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It had all taken a fraction of a secondEven the...
Posted on 7/1/2010 at 7:52 PM
It had all taken a fraction of a secondEven the backward blast of wind had passed him, roiled his hair and closed his eyes before he was conscious of itThe General was recovering his sense-impressions by degrees, clutching at them in the wake of the explosion like a man chasing his hat in a galeHe took a breath, smiled, heard himself say in an even voice, "I wouldn't like to be at the other end He noticed the cannoneers, the Captain, after he spokeHe had said it because a part of his mind always considered the objective situation; consciously he had been unaware of the men about him as he talkedHe strode away slowly, drawing the Captain with him
"Artillery is a bit more impressive at night," he murmuredHis poise was addled slightlyHe would not have said this to a stranger if he were still not absorbed in the impact of firing the howitzer
"I know what you mean, sirI always get a kick out of firing the battery at night
Then it was all rightCummings realized he chanel j12 white watch had almost made a slip"Your battery seems in good order, Captain
But he was not listeningThe General was paying attention to the silent rhapsodic swoop of the shell, was following it in his mind's eyeHow long did it take? Perhaps half a minute? His ears were alerted for the sound of its explosion
"I never quite get over it, sirIt must be bloody hell at the other end
Cummings was listening to the dull muted tones of the explosion, miles away in the jungleHe saw in his mind the bright destroying bouquet of flame, the screams and the rent iron singing through the airI wonder if it killed anyone? he thoughtHe realized the tenseness with which he had been waiting for the shell to land by the weak absorptive relief that washed through his bodyAll his senses felt gratified, exhaustedThe war, or rather, war, was odd, he told himself a little inanelyBut he knew what it meantIt was all covered with tedium and routine, regulations and procedure, and yet there was a naked pink vuitton bag quivering heart to it which involved you deeply when you were thrust into itAll the deep dark urges of man, the sacrifices on the hilltop, and the churning lusts of the night and sleep, weren't all of them contained in the shattering screaming burst of a shell, the man-made thunder and light? He did not think these things coherently, but traces of them, their emotional equivalents, pictures and sensations, moved him into a state of acute sensitivityHe felt cleaned in an acid bath, and all of him, even his fingertips, was prepared to grasp the knowledge behind all thisHe dwelt pleasurably in many-webbed layers of complexityThe troops out in the jungle were disposed from the patterns in his mind, and yet at this moment he was living on many levels at once; in firing the gun he was a part of himselfAll the roaring complex of odors and sounds and sights, multiplied and re-multiplied by all the guns of the division, was contained in a few cells of his head, the faintest crease balenciaga blue of his brainAll of it, all the violence, the dark co-ordination had sprung from his mindIn the night, at that moment, he felt such power that it was beyond joy; he was calm and sober
Later, returning to his headquarters in the jeep, he was in an excellent moodHis body was still keyed, still the least bit feverish, but the excitement it caused him went beyond restlessness, and charged his brain to intense activityYet it was random casual thought; he amused himself the way a child would sport in a toy store if given complete freedom to touch everything and cast it away when tiredCummings was not unconscious of the processAny new physical action always aroused him, infused his perceptions
When he reached his tent, he looked cursorily at the few dispatches that had collected in his absenceHe had no taste at this moment for going through them, for performing the detailed labors of digesting and committing to memory the important portionsFor an instant he stepped white prada bag outside his tent and breathed the night air againThe bivouac had become silent, almost ghostly, and the moonlight illumined the mists in the clearing, covered the foliage with a tenuous silver nettingIn his mood everything familiar seemed unrealHow alien the earth is at night, he sighed
In the tent, he hesitated a moment, and then unlocked a small green filing cabinet on the side of his desk, removing from it a heavy notebook bound in black like a law ledgerIt was a journal in which he had jotted down his private ideas for many yearsThere had been a time when he had told them to Margaret, but after the first year or two of their marriage, when they had turned away from each other, the importance of the journal had increased, and in the years that had followed he had filled many ledgers, sealed them, and stored them away
Yet when he wrote in it, the journal always had a touch of the clandestine as though he were a boy locking himself with guilty anticipation in the omega replica watches bathroo
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