4
Quentin
Well, that was it for hilarity. They waved the Professor back, and we never did get our break. If anything, they upped the pace. Some of our guys were panting, and even for me it was bringing back bad memories of the Marine Corps. As for the Professor, I could tell his legs were causing him trouble, though that frown on his face may not have been all about his knees.
And then the walls of Rome came in sight, and I could see the fear growing in the guys’ eyes. They were muttering, looking around for a way out of this mess.
“Don’t,” I said in warning, “don’t even give that a thought.” And then I hustled up to walk next to the Professor. “Hey, me and the guys, we was wondering if this is really such a good idea.”
“I’ll talk to ’em,” he said, and we both dropped back. “Fellows,” he said, “You got to stay calm here, now, you hear me? No one makes a break for it, you hear? Don’t make trouble, not now. You won’t outrun these troops. We all stay together. This will be fine. We’re a team. We came here together, and we’ll leave together too.” He gestured ahead of us and grinned. “Besides, we split up now, you guys’ll miss out on the glory that’s Rome.”
“Heads down, now, guys,” I added quietly. “Just you keep on walking. Don’t fret. Don’t think too much. We’ll get through this OK.”
And so, not thinking too much, we walked through those massive gates and into the Eternal City.
Truth be told, I … was expecting more. Streets paved with marble and gold, maybe. Grand men in togas and laurel wreaths striding the streets. Chariots? I’d seen those movies and listened to the Professor talk about Rome so much that the real thing was kind of a letdown at first.
Mostly, it looked dirty and poor. Grimy streets of rough stone, strewn with garbage and lined by high walls. Surly men in linen tunics and sandals. Clothes, knees, and faces filthy. The women looked unhappy and hard-bitten too. No one smiled—mostly they were watching the soldiers go by and looking worried about that.
Then the walls gave way to what looked like tenements, six stories high on either side of us, and right away the muck in the streets at our feet grew even worse. It smelled like bathrooms, and the end of the day at the market when the food is going rotten.
“Glory?” Danny Felton muttered rebelliously. Danny had a mouth on him, and we’d have to keep an eye on that. Good glove at third base, and a strong arm. But a short fuse. I shot him a look, but I knew what he meant. If Rome had any glory, it must be behind all those stout wooden doors that hid the homes away from the poor working stiffs.
The Professor was striding along in a trance, his face unreadable. I thought perhaps he hadn’t heard Danny’s sass. But then he nodded once and smiled thinly. “Just you wait a moment, oh Danny-boy. Glory’s coming.”
I started to feel my own fear squirming in my gut. I thought I was done with that, after surviving Iwo and Ie Shima and coming home in one piece. All I wanted to do after that was play some baseball, you know? I loved pitching, I loved being in control, painting some corners, moving somebody off the plate, keeping ’em guessing. And then your world turns upside down and you’re walking along like it’s just another day in ancient Rome and you realize that you never had any control at all in this world. You don’t know anything. You’re the one doing the guessing.
I wondered if maybe me and the Professor had been wrong after all. Perhaps we should’ve all made a big old break for it while we still had some countryside around us.
Then we took a right turn, and uh-oh. Here came the marble.
“What the—” said Danny, and I glared quickly at his profanity, but … oh Danny-boy.