The Crossing(120)

You want anything else you let me know, she said.

All right.

You want a sweetroll?

Yes mam.

You need some more coffee?

Yes mam.

He looked up at her. She was about forty years old and she had black hair and bad teeth. She grinned at him. I like to see a man eat, she said.

Well, he said. You’re lookin at one I believe ought to meet your requirements.

When he was done eating he sat drinking coffee and studying the form his mother was supposed to sign. He sat studying it and thinking about it and after a while he asked the waitress if she could bring him a fountainpen.

She brought it and handed it to him. Dont carry it off, she said. It aint mine.

I wont.

She left to go back to the counter and he bent over the form and wrote on the line Louisa May Parham. His mother’s name was Carolyn.

When he walked out the other three boys were coming up the sidewalk toward the cafe. They were talking together like they’d all been friends forever. When they saw him they stopped talking and he spoke to them and asked them how they were doing and they said they were doing all right and entered the cafe.

The doctor’s name was Moir and his office was out on West Pine. By the time he got there there were half a dozen people waiting, mostly young men and boys sitting holding their recruiting forms. He gave his name to the nurse at the desk and sat in a chair and waited along with the others.

When the nurse finally called his name he was asleep and he jerked awake and looked around and he didnt know where he was.

Parham, she said again.

He stood up. That’s me, he said.

The nurse handed him a form and he stood in the hallway while she held a card over his eye and told him to read the chart on the wall. He read it to the bottom letter and she tested the other eye.

You got good eyes, she said.

Yes mam, he said. I always did.

Well I guess so, she said. You dont normally start out with bad ones and they get better.

When he went into the doctor’s office the doctor had him sit in a chair and he looked in his eyes with a flashlight and he put a cold instrument in his ear and looked in there. He told him to unbutton his shirt.

You came here horseback, he said.

Yessir.

Where did you come from.

Mexico.

I see. Have you got any history of disease in your family?

No sir. They’re all dead.

I see, the doctor said.

He put the cool cone of the stethoscope against the boy’s chest and listened. He thumped his chest with the tips of his fingers. He put the stethoscope to his chest again and listened with his eyes closed. He sat up and took the tubes from his ears and leaned back in his chair. You’ve got a heartmurmur, he said.

What does that mean?

It means you wont be joining the army.

He worked for a stable out on the highway‑ for ten days and slept in a stall until he had money for clothes and for the busfare to El Paso and he left the horse with the owner of the lot and set out east in a new duckingcloth workcoat and a new blue shirt with pearl buttons.

It was a cold and blustery day in El Paso. He found the recruiting office and the clerk filled out the same forms over again and he stood in line with a number of men and they undressed and put their clothes in a basket and were given a brass chit with a number on it and then they stood in line naked holding their papers.

When he reached the examining station he handed the doctor his medical form and the doctor looked in his mouth and into his ears. Then he put the stethoscope to his chest. He told him to turn around and he put the stethoscope to his back and listened. Then he listened to his chest again. Then he picked up a stamp from the desk and stamped Billy’s form and signed it and picked up the form and handed it to him.

I cant pass you, he said.

What’s wrong with me.

You’ve got an irregularity in your heartbeat.

There aint nothin wrong with my heart.

Yes there is.

Will I die?

Sometime. It’s probably not all that serious. But it will keep you out of the army.

You could pass me if you wanted to.

I could. But I wont. They’d find it somewhere down the line anyway. Sooner or later.

It was not yet noon when he walked out and down San Antonio Street. He went down South El Paso Street to the Splendid Cafe and ate the plate lunch and walked back to the bus station and he was in Deming again before dark.

In the morning when he walked up the barn bay Mr Chandler was sorting through tack in the saddleroom. He looked up. Well, he said. Did you get in the army?

No sir, I didnt. They turned me down.

Well I’m sorry to hear it.

Yessir. I am too.

What do you aim to do?

I’m goin to try em in Albuquerque.

Son they got a awful lot of recruitin offices set up all over the country. A man could make a career out of it.

I know it. I’m goin to try it one more time.