King Rat (41 page)

“It’s a sarong—“

“It’s a skirt, standing in a skirt, half-naked! You POWs think you can get away with anything. Well, thank God you can’t. And now you’ll be taught respect for —“

Peter Marlowe caught up his hafted bayonet, rushed to the door and thrust the knife hi the major’s face. “Get away from here or by Christ I’ll cut your fucking throat…”

The major evaporated.

“Take it easy, Peter,” Phil muttered. “You’ll get us all into trouble.”

“Why do they stare at us? Why? Goddammit why?” Peter Marlowe shouted. There was no answer.

A doctor walked into the hut, a doctor with a Red Cross on his arm, and he hurried — but pretended not to hurry — and smiled at Peter Marlowe. “Don’t pay any attention to him,” he said, indicating the major who was walking through the camp.

“Why the hell do all you people stare at us?”

“Have a cigarette and calm down.”

The doctor seemed nice enough and quiet enough, but he was an outsider — and not to be trusted.

“Have a cigarette and calm down! That’s all you bastards can say,” Peter Marlowe raged. “I said, why do you all stare at us?”

The doctor lit a cigarette himself and sat on one of the beds and then wished he hadn’t, for he knew that all the beds were diseased. But he wanted to help. “I’ll try to tell you,” he said quietly. “You, all of you, have suffered the unsufferable and endured the unendurable. You’re walking skeletons. Your faces are all eyes, and in the eyes there’s a look…” He stopped a moment, trying to find the words, for he knew that they needed help and care and gentleness. “I don’t quite know how to describe it. It’s furtive — no, that’s not the right word, and it’s not fear. But there’s the same look in all your eyes. And you’re all alive, when by all the rules you should be dead. We don’t know why you aren’t dead or why you’ve survived — I mean each of you here, why you? We, from the outside, stare at you because you’re fascinating…”

“Like freaks in a goddam side show, I suppose?”

“Yes,” said the doctor calmly. “That would be one way of putting it, but —“

“I swear to Christ I’ll kill the next bugger who looks at me as though I’m a monkey.”

“Here,” the doctor said, trying to appease him. “Here are some pills. They’ll calm you down —“

Peter Marlowe knocked the pills out of the doctor’s hand and shouted, “I don’t want any goddam pills. I just want to be left alone!” And he fled the hut.

The American hut.was deserted.

Peter Marlowe lay on the King’s bed and wept.

“’By, Peter,” Larkin said.

“’By, Colonel.”

“’By, Mac.”

“Good luck, laddie.”

“Keep in touch.”

Larkin shook their hands, and then he walked up to Changi Gate, where trucks were waiting to take the last of the Aussies to ships. To home.

“When are you off, Peter?” Mac asked after Larkin had disappeared.

“Tomorrow. What about you?”

“I’m leaving now, but I’m going to stay in Singapore. No point in getting a boat until I know which way.”

“Still no news?”

“No. They could be anywhere in the Indies. But if she and Angus were dead, I think I’d know. Inside.” Mac lifted his rucksack and unconsciously checked that the secret can of sardines was still safe. “I heard a rumor there are some women in one of the camps in Singapore who were on the Shropshire. Perhaps one of them will know something or give me a clue. If I can find them.” He looked old and lined but very strong. He put out his hand. “Salamat.”

“Salamat.”

“Puki mahlu!”

“Senderis,” said Peter Marlowe, conscious of his tears but not ashamed of them. Nor was Mac of his.

“You can always write me care of the Bank of Singapore, laddie.”

“I will. Good luck, Mac.”

“Salamat!”

Peter Marlowe stood in the street that bisected the camp and watched Mac walk the hill. At the top of the hill, Mac stopped and turned and waved once. Peter Marlowe waved back, and then Mac was lost in the crowd.

And now, Peter Marlowe was quite alone.

Last dawn in Changi. A last man died. Some of the officers of Hut Sixteen had already left. The sickest ones.

Peter Marlowe lay under his mosquito net on his bunk in half-sleep. Around him men were waking, getting up, going to relieve themselves. Barstairs was standing on his head practicing yoga, Phil Mint was already picking his nose with one hand and maiming flies with the other, the bridge game already started, Myner already doing scales on his wooden keyboard, and Thomas already cursing the lateness of breakfast.

“What do you think, Peter?” Mike asked.

Peter Marlowe opened his eyes and studied him. “Well, you look different, I’ll say that.”

