Free Reflections in a Golden Eye by Carson Mccullers Page B

was someone near
     him. Painfully he turned himself over on his back.
    At first the Captain did not believe what he saw. Two yards from him, leaning against an
     oak tree, the young soldier whose face the Captain hated looked down at him. He was
     completely naked. His slim body glistened in the late sun. He stared at the Captain with
     vague, impersonal eyes as though looking at some insect he had never seen before. The
     Captain was too paralyzed by surprise to move. He tried to speak, but only a dry rattle
     came from his throat. As he watched him, the soldier turned his gaze to the horse.
     Firebird was still soaked with sweat and there were welts on his rump. In one afternoon
     the horse seemed to have changed from a thoroughbred to a plug fit for the plow.
    The Captain lay between the soldier and the horse. The naked man did not bother to walk
     around his outstretched body. He left his place by the tree and lightly stepped over the
     officer. The Captain had a close swift view of the young soldier's bare foot; it was slim
     and delicately built, with a high instep marked by blue veins. The soldier untied the
     horse and put his hand to his muzzle in a caressing gesture. Then, without a glance at the
     Captain, he led the horse off into the dense woods.
    It had happened so quickly that the Captain had not found a chance to sit up or to utter
     a word. At first he could feel only astonishment. He dwelt on the pure cut lines of the
     young man's body. He called out something inarticulate and received no reply. A rage came
     in him. He felt a rush of hatred for the soldier that was as exorbitant as the joy he had
     experienced on runaway Firebird. All the humiliations, the envies, and the fears of his
     life found vent in this great anger. The Captain stumbled to his feet and started blindly
     through the darkening woods.
    He did not know where he was, or how far he had come from the post His mind swarmed with
     a dozen cunning schemes by which he could make the soldier suffer. In his heart the
     Captain knew that this hatred, passionate as love, would be with him all the remaining
     days of his life.
    After walking for a long time, when it was almost night, he found himself on a path
     familiar to him.
    The Pendertons' party began at seven, and half an hour later the front rooms were
     crowded. Leonora, stately in a gown of cream colored velvet, received her guests alone.
     When replying to inquiries about the absence of the host, she said that, devil take him,
     she didn't know he might have run away from home. Everyone laughed and repeated this
     they pictured the Captain trudging off with a stick over his shoulder and his notebooks
     wrapped in a red bandanna. He had planned to drive into town after his ride and perhaps he
     was having car trouble.
    The long table in the dining room was more than lavishly laid and replenished. The air
     was so thick with the odors of ham, spareribs, and whiskey that it seemed one might almost
     eat it with a spoon. From the sitting room came the sound of the accordion, augmented from
     time to time by bits of spurious part singing. The sideboard was perhaps the gayest spot.
     Anacleto, with an imposed on expression, ladled stingy half cups of punch and took his
     time about it After he spotted Lieutenant Weincheck, standing alone near the front door,
     he was engaged for fifteen minutes in fishing out every cherry and piece of pineapple,
     then he left a dozen officers waiting in order to present this choice cup to the old
     Lieutenant There was so much lively conversation that it was impossible to follow any one
     line of thought There was talk of the new army appropriation by the Government and gossip
     about a recent suicide. Below the general hubbub, and with cautious glances to ascertain
     the whereabouts of Major Langdon, a joke sneaked its way through the party a story to
     the effect that the little Filipino thoughtfully scented Alison