Chapter 39 Chapter Thirty-eight

Pamela confides in Rhoda about her love for Victor in Hollywood.Henry's love, because at that time, in her opinion, in order to take care of this couple who suffered from the loss of a child, she cut off her relationship with a knife, which was the best thing she could do.Now, she is facing the small typewriter that has been with her for many years, and wants to give it to Victor.Henry sent a letter, but felt he had nowhere to start. Dearest Victor, what is she doing in Cairo, do I hear you cry?I'll tell you everything, as long as this hot fumigation or a violent colic doesn't kill me first.Pamela, in a waistless calico blouse, was sweating profusely, leaning over the typewriter, staring blankly at the few joking lines.The heat and humidity seemed to dissolve every bone in her body.She had just ghostwritten an article for her father and was exhausted.She stared at the yellow letter paper for a while, then tore it out of the typewriter, rolled it up on a different sheet, and resumed her letter, trying not to hear the wailing of the peddlers along the street, nor to smell it. The strong stench coming through the open French windows.She was a little hesitant at first, but gradually picked up the speed and started typing.Dearest Victor, We saw your son Byron in Gibraltar about a month ago.I've been meaning to write to tell you.In fact he asked me to write to you.The censorship on his boat was strict, and he didn't want to leave news about his wife and children in the hands of a mail-opener who never showed up.

Perhaps he has sent you a message by now, but I would be sorry for him if he relied entirely on me.Since our arrival in Egypt we have been in a state of constant turmoil.The climate here is crippling, and poor my father, who was fat and sluggish--he was never the best for hot weather--I had to share more of the load.In fact, he has had me co-author with him on two recent articles. I have to assume you haven't received Byron's letter.He is temporarily on duty in the Royal Navy, aboard the Maidstone, a submarine supply ship (what you call a supply ship), with a small fleet of which there are several of you Old submarines supplied by Lend-Lease.He was there with some Americans to help repair the submarine. The crew on the Maidstone were really business-savvy, he said, so he couldn't help being thrown into a criminally light-hearted role that included a few socializings with Spain beyond the Rock of Gibraltar Sneak attack.The provision of meals and berths on board is of course the best.Since the American presence in Gibraltar was always understaffed, he also had the opportunity to act as a courier and was fortunate enough to make several air trips to the unoccupied south of France.He was dark and strong, but he was longing to go back to "the war," he meant fighting in the Pacific, and he did intend to do so as soon as Natalie's situation became clearer.

Now for that.Byron's news came from Leslie.Slote, he is now the political secretary at your legation in Switzerland.The recent disappearance of Natalie and her uncle from a seaside resort called Follonica has annoyed the Italian authorities, who have shown them special magnanimity.Through contacts with Jewish organizations in Geneva, Leslie had received word that they were aided by the Resistance and might be on their way to Lisbon or Marseilles.The news put Byron off the idea of ​​going to Berne, since the birds had already flown out of Italy, and there was nothing he could do in Berne.Maybe it's all over now.Anyway, that's what Byron got a month ago.

Speaking of it, this is also a matter that I find very puzzling. One of your sons will marry this girl. I knew her a long time ago, before I knew there was such a person as you in the world.Byron looked much older than the last time I saw him in Hawaii.The shaving of the beard is one reason, as his mouth and chin are quite commanding.The loss of his brother had hardened the young man's character.You might as well say that he now has more steel and less mercury. I also have to tell you that we saw your family in Hollywood.Your wife said she was going to live with you in Hawaii.I hope she has arrived, and I presume she must have related to you a conversation I had with her.Maybe you will feel angry.I rather think she should know that there was a danger of losing you.She asked me bluntly if there was anything between you and me, and I told her the truth.Whether she deserves your devotion to her is a question that needs no further consideration, but you should keep in mind that when war breaks out, it must seem to her that all is lost.

That's what I thought when I was in Singapore.The yellow race yelled and rushed over, what else do you care about.Until your return from Midway was the most desperate time in this war and in my life; I knew what had happened when I saw your eyes, and I felt that I was of no use to you, and the love between us That's the end of the matter.That would be even worse. Here in Cairo, people still feel that Rommel is so close to the ruler, but you are traveling through the Cape of Good Hope and the escort fleet is going straight through the sea of ​​​​Malta, supporting our Eighth Army. Make the people here excited.Tawky knows it straight from Churchill—Winnie scurried past here twice in the month so the rumours—all this is nothing compared to the equipment you poured on the Russians like Niagara Falls A drop in a bucketful of water.When and how your countrymen produced all these things, I do not know.Your astonishing country strikes me as inconceivable: a wonderland of carefree, radiant faces, full of vigor, bustling with people, who either sink in the abyss of melancholy, or play and play like exultant children, Or toil like ghosts in hell while your papers endlessly criticize the government and declare your system to be incurable.I don't understand what America is any better than Trollope and Dickens did. I only know that it is showing miracles with each passing day.

London is not doing well.Damaged by the Blitz, repairs have been slow.The weather is hot and humid, rations are dwindling, and people are struggling to survive among the ruins.Those in the know were terrified by the rampage of German submarines.I am sure it is no secret to you; Victor, they have sunk over three million tons of ships since you entered the war.They sank nearly a million tons in June alone.If this continues, you will not be able to attack Europe, and we will not be able to hold on for long.The Atlantic Ocean is becoming unnavigable.It was a grotesque catastrophe, smothered to death without a trace, and all you could see was that the British were getting thinner and thinner, the cars of all kinds were dwindling, their faces were getting yellower and yellower, and they were everywhere. There was a pungent rotten smell, and a sense of defeat was growing in Whitehall.Rumors of a peace have emerged.After the fall of Tobruk, Churchill survived a vote of no confidence, but it was a red flag for him.Macaulay-esque rhetoric couldn't keep him going much longer.