Mike rubbed his shaven top lip with the back of his hand. “I feel naked.” He looked back at himself in the mirror. Then he shrugged. “Well, it’s off and that’s that.”

“Hey, grub’s up,” Spence called out.

“What is it?”

“Porridge, toast, marmalade, scrambled eggs, bacon, tea.”

Some men complained about the smallness of their portions, some complained about the bigness.

Peter Marlowe took only scrambled eggs and tea. He mixed the eggs into some rice he had saved from yesterday and ate with vast enjoyment.

He looked up as Drinkwater bustled in. “Oh, Drinkwater.” He stopped him. “Have you got a minute?”

“Why, certainly.” Drinkwater was surprised at Peter Marlowe’s sudden affability. But he kept his pale blue eyes down, for he was afraid that his consuming hatred for Peter Marlowe would spill out. Hold on, Theo, he told himself. You’ve stuck it for months. Don’t let go now. Only a few more hours, then you can forget him and all the other awful men. Lyles and Blodger had no right to tempt you. No right at all. Well, they got what they deserved.

“You remember that rabbit leg you stole?”

Drinkwater’s eyes flashed. “What — what are you talking about?”

Across the aisle, Phil stopped scratching and looked up.

“Oh, come on, Drinkwater,” Peter Marlowe said. “I don’t care any more. Why the hell should I? The war’s over and we’re out of it. But you do remember the rabbit leg, don’t you?”

Drinkwater’s eyes flashed. “What — what are you talking? No,” he said gruffly, “no I don’t.” But he was hard put not to say, delicious, delicious!

“It wasn’t rabbit, you know.”

“Oh? Sorry, Marlowe — it wasn’t me. And I don’t know, to this day, who took it, whatever it was!”

“I’ll tell you what it was,” Peter Marlowe said, glorying in the moment. “It was rat meat. Rat meat.”

Drinkwater laughed. “You’re very amusing,” he said sarcastically.

“Oh but it was rat! Oh yes it was. I caught a rat. It was big and hairy and there were scabs all over it. And I think it had plague.”

Drinkwater’s chin trembled, his jowls shaking.

Phil winked at Peter Marlowe and nodded cheerfully, “That’s right, Reverend. It was all scabby. I saw Peter skin the leg…”

Then Drinkwater vomited all over his nice clean uniform and rushed out and vomited some more. Peter Marlowe began laughing and soon the entire hut was roaring.

“Oh God,” Phil said weakly. “I’ve got to hand it to you, Peter. What a brilliant idea. To pretend it was a rat. Oh my God! That pays the bugger back!”

“But it really was rat,” Peter Marlowe said. “I planted it so he’d steal it.”

“Oh yes, of course,” Phil said sarcastically, automatically using his fly-swat. “Don’t try to cap such a wonderful story! Wonderful!”

Peter Marlowe knew they would not believe him. So he didn’t say any more. No one would believe him unless he showed the Farm to them. . . . My God! The Farm! And his stomach turned over.

He put on his new uniform. On the epaulets was his rank-flight lieutenant. On his left breast, bis wings. He looked around at his possessions — bed, mosquito net, mattress, blanket, sarong, rag shirt, a ragged pair of shorts, two pairs of clogs, knife, spoon and three aluminum plates. He scooped everything off his bed and carried it outside and set fire to it.

“Hey you… oh excuse me, sir,” the sergeant said. “Fires’re dangerous.” The sergeant was an outsider, but Peter Marlowe wasn’t afraid of outsiders. Not now.

“Beat it,” snapped Peter Marlowe.

“But sir…”

“I said beat it, goddammit!”

“Yes sir.” The sergeant saluted and Peter Marlowe felt very pleased that he wasn’t afraid of outsiders any more. He returned the salute and then wished he hadn’t, for he didn’t have his cap on. So he tried to cover his mistake with “Oh, where the hell’s my cap?” and walked back into the hut feeling the fear of outsiders returning. But he forced it away and swore to himself, by the Lord my God, I’ll never be afraid again. Never.

He found his cap and the concealed can of sardines. He put the can in his pocket and walked down the stairs of the hut and up the road beside the wire. The camp was almost deserted now. The last of the English troops were going today, on the same convoy as his. Going away. Long after all the Aussies had left, and an age after the Yanks. But that was only to be expected. We’re slow but very sure.

He stopped near the American hut. The canvas flap of the overhang waved miserably on a wind of the past. Then Peter Marlowe went inside the hut for the last time.

The hut was not empty. Grey was there, polished and uniformed.

