Leon Uris (52 page)

This time the stairs got him and he was out of it as he hit the pillow.

He felt over the bed. Amanda was not there. Zach bolted up, then saw her sitting across the room. The basin was filled. He dunked his face, cleared his head, and saw her dressed and sitting there.

Zach scratched his belly and cracked his back and allowed himself a huge “phew.”

. . . then noticed Amanda had not budged in her seat, her back erect and she was dressed to go.

He knew the next five minutes were going to be the worst of his life.

“I know you are leaving me,” she said. “We are not going off together.”

Zach stood up, shocked.

“What the hell is coming off!” he demanded.

“You tell me,” she said.

“How can you know something like that when I don’t know that myself?”

“Oh, I’ve known since I rushed past you when you were guarding the secretary of the navy’s office, over four years ago.”

“You’re thinking like a crazy woman. Paddy O’Hara no longer has his hold on me,” Zach cried. “We can live the life we’re both hungering for.”

“All I really begged of God was for us to have our time in Nebo.” The words stuck, trying to find their way out of Amanda’s wavering voice. From the first night at Nebo, the game had
changed forever. Not only had she conquered this grand fellow but more. Now she’d carve him into the perfect cavalier, walking one step to her rear, and after one month or two or three, he would begin to lose his steel and would submit, always submit.

Amanda had bedeviled herself into believing that their union was equal, but it never had been so since the first day in the secretary of the navy’s office. Amanda’s will was insatiable. It was like her to be so. No kind tears for the Marine Corps now. She’d won the field.

“I’m going alone,” she said tersely.

The pallor of the moment lingered. Zach tried to come to her but was unable to move.

“Come on, Zach,” she cried. “Lift me up in your arms and carry me away.”

“I can’t,” he cried. “What the hell’s the matter with me?” He was still unable to move; her command flooded him. “You are dismissing me,” he said.

Her answer: “Or are you dismissing me?”

“Why,” he cried, “why, why, why?”

“You’ve drunk your fill from the most potent cup of all. You are smitten by the aphrodisiac of a patriot. That is how men like you come about.”

Their time was done.

“What will you do?”

“I’ll cry for a year and a day or however long it takes, and then I’ll wake up one morning and it will be different, and I’ll get along and see what there is. I’ll make out fine. I’ll live a worthy life.”

He dared gaze upon her and he gave her the softest of smiles, and she smiled as well.

“Good-bye, then, Captain O’Hara,” she said, and went on her way.

Leon Uris
is the author of over a dozen phenomenal international bestsellers, including
A God in Ruins
,
Redemption
,
Trinity
,
Exodus
,
QBVII
, and
Topaz
, among others. He used his own experiences in the Marine Corps as the basis for his first novel,
Battle Cry
, published in 1953. Fifty years later, this esteemed author revisits the Marine Corps and its history with
O’Hara’s Choice
, his final novel, bringing him full circle. Leon Uris died in June 2003, three months before the publication of this book.

Battle Cry
The Angry Hills
Exodus
Mila 18
Armageddon
Topaz
QB VII
Trinity
The Haj
Mitla Pass
Redemption
A God in Ruins
O'Hara's Choice

Jacket illustration © Paul Stinson

O’HARA’S CHOICE. Copyright © 2003 by Leon Uris. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

ePub edition September 2003 ISBN 9780061751073

Publisher’s Note: Leon Uris passed away in June 2003, shortly after reviewing his copyedited manuscript. Throughout the remainder of the editorial process, we have attempted to maintain the integrity of Mr. Uris’s original words and intentions.

FIRST EDITION

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