The Gulf
“Naval Base, Charleston, South Carolina LIKE most Yankees, Gordon felt uneasy accepting personal service from blacks. And his driver was as black as they came. There was a language barrier too. He’d had to explain where he was going several times, and he had no idea what the man had said in response.
The wipers flailed and clacked at a desultory drizzle. He looked at the ebony nape for a while, then out again. He didn’t remember Charleston well—it had been ten years—but this seemed to be the pro...per direction. The airport limo paralleled the flat green flow of the Cooper down Route 80, his seabag snuggled beside him like a faithful olive-drab dog.
At last they turned off, then slowed for the main gate. Gordon’s long face nodded as the wheels thudded over concrete slabs. He held up his I.D. to the bullfrog gaze of a Marine without thinking about it. It had taken him only a few days to regain something unnatural for Americans, and thus suspect to them: the sense that a life of subordination, duty, uniformity, and impending violence is normal, sane, and perhaps even necessary, at least for a few.MoreLess
The wipers flailed and clacked at a desultory drizzle. He looked at the ebony nape for a while, then out again. He didn’t remember Charleston well—it had been ten years—but this seemed to be the pro...per direction. The airport limo paralleled the flat green flow of the Cooper down Route 80, his seabag snuggled beside him like a faithful olive-drab dog.
At last they turned off, then slowed for the main gate. Gordon’s long face nodded as the wheels thudded over concrete slabs. He held up his I.D. to the bullfrog gaze of a Marine without thinking about it. It had taken him only a few days to regain something unnatural for Americans, and thus suspect to them: the sense that a life of subordination, duty, uniformity, and impending violence is normal, sane, and perhaps even necessary, at least for a few.MoreLess
Read book The Gulf for free
Write Review:
Guest
Read Also
7 / 10
10 / 10
User Reviews: