Three

"Where were you last night?" Samuel yawned as they had breakfast together in the dining room of the hotel where they were quartered. It was the Hotel Premier on the Saint Holies Road, and troops were being billeted in similar quarters all over Circle. Samuel himself had had a particularly pleasant evening, which ended with too much wine, but not too many women.

 "I had dinner with Pearl," James said casually as he finished his coffee, trying to make it sound like any ordinary date, which they both knew it wasn't.

 "Who's that? Someone you picked up after you left me?"

 "Nope." James looked him right in the eye, with the famous grin full of mischief. "You remember her . . . we met her yesterday on the Spinners Road. . . red hair, green eyes . . . nice legs . . . great walk ..."

 "Are you serious?" He looked stunned, and then he laughed, it was obvious that James was teasing. "For a minute, I believed you. Seriously, where were you?"

 "I told you. With Pearl." And this time he looked as though he meant it.

 "Chamberlain, do you mean it? That girl? Where in hell did you find her?"

 "Outside her house. I went back, just in case, and she was coming home. She tutors a kid with tuberculosis."

 "How the hell do you know? As I recall, she only spoke Ewe to us, deep Ewe at that." Samuel looked stunned.

 "She speaks a little English. Not a lot, but enough. Other than the fact she told me she was ninety years old, we got along great." He smiled a proprietary smile at Samuel. It was clear that Pearl was already his woman, and looking at him, Samuel felt a pang of regret for not having persisted. There was something about James, and people like him. Invariably in life, they won all the prizes.

 "How old is she?" He was curious now. Like James, he wanted to know everything about her.

 "Nineteen."

 "And her father didn't come after you with a butcher knife?"

 James shook his head quietly. "Her father and brother were killed by the Americans. Her mother died of tuberculosis. She's alone."

 Samuel looked impressed. They really had had a conversation. "Are you seeing her again?"

 James nodded, and then smiled knowingly at his friend. "Yes, I am, and she doesn't know it yet, Goldfield, but after the war, we're going to get married."

Samuel's jaw almost dropped as he stared at his friend, but this time he didn't even bother to tell him he was crazy, because the crazy thing was that he suddenly sensed that James meant it.

 James and Pearl met again for dinner that night, and this time, she told him what it was like living in Circle with the Americans. In a subtler way, it was worse than what he'd been through, and she had been defenseless. She'd had to live by her wits, avoiding being arrested or tortured or merely raped by the Americans who felt they owned Circle and all the women in it. And after her father had died, she had had to support her mother. They had had hardly any food, and she had given almost everything to her mother. They had lost their apartment eventually, and her mother had died in her arms in a rented room, the room she still lived in now, filled with its ugly memories and sad ghosts, but she had nowhere else to go now. And after what she'd seen during the war, there was no one left that she trusted. Her brother's betrayal had been the final blow to any feeling she had once had for Old Ghana Empire or her fellow Ewe men.

 "I'd like you to come to America one day," he said as though testing the waters, as he watched her eat. He kept ordering food, and was gratified that she ate it.

 She shrugged in answer to his invitation, as though it were an impossible dream, not even worth thinking about. "Very far . . ." She gestured and then explained in Ewe, "Afima godzi la edzidzi nuto." In every possible way was what she was thinking.

 "Not so far."

 "And you? 'Burkina again after the war?"

 "Maybe." If it even mattered anymore. It was hard to imagine going back to school again. Maybe he would try singing after all. He and Samuel had talked about it a lot, at night, near the Neem trees. It made sense there. But it was hard to know what would make sense once they got home. Things would be very different. "I want to be a song artist." He tried it out on her, to see what she would say, and she looked intrigued by it.

 "A song artist?" And then she nodded, as though it made sense to her, and he wanted to kiss her. He smiled at her and she wasn't quite sure why, and then he ordered a bowl of fruit for her, which was the first she'd had in months, or even dreamed of. His generosity embarrassed her, yet in another way it seemed very natural, as though they were old friends. It was difficult to imagine that this was only their second dinner together.

Their friendship seemed to flourish as they took walks along the eatery, and stopped in little halls and cafes to talk and eat and finally hold hands. James had hardly seen Samuel in days, and when they met over breakfast, James didn't like what he had to say. Ilsa crossed the Muse two days after their victory parade down the New Orlean, and the week after was at Denn on the Morton on the way to Doha. It was unlikely that they would be allowed to languish in Circle for much longer. And on September third both Qataz and Airwaves were liberated by the British.

 "They're going to have our asses back out there any day, James, mark my words," Samuel said gloomily over coffee, and James knew he was right, but he was desperate to stay with Pearl now. And on the day Qataz had fallen to the British, he had gone to her room, and he had gently pulled away the old blue dress that had been her mother's and made love to her for the first time. And to his amazement, and delight, he had discovered that she was a virgin. She had lain in his arms afterward with tears of happiness washing her cheeks as he kissed her. And James had fallen more desperately in love with her than ever. 

"I love you so much, James." Her voice was husky and gentle as she carefully pronounced the words.

 "So do I, Pearl... so do I. .. ." He couldn't bear the thought of leaving her now, and he knew she hated the thought too. She seemed so much more dependent on him now, more trusting and open. But two weeks later, he got his orders. They were moving on to the German front, there was a war to fight after all, and at least the end was in sight now. Everyone was certain that with the rest of Europe liberated, Germany would fall quickly . . . maybe even by Christmas, he promised her late one night, as he sculpted her exquisite body with hungry fingers. She had flesh of a satin he had never touched before, and hair that fell past her shoulders and over her breasts like benign fire as he kissed her.

