Paper Doll Read Online Free

They go head to head with Gordon Snowberry, Jr., here.”
    â€œGod help them,” Snowberry said.
    â€œ We’re the best Air Corps in the world,” Piacenti said. “Aren’t we?”
    â€œYeah,” Lewis said. “Listen, you fire eaters. I’m not taking on Bean without help, next time. You and you are going to help me.” He pointed at Snowberry and Bryant.
    â€œCome on, you guys,” Bean said.
    Lewis tucked in his shirt. A cup handle hung from his belt loop. “My old football coach used to tell the defense, ‘Boys, I want you to show up in groups of two or more and arrive in a bad humor.’”
    â€œYou’re not funny, Lewis,” Bean said. “I hope you know that.”
    â€œI appreciate the thought,” Lewis said.
    After he left, Bean stood amid the crockery uncertainly, as if it had been his fault. He was an affable and quiet boy who closed his eyes when chewing his food, and Bryant liked him generally.
    â€œDon’t worry, Bean,” he said. “He’ll find someone else.” He joined the rest of the crew, though, in being more or less satisfied that the abuse was centered mostly on Bean.
    Snowberry said, “The thing about Lewis that’s hard to keep in mind is that he doesn’t have any good points.”
    â€œI know he’s just kidding,” Bean said. He seemed to doubt it.
    At mess Bryant suggested to Lewis he lay off.
    Lewis opened his mouth and displayed some masticated food and then looked away. Bryant felt that he’d disappointed him.
    â€œWhat’re you going to tell me?” Lewis asked. “‘Dislike May Split a Crew’?” It sounded harsher than Bryant would have liked, and he turned away, embarrassed. That had been pretty much what he had been planning to say.
    â€œYou think that’s stupid?” he eventually said, trying to sound assertive. Lewis was on his second tour and the rest of the crew regarded that amount of experience and the decision to reenlist with nearly equal awe.
    â€œHe’s not any good,” Lewis said. “He’s helpless as a gunner and as a radio op he couldn’t pick up the BBC.”
    â€œHe’ll be all right,” Bryant suggested.
    â€œLook,” Lewis said. “I’m flying with him. I can’t teach him his job. I can teach him he’s not all he should be.”
    â€œThat’s a nice thing to teach someone,” Bryant said.
    â€œI like to do it,” Lewis said. “My pleasure.”
    Bryant felt chilled. He saw himself as no more competent than Bean was.
    â€œRemember the kid from Idaho?” Lewis said. “Navigator? They figure now he thought he had the plane over the North Sea, by his figuring. Told the pilot to get down under the cloud, if he could, to look around. Only they were over Wales. Mountains.”
    â€œHe got mixed up,” Bryant said.
    â€œYes he did,” Lewis said. “Anatomically.”
    Bryant ate, intimidated.
    â€œLet me tell you something,” Lewis said. “We don’t have mistakes on Paper Doll. I don’t allow them. I personally don’t allow them. If Gabriel won’t make a thing about this, I will. You make a mistake, it’s your ass on a stick, and I’ll put it there. And you look like you make plenty of mistakes.” He turned his head, and Bryant after a pause stuck out his tongue. “We make a mistake, we’re dead. You make a mistake, we’re dead. Bean makes a mistake, we’re dead. Ten people. You figure it out. Keep that in mind. There are no excuses. Some Nazi flies up our ass because I’m daydreaming in the tail, I’m going to get on the interphone and go, ‘My goof’?”
    Bryant had a headache, around the eyes. It seemed his training every step of the way, from high school all the way to England, had been inept and incomplete. His number one goal in high school had been to avoid