Free Little Girl Lost 6: The Return of Johnnie Wise by Keith Lee Johnson

something. She was far too beautiful not to be with someone. Then, he noticed that she, too, was eating SOS, and she seemed to love it. He looked around the room and nearly all the soldiers were eating the SOS heartily, but most of them also had the other food the cook served, too.
     
    He looked at his plate, swallowed hard, and then looked at the soldiers and the woman again. He smelled the SOS. There was no foul odor, no stink of any kind. He figured the cook must have put some kind of seasoning in it to get rid of the smell. That was a good thing, he thought. He picked up his fork, determined to dig in like all the other brave soldiers in the room, but he couldn’t do it. It was shit on a shingle no matter how it smelled. That wasn’t something he thought he should eat no matter what. He figured he’d get back in line and get the bacon and eggs. Just as he was about to get up, he saw the woman looking at him, staring actually. She smiled and nodded slightly, offering him a friendly greeting. He returned her salutation in like manner and was about to get up again when she said, “Is there something wrong with your food, newbie?”
     
    He was thinking, newbie? He locked eyes with her. “My name is Lucas Matthews, not newbie. And I’m from New Orleans.”
     
    The woman picked up her tray and moved over to his table. “Mind if I join you, newbie?”
     
    “I don’t mind. But again . . . my name is still Lucas Matthews, not newbie. You need to get that straight before you say anything else and definitely before you sit down.”
     
    The woman put her tray on the table, sat down, smiled and said. “So you’re a tough guy, huh?”
     
    “Tough as nails. You gotta be when you collect money for the mafia. I had to kick a lotta ass and I take names back home.”
     
    “Uh-huh,” she said, smiling, figuring he was making it up to impress her. “Well, I like tough-as-nails guys. I like to soften ’em up.”
     
    Lucas locked eyes with her, full of glee, glad she had opened the door for him to use one of his fancy new words on her like he’d heard Johnnie do many times. “Is that a sexual overture?” He had more fancy words for her if the conversation lasted long enough.
     
    The woman’s smile vanished. “It most certainly was not, Mr. Matthews.”
     
    “Hmph! Then, you couldn’t soften me up if you lived to be a hundred.”
     
    “I couldn’t, huh? And was that a double entendre?”
     
    Lucas had no idea what she was asking, but he was determined not to let her know that. He decided to hide the fact that he didn’t understand by answering the first question only. “No, you couldn’t soften me up. So don’t waste your time.”
     
    “It’s my time to waste, is it not?”
     
    “You talk real fancy. Where you from, girl?”
     
    “I’ll be glad to tell you where I’m from, boy . But, first tell me what’s wrong with your food.”
     
    Lucas was about to say, “It’s shit on a shingle,” but he was in the presence of a very pretty lady who apparently had high moral standards, so instead he said, “It’s SOS. That’s why, and I don’t see how you can eat it, especially being a woman and all. But I guess everybody in the Army has to eat it, huh? It’s like a rite of passage or something, right?”
     
    “What do you mean by that?”
     
    Lucas frowned. “Don’t you know what SOS is? It doesn’t smell bad or anything, but don’t you know what you’re eatin’?”
     
    “Yes. I’m eating creamed beef over toast.”
     
    Frowning, Lucas said, “Creamed beef over toast?”
     
    “Yeah. What did you think it was?”
     
    “The white boys at the gate told me it was shit on a shingle. I heard the other soldiers ordering it, too.”
     
    The woman laughed from her belly and said, “That’s why I called you newbie. You’re green. You’re wet behind the ears. You don’t know the ropes yet.”
     
    “So they were just kidding with me then, huh?”
     
    “Yes and no. It is called SOS,