“Oui, mon général?”
“You never want to be the absolute leader in the game of life, the man out front, the one everyone sees and looks to,” Leyers said. “That’s where my poor Willy made his mistake. He got out front, right there in the light. You see, Vorarbeiter, in the game of life, it is always preferable to be a man of the shadows, and even the darkness, if necessary. In this way, you run things, but you are never, ever seen. You are like a . . . phantom of the opera. You are like . . .”
The scotch bottle fell to the floor. The general cursed softly. A moment later, with his arms wrapped around his valise, using it like a pillow, he began to snorfle, choke, snore, and fart.
When they reached Dolly’s apartment building, it was almost midnight. Pino left the comatose general in the Daimler, and left the staff car running for fear it might never start again. He ran through the lobby, past the crone’s empty stool, and up the stairs to Dolly’s. Anna did not answer until the third series of knocks.
Dressed for bed in her nightgown and robe, Anna looked weary and lovely.
“I need Dolly,” he said.
“What’s happened?” Dolly said, coming down the hall in a black-and-gold dressing gown.
“The general,” Pino said. “He’s had too—”
“Too much to drink?” General Leyers said, coming in through the open door, valise in hand. “Nonsense, Vorarbeiter. I’m having another drink, and so are you. Will you join us, Dolly?”
Pino stared at Leyers as if he were Lazarus arisen. As the general passed Pino, his breath was foul with alcohol, and his eyes looked like they were bleeding, but he wasn’t slurring his words or weaving on his feet at all.
“What are we celebrating, Hans?” Dolly said, brightening. Anna had said she was always up for a party.
“The blue moon,” the general said, setting down the valise. He kissed her lustily before throwing his arm around her shoulder and looking back at Pino. “And we are celebrating the fact that Vorarbeiter Lella saved my life, and that deserves a drink!”
He spun Dolly around the corner into the living area.
Anna looked at Pino with a puzzled smile on her face. “Did you?”
“I saved myself,” Pino whispered. “He kind of came along for the ride.”
“Vorarbeiter!” Leyers yelled from the other room. “A drink! And fair Anna, too!”
When they entered the living room, the general was beaming and holding out generous tumblers of whiskey. Dolly was already gulping hers. Pino didn’t know how Leyers was still standing, but the general took a draw of the liquor and launched into a blow-by-blow description of what he called “the Once-in-a-Blue-Moon Duel between the Sneaky Pilot in the Spitfire and the Daring Vorarbeiter in the Daimler.”
Dolly and Anna were on the edge of their seats as Leyers recounted the Spitfire’s final return and Pino’s locking up the brakes and shouting at him to run. And the machine guns and the Daimler’s near destruction.
General Leyers raised his glass at the end of his story and said, “To Vorarbeiter Lella, who I owe a favor or two.”
Dolly and Anna clapped. Pino’s face felt flushed from the attention, but he smiled and raised his glass in return. “Thank you, General.”
A loud rapping came at the door to the apartment. Anna set her glass down and went to the hallway. Pino went with her.
When the maid opened the door, the old crone, the building concierge, was there in her ragged nightclothes, holding a candle lantern.
“Your neighbors can’t sleep for all the hell-raising,” she scolded, blinking behind her glasses. “There’s a lorry or something backfiring out on the street, and you’re carrying on drunk in the middle of the night!”
“I forgot,” Pino said. “I’ll go right down and turn the car off.”
Dolly and Leyers appeared at the head of the hallway.
“What is happening?” Dolly asked.
Anna explained, and Dolly said, “We’re all going to bed now, Signora Plastino. Sorry to have kept you up.”
The crone made a harrumphing noise and, still indignant, turned away, holding the candle lantern high, dragging the filthy hem of her nightgown behind her, and groping her way down the staircase. Pino followed her at a safe distance.
After he turned off the staff car’s engine, and after a very drunk General Leyers and Dolly had retired to their bedroom, he was at last alone again with Anna in the kitchen.
She warmed up a sausage, broccoli, and garlic dish and poured him a glass of wine and one for herself. Then she sat opposite him, chin in her hand, and asked him questions about the fighter plane and what it felt like to be shot at, to have someone trying to kill him.
“It felt scary,” he said after thinking about it for a moment between bites of the delicious meal. “But I was more scared afterward, when I’d had a chance to think about it. Everything was happening so fast, you know?”
“No, and I don’t want to know, not really. I don’t like guns.”
“Why?”
“They kill people, and I’m a people.”
“Lots of things kill people. Are you frightened of mountain climbing?”
“Yes,” she said. “Aren’t you?”
“No,” Pino said, drinking his wine. “I love mountain climbing, and skiing.”
“And dueling with airplanes?”
“When it’s called for,” he said, and grinned. “This is fantastic, by the way. You really are a great cook.”
“Old family recipe, and thank you,” Anna said, rolling her shoulders forward and studying his face. “You’re full of surprises, you know.”
“Am I?” Pino asked, pushing the plate back.
“I think people underestimate you.”
“Good.”
“I’m serious. I underestimated you.”
“Did you?”
“Yes. I’m proud of you, that’s all.”
That made him flush. “Thanks.”
Anna continued to gaze at him for several long moments, and he felt himself falling into her eyes, as if they created a world unto themselves.
“I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone quite like you,” she said at last.
“I should hope not. I mean, that’s a good thing, yes?”
Anna sat back. “Good and frightening all at the same time, if I’m being honest.”
“I scare you?” he said, frowning.
“Well, yes. In a way.”
“What way?”
She looked off, shrugged. “You make me wish I were different, better. Younger, anyway.”
“I like you just the way you are.”
Anna gazed at him doubtfully. Pino reached out to her. Anna looked at his hand a long moment, and then smiled and took it in hers.
“You’re special,” Pino said. “For a fantasy, I mean.”
Anna’s smile widened, and she got up and came over to sit in his lap.
“Show me I’m special for real,” she said, and kissed him.