Action in the North Atlantic Page #3

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I've always come home to you.

I know.

For a sailor's wife,

this war is just another storm.

Oh, darling.

You rest well, darling. You rest.

- Hello, Joe. Been away?

- Yeah.

- Joe Rossi. When did you get in?

- This morning.

Good to see you.

Have a drink on the house.

No. You'd better have one with me.

Hey, what've you got

that's good for a toothache?

Oh, straight whisky. It'll kill it or cure it.

- It never helped it before.

- Well, you never did it right.

Look. Hold it in your mouth

next to your tooth,

but don't swallow. Look.

- Now I'll buy you one.

- Oh, don't swallow it, eh?

- Yeah, it feels better already.

- Excuse me, will you?

- Certainly.

- Good luck.

- Will you keep this for me, please, Charlie?

- Sure.

- New face.

- Yeah.

Troop trains coming in every hour,

all night long.

Planes, guns, ammunition. Why, you can

see them as plain as anything. Yes, sir.

They must be sending off 50,000 men

every night.

Some nights more than that.

Do you remember that blackout

we had the other night?

Supposed to be

Nazi planes hanging around.

Baloney! You know why they had it?

They was sneaking ships out,

plenty of them.

And I'll tell you something. I happen

to know the names of them ships.

Hey, Jack.

The lady's singing. Do you mind?

I don't mind.

The Western Star,

11,000 tons, sailed an hour ago.

- It was loaded with guns...

- Hey, Gus,

- do you want a drink?

- Excuse me.

Maybe the news ain't reached you yet,

there's a war on.

Sure. Ain't that what I been saying?

Those are troop ships

going out to the front.

The front's right off Sandy Hook.

It ain't more than 10 miles from here.

They're losing a lot of ships out there

just because of talk.

Talk? Nothing.

Bombs and torpedoes

is what's been doing them sinking.

All those kids, thousands of them,

nothing but bait for Nazi submarines.

I'm telling you,

there was 10 ships in that convoy!

- You saw that, huh?

- Sure, I saw it.

- With your own eyes?

- Of course, with my own eyes.

Well, what do you know?

Come here. I want to tell you something.

A little closer. I want to whisper this.

Now, Pete, maybe you won't talk so much.

Hey, Charlie, I think our friend has

had a little bit too much to drink.

- Don't you?

- Yeah.

- Did you hurt your hand?

- Never do.

Thanks.

Hey, Charlie, another drink.

You don't waste time between drinks,

do you?

I never waste time.

Go on, sing something else.

Look, if you had to sock that guy,

why didn't you take him outside?

I make my living here.

Listen. I did it as neatly and as quietly

as I could, out of consideration to you.

He should have had his teeth kicked in.

Big hero.

What would you do

if a guy was shooting off his mouth?

Turn him in, so he couldn't go

and talk someplace else.

Well, that ain't direct enough for me.

- Do you want a drink?

- No, thank you.

I don't drink with strangers.

- Well, then sing.

- A command performance?

Yeah. I like your voice.

That's not what you like about me.

Well, that's all I know about you so far.

Here.

I guess you two should know each other.

I guess.

- Joe Rossi, Miss O'Neil.

- How do you do?

You better get that tooth fixed.

Yeah, I think I will.

Hiya, boys.

I always wanted a classy tiepin

ever since I was a kid.

So I tells the guy

the tiepin is on Davey Jones' necktie.

So the buzzard gets sore and says,

"That don't cut no ice with me.

"I still want my 80 bucks."

So I says, "All right. Go sue Hitler."

- Well, what happened?

- So I paid the 80 bucks.

- Hiya, fellas.

- Hi, gang.

- Good hands you got, huh?

- Keep it quiet, will you?

- Hiya, Whitey.

- Hiya, Joe.

- I hear you lost your cat.

- Yeah.

The sea is no place for dumb animals.

When you take a cat or a dog

to sea, you gotta catch them young.

- Then they don't get seasick.

- The only place to get seasick,

- is underneath a tree.

- Okay. Drop it. Let's play poker.

One AB, two ordinary seamen, one wiper.

- Relax. They're calling for a wiper.

- That ain't me.

Four oilers, four firemen, two wipers.

- P.U. What smells bad around here?

- What do you mean, what smells bad?

That perfume is worth five bucks a whiff.

I ought to charge you for it.

You know it must be love when a dame

will sprinkle that all over you.

More than 100 men

must have shipped out today.

A hundred? That's only a spit in the ocean.

It'll take thousands.

- They're building them ships so fast.

- Four oilers.

Three ABs.

That's the fourth time in the last half hour

they've called for ABs.

- What're you waiting for?

- I ain't in no hurry.

Well, I figure on shipping out today

or tomorrow.

- You can't wait, can you?

- We was lucky once, we'll be lucky again.

Sure. Luck is riding on our tail.

What's the matter? Don't you believe in it?

I do. I once knew a fella

got bombed three times

without being scratched.

Then he drowns himself

taking a swim at Coney Island.

That's the way it goes.

In a pig's eye.

I'm gonna get me a shore job.

Why should I commit suicide at my age?

For my dough, the only safe run

is the Staten Island ferry.

You'd look good on a Staten Island ferry.

Yeah, and I'll go on looking good

when you're inside of a shark's belly.

I don't think

you'd like that Staten Island run, kid.

- Why not?

- Well, you gotta pass the Statue of Liberty

going each way, and you might

not want to look her in the face.

I don't mind.

What're you hanging around the

hiring hall for, if you ain't shipping out?

I got my rights. I'm paid up here.

I'm a paid- up member of this union

in good standing.

Listen. The only uniform we got

is a union button.

And no guy's wearing one

who ain't got what it takes.

And he ain't got it.

And I ain't playing poker with no bedbugs.

- What's biting you?

- Come on, close your yap and deal.

Deal me in.

You guys are talking

like I was a kid or something.

Like I didn't know what the score was.

Look, I've been shipping out for six years.

It's one thing for you as single guys,

not a worry in the world.

Easy come, easy go. So I ain't single.

So I'm so dumb I got a wife

and a kid coming next month.

So I'm nervous,

and my nerves is waltzing with my pulse.

- Oh, pipe down.

- What do you mean, pipe down?

Ain't it permitted? No more free speech?

Wait a minute. Come on, sit down.

Take it easy.

Don't it matter if I wanna know whether

my kid's gonna be a boy or a girl or twins?

Or like this fella says,

"Charity begins at home."

Or don't it count no more, the home?

Look, we know what's what.

Guys like us killed on ships,

the fish pecking at our eyes.

Who cares about us, anyway?

Everybody's nuts

about the Army and Navy.

What are we supposed to be,

skeletons in a closet or something?

Oh, yes,

and now they're gonna give us medals.

Medals.

Well, what good's a medal

when you're washed up on a beach

in a mess of seaweed?

Nobody even knows what you died for!

So my kid can sing,

"My Daddy Lies Over The Ocean,"

or under it?

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