaimed, “The flower of the fleet. The best man won. Bless you, my children.”
    Then everything fell apart. For some loud mouth in the Essex yelled derisively, “And we could lick you bums in everything else, too.”
    Mike whirled about, saw no one, then looked back at golden Kimiko and she was beautiful in that special way and she was his girl. Blood surged into his throat and he lunged at the Essex man standing with her and slugged him furiously, shouting, “You lousy ape!”
    Six Essex men leaped to defend their shipmate and stumpy Nestor Gamidge rallied Savo men and soon M.P. whistles were screeching like sparrows in spring and there was a growing melee with men in blue dropping all over the place. Mike, seeing himself about to be deluged by Essex reinforcements, grabbed a chunk of wood and let the ape have it across the ear, laying him flat. At this Kimiko started to scream in Japanese and Mike grabbed her hat and tried to pull off the pretty plaid jacket, bellowing, “Go ahead and marry him. But not in my clothes.” Three Essex men, gallant to the end, knocked him silly.
    The captain of the Savo witnessed this disgraceful riot and determined on the spot to get rid of Mike Forney, but Admiral Tarrant, surveying the brawl from flag bridge , thought, “I’d hate to see the day when men were afraid to mix it up for pretty girls.” He called for his glasses and studied Kimiko, who knelt over her Essex man and all the sailors aboard the Savo and the officers too were a little more proud of their ship.

SKY
    THE SUN had to be well up or the photographs wouldn’t be any good, so it was nearly 0945 when Harry Brubaker’s jet catapulted violently across the prow of the Savo and far into the sky toward Korea. Ahead of him streaked a single Banshee with an extraordinary nose containing nine broad windows through which heavy cameras would record the bridges of Toko-ri.
    While the Savo was in Yokosuka, other carriers were supposed to photograph the target but they had failed. When Cag bent his bullet head over their muddy films he growled, “What’s the matter? They afraid to go down low? Well show ’em how to take pictures,” and he assigned himself the dangerous mission, choosing Brubaker to fly protective cover.
    Now, as the two Banshees streaked toward higher altitudes Brubaker concerned himself with trivial details: “Lay off those even altitudes. Use 25,300. Makes it just that much tougher for the anti-aircraft crews. And remember that when Cag