It would be years before Garp would fully comprehend this, too. But Stewie Percy said to Midge, "I spent enough time in the Pacific to recognize Jap eyes when I see them. I told you it was a Jap." The it Stewart Percy referred to was whoever he had decided was Garp's father. That was a frequent, speculative game around the Steering community: guessing who Garp's father was. And Stewart Percy, from his experience in his part of the Pacific, had decided that Garp's father was Japanese.
"At that moment," Garp wrote, "I thought 'Jap' was a word that meant my ear was all gone."
"No sense in calling his mother," Stewie said to Midge. "Just take him over to the infirmary. She's a nurse, isn't she? She'll know what to do."
Jenny knew, all right. "Why not bring the dog over here?" she asked Midge, while she gingerly washed around what was left of Garp's little ear.
"Bonkers?" Midge asked.
"Bring him here," Jenny said, "and I'll give him a shot."
"An injection?" Midge asked. She laughed. "Do you mean there's actually a shot to make him so he won't bite any more people?"
"No," Jenny said. "I mean you could save your money--instead of taking him to a vet. I mean there's a shot to make him dead. That kind of an injection. Then he won't bite any more people."
"Thus," Garp wrote, "was the Percy War begun. For my mother, I think, it was a class war, which she later said all wars were. For me, I just knew to watch out for Bonkers. And for the rest of the Percys."
Stewart Percy sent Jenny Fields a memo on the stationery of the Secretary of the Steering School: "I cannot believe you actually want us to have Bonkers put to sleep," Stewart wrote.
"You bet your fat ass I do," Jenny said to him, on the phone. "Or at least tie him up, forever."
"There's no point in having a dog if the dog can't run free," Stewart said.
"Then kill him," Jenny said.
"Bonkers has had all his shots, thank you just the same," Stewart said. "He's a gentle dog, really. Only if he's provoked."
"Obviously," Garp wrote, "Fat Stew felt that Bonkers had been provoked by my Japness."
* * *
--
"What's 'good taste' mean?" little Garp asked Jenny. At the infirmary, Dr. Pell sewed up his ear; Jenny reminded the doctor that Garp had recently had a tetanus shot