“Come to look a last time at the place of your triumphs?” he asked venomously.

“That’s one way of putting it.” Peter Marlowe rolled a cigarette and replaced the savings in his tobacco box. “And now the war’s over. Now we’re equal, you and me.”

“That’s right.” Grey’s face was stretched, his eyes snake-like. “I hate your guts.”

“Remember Dino?”

“What about him?”

“He was your informer, wasn’t he?”

“I suppose there’s no harm in admitting it now.”

“The King knew all about Dino.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“Dino was giving you information on orders. On the King’s orders!” Peter Marlowe laughed.

“You’re a bloody liar!”

“Why should I lie?” Peter Marlowe’s laugh died abruptly. “The time for lying’s over. Finished. But Dino was doing it on orders. Remember how you were always just too late? Always.”

Oh my God, thought Grey. Yes, yes, I can see that now.

Peter Marlowe drew on his cigarette. “The King figured that if you didn’t get real information, you’d really try to get an informer. So he gave you one.”

Suddenly Grey felt very tired. Very tired. A lot of things were hard to understand. Many things, strange things. Then he saw Peter Marlowe and the taunting smile and all his pent-up misery exploded. He slammed across the hut and kicked the King’s bed over and scattered his possessions, then whipped on Peter Marlowe. “Very clever! But I saw the King cut down to size, and I’ll see it happen to you. And your stinking class!”

“Oh?”

“You can bet your bloody life! I’ll fix you somehow, if I have to spend the rest of my life doing it. I’ll beat you at the end. Your luck’s going to run out.”

“Luck’s got nothing to do with it.”

Grey pointed a ringer in Peter Marlowe’s face. “You were born lucky. You’ve ended Changi lucky. Why, you’ve even escaped with what precious little soul you ever had!”

“What’re you talking about?” Peter Marlowe shoved the finger away.

“Corruption. Moral corruption. You were saved just in time. A few more months around the King’s evil and you’d have been changed forever. You were beginning to be a great liar and a cheat — like him.”

“He wasn’t evil and he cheated no one. All he did was adapt to circumstances.”

“The world’d be a sorry place if everyone hid behind that excuse. There’s such a thing as morality.”

Peter Marlowe threw his cigarette on the floor and ground it to dust. “Don’t tell me you’d rather be dead with your goddam virtues than alive and know you’ve had to compromise a little.”

“A little?” Grey laughed harshly. “You sold out everything. Honor — integrity — pride — all for a handout from the worst bastard in this stinkhole!”

“When you think about it, the King’s sense of honor was pretty high. But you’re right in one thing. He did change me. He showed me that a man’s a man, irrespective of background. Against everything I’ve been taught. So I was wrong to sneer at you for something you had no hand in, and I’m sorry for that. But I don’t apologize for despising you for the man you are.”

“At least I didn’t sell my soul!” Grey’s uniform was streaked with sweat and he stared malevolently at Peter Marlowe. But inside he was choked with self-hatred. What about Smedly-Taylor? he asked himself. That’s right, I sold out too. I did. But at least I know what I did was wrong. I know it. And I know why I did it. I was ashamed of my birth, and I wanted to belong to the gentry. To your bloody class, Marlowe. In the service. But now I couldn’t care less. “You buggers’ve got the world by the shorts,” he said aloud, “but not for long, by God, not any more. We’re going to get even, people like me. We didn’t fight the war to be spat on. We’re going to get even.”

“Jolly good luck!”

Grey tried to control his breathing. He unclenched his fists with an effort and wiped the sweat out of his eyes. “But you, you’re not worth fighting. You’re dead!”

“The point is we’re both very much alive.”

Grey turned away and walked to the doorway. On the top step he turned back. “Actually, I should thank you and the King for one thing,” he said viciously. “My hatred of you two kept me alive.” Then he strode away and never looked back.

Peter Marlowe gazed out at the camp, then back at the hut and the scattered possessions of the King. He picked up the plate that had served the eggs and noticed that it was already covered with dust. Absently he stood the table upright and put the plate on it, lost in thought. Thoughts of Grey and the King and Samson and Sean and Max and Tex and where was Mac’s wife and was N’ai just a dream and the General and the outsiders and home and Changi.

I wonder, I wonder, he thought helplessly. Is it wrong to adapt? Wrong to survive? What would I have done had I been Grey? What would Grey have done if he’d been me? What is good and what is evil?

And Peter Marlowe knew, tormented, that the only man who could, perhaps, tell him had died in freezing seas on the Murmansk run.