Run Silent, Run Deep. Edward L. Beach
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neither the Japanese nor the Germans attacked us, and after a few days, with the imposition of additional security patrols on the base and in the river, and more men on watch at a time in the submarines, life was permitted to resume much of its former habits. Except that the frenetic pace of our underway operations had virtually doubled.
So far as Jim and Laura were concerned, it had not been good-by after all. We received no orders to leave New London, continued doing exactly what we had been doing, with less time off than ever. And next week Laura resumed her weekly visits to New London.
By Christmas time, when the matter of Jim’s qualification for command came up, I should not have been surprised at learning that as a contingent plan, he and Laura would very shortly thereafter be married. Before the beginning of the war a more leisurely and considered approach, with announcements, parties, and the like, would naturally have been in order. But now all such plans had to go into the discard. Many couples were marrying with only a few weeks in prospect during which they could be together. I should have realized what the prospect of an assured year in New London would mean to two people in love.
Jim had figured it out pretty accurately. He had correctly guessed the reason behind my sudden decision to recommend him, and his analysis of its effect was equally correct. There was not much the Bureau of Naval Personnel could do except let him stay in New London, while he waited until it was willing to give him a fleet boat of his own. Lucky was the couple, during these tortured times, who had this indefinitely long prospect to look forward to!
But I couldn’t prevent a twinge of jealousy, or envy, when Jim gave me the news of his and Laura’s plans. And then when I had to destroy it all, there came the strangest feeling of nakedness, as though for an instant he had looked right into my innermost soul—had seen there things I hadn’t even admitted to myself, or suspected until that moment—which he hated me for.
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