Although Tobruk's change of hands caused London to suffer heavy losses, it is nothing compared to Egypt here.We didn't have the worst time, but I heard it was almost like when France fell.Rommel used the large amount of luggage he captured in Tobruk, fueled up, re-equipped weapons and ammunition, and drove straight along the coast.When he stopped temporarily in Alamein, it was only two hours away from Alexandria by car. The government agencies, military headquarters, and wealthy tycoons here all fled eastward to Palestine and Syria. All the trains and vehicles were used.The roads are filled with poor people who go out on foot.Curfews are strictly enforced in cities everywhere, hotels and hotels have been emptied, streets and alleys have disappeared, office buildings are deserted, gangsters take advantage of the fire to rob, patrols shoot and kill people at every turn, it is a scene of chaos.It is difficult for such a situation to pass through a strict censorship system and to be reported in the newspapers.

Things were less panicky now.Some people who left in a hurry have come back one after another with trepidation, and some more cautious people are still staying in other places.Rommel is clearly regrouping, fueling up, and making a comeback.There was no hope of holding the Germans at Moscow, as the Russians had done, and thereby recovering for a long time.It doesn't snow in Egypt. Now tell me something about myself, and then I'll stop and not bore you.Duncan.Walker was to take over logistics operations against Rommel's air force in Cairo.Unless I give him a stealthy signal telling him to keep his mouth shut, I doubt he'll want me to marry him.I have met him many times in London.Lady Caroline died of cancer a few months ago.I don't know if you've seen her.She was a great lady, the earl's daughter, very elegant, but somewhat haughty and irascible.Duncan was arguably in favor of the marriage, since he was "just" a viscount, a title his father, who ran a car factory, had paid for.

Their marriage has never been happy.To tell the truth, Duncan once sincerely begged me for mercy, as we civilized Europeans say, to arrange it ourselves.Naturally, I'm not very moral, but I've always had my code of conduct.In all my romantic affairs (except Singapore) I was always in love, or so I thought.I was passionate about you, you hard old fellow, and it would be against my conscience if I accepted Duncan.The girls around the Biggin Hill plotting table were moaning and scowling for Duncan like a chorus of girls in a Gilbert and Sullivan opera, but the truth is I didn't feel that way about him, and still do .

But, after all, I also have to think about my life.I can't stay with Taoji forever, because I know his days are numbered.Duncan is a good guy, that shouldn't be a problem.At this moment, I don't have the heart to make a promise with my body regardless of everything, although it will elevate my status and make it extraordinarily dazzling.Our family background is decent enough, my mother's family who died early in life was indeed a landed wangmen, I am just a fairly educated common people, my wealth - very poor - is only mine. Just a crooked face.All of this is not bad, except Taoji still needs me.We're going to stay here until Rommel kills us, and what happens next is beyond what I can foresee right now.Confidence is rising here, partly from the heroism of Tommy Atkins and partly from the heart-warming row after row of olive-green American trucks and tanks on the docks in Port Alexandria.

Taoji was snoring loudly in the next room, he fell asleep after taking a pack of sleeping pills.Churchill's second whirlwind stay made everyone hoarse and exhausted.I have to sleep too.Tomorrow morning we have to catch the train to Alexandria, and from there to field headquarters in Montgomery to hear him himself give the press a briefing on the war.At the beginning of his appointment, the public opinion here has mixed praises and praises for him.Among the whispered discussions in the bar of the Shepherd Hotel, there are about half the good and the bad; the tactical genius loves to show off himself eccentrically. I really hoped to make another trip to the desert.The difficulty I have now is my gender, because the soldiers take off their clothes and wash their clothes in the sea water, or just to keep cool, and they also urinate and defecate casually.When Taoji went there for the first time, I was excluded, and there was a lot of trouble in other countries without my company, so I will go this time.It is estimated that wherever I go, the seaside area will sound the signal in advance: "Women, don't be naked." I know that I am an annoying burden, but the ecstatic beauty over there-the sparkling blue sea , the endless white sand beach, blinding like snow, and the blue-gray salt flats, saltwater lakes, yellow sand and red sand in the desert, dotted with clumps of bushes-oh, That sunset view and cloudless, starry nights!The majestic Australian army, stripped naked, wearing only a pair of underpants, has the same bronze complexion as the Indians!Honestly the most damning thing about this war is its beauty.Remember London in flames?Is there also the tank battle on the snow field that we once glimpsed from a distance outside Moscow, the raging flames of the burning tanks, reflecting the purple-red snow field into purple and orange? What would I have done in these years if it had not been for such a war?Either on some inexplicable errand in a dead office building in London, or doing domestic chores in a suburban house, or, with luck, in a city flat.I will never meet you—this encounter, however many its alternations of light and dark, I regard as the most precious page of my life. I entrust this letter to a U.P. reporter on his way back to New York.He'll mail it to your Fleet Correspondence address, so you'll get it quickly.Victor, if this is not an unreasonable request, I would like to hear your best wishes for the future of Duncan and me.As far as I am concerned, silence is the best way to end our beautiful but guillotined relationship, but I have to write to you because of Byron's business. In this letter, I feel that I have lived a happy life and poured out my heart.Even if you write me a few words, you may feel much more comfortable in your heart.I know we know each other very well, even though we had to break up before we got to the depths of the relationship. My love, Pamela that U.P. correspondent did bring the letter to New York, where it entered the intricate system in the Navy that distributes letters to the larger ships up the ocean.The gray mail package for the Northampton followed the cruiser throughout the Central and South Pacific; but the letter never caught up with the ship until it sank off Guadalcanal. .