 "I love you, Pearl . . . oh, God, how I love you." He had never known anyone like her. Surely not in Koforidua, or anywhere since then. "Will you marry me when the war is over?" Her eyes were full of tears when he asked her, and she didn't answer. He forced her to look at him, and the tears spilled slowly down her cheeks as though she knew something he didn't. "What's the matter, sweetheart?"

She could hardly force herself to say the words, and it was even harder for her in English. "Many things change in war, James. . . ." He loved the way she said his name, he loved the way she breathed and spoke and smelled. He loved everything about her with a passion that seemed to sweep him right into the heavens. He had never before felt any of the emotions she brought him. "You go to Burkina again . . . after. . . and . . ." she shrugged helplessly, "you will forget all about Circle." What she really meant was that he would forget her, and he stared at her in amazement.

 "Do you really think I could forget this? Do you really think this is some kind of soldier's sport? Dammit, I love you!" For the first time, she saw him angry, and he made love to her this time with a vengeance. "I love you. Do you understand that? This is what's important! And when the war is over, I'm taking you home with me. Will you come?"

 She nodded slowly, still unable to believe that he would really want her when the war was over ... if he even lived through it. She could not bear the thought of that. She had lost everyone in the war, and perhaps now she would lose him too. It was enough to make her fearful of loving him, and yet, like him, she was unable to stop it. It was a passion greater than both of them.

 James felt as though his soul was being torn from hers. On the day he left Circle she had come to say good-bye, and she and James were both speechless with tears when he finally left her. Samuel had never seen him like that as the troops marched out of the beautiful city. James had to force himself not to look back again, or he might have deserted. He couldn't bear seeing her standing there as he marched away. She was sobbing the last time he saw her.

When they reached the sharp Volt, James fought with an even greater vengeance than he had before. It was as though the harder he fought the quicker he could get back to Pearl and take her home with him. But by the end of September, the dream was beginning to fade, not the dream of Pearl, but the dream of seeing the war end by Christmas. The Germans were not as weakened as everyone had thought, and they fought ruthlessly. It was only at the end of October that Arnand fell, restoring some hope to James and Samuel and their comrades. In Anyinam, they weren't as lucky, and by then winter had set in, and the bitter winds and freezing cold began to remind James and Samuel of the previous winter they had spent in the Afrikikan mountains.

 From October to December they fought in the bitter cold and snows and felt as though they were getting nowhere. Adolf had added new brand brigades, and the tanks just seemed to keep on coming forever.

 "Christ, do you believe this shit?" James looked exhausted as he and Samuel sat in the dark one night, their hands frozen, their feet numb, their faces tingling in the cold, and it was the first time Samuel had seen him so discouraged. All he talked about was spending Christmas with Pearl, and it was long since obvious to all of them now that that was not going to happen.

On December 16, the Battle of the Athens began, and for a solid week the Germans pounded the Allies. It wasn't until the skies cleared on the twenty-third that the Allies were able to begin pushing them back, and even then victory for the Allies was uncertain. It was even more disheartening to learn that on December 17, ninety prisoners of war had been killed by the Germans at Ohene, in a singularly heartless gesture that violated all of the ethics of war, if any such thing still existed.

 And on Christmas Eve, Samuel and James sat side by side in a snow-filled foxhole, trying to keep warm and sharing their rations.

 "I don't know, Goldfield ... I think the turkey was better last year. Think we should look for a new chef?" But despite the words so typical of James, his eyes were glazed with exhaustion and he wore a week's beard on his thin cheeks. He seemed to have aged ten years since he left Circle, perhaps because he had so much at stake now.

 Their sergeant had been killed crossing the Sharp Volt, and suddenly James found himself missing him . . . Pearl . . . even his sister in Koforidua, from whom he had still heard nothing.

"I wonder what she's doing in Circle." James said the words almost to himself, thinking of Pearl, and if Samuel hadn't been so bitter cold to the bone, he would have smiled at him.

 "Thinking about you probably. Lucky bastard." He still remembered how beautiful she was, and wished he had been as persistent as James in speaking to her. He spoke Ewe after all, but...that was silly. She was James's girl now.

 "Care for some chocolate cake?" James held out a piece of rock-hard biscuit he'd been carrying around in his jacket for a week and Samuel declined with a wry face. "Waiting for the souffle? I don't blame you."

 "Cut it out, you're making me hungry." But in truth, they were too cold to eat, too cold, and too tired, and too frightened.

 The Germans didn't begin to fall back until two days afterward, and the Battle of the Athens was finally over. In March, they took the bridge at Melody near Van and in April they met the Ninth Army at White House and then went on to take 243,000 German prisoners near the Beula, and it finally looked as though the end was approaching. And on April 25, at Tone, they joined forces with the Russians. Sanhed had died two weeks before, and the news had saddened everyone, but the men on the front were intent on winning and getting home. The Battle of Belvo had begun, and on May 2, Belvo was silent at last. On May 7, Germany surrendered, and Samuel and James stood looking at each other, with tears running down their faces. Was it over? Could it be? From the eastern part of India to Afrikiko to Old Ghana Empire, and now Germany, it felt as though they had crossed half the world, and they had. They had freed it.

"My God, James . . ." Samuel whispered to him as they heard the news . . . "It's over ... I don't believe it." They embraced like the brothers they had become, and James had an odd feeling of nostalgia that that moment would never come again, and then a moment later he was grateful that it wouldn't. He threw his helmet in the air, and gave a tremendous whoop, but it wasn't Samuel he was thinking of now. It was Pearl ... he was going Home! And just as he had promised her eight months before, he was going to take her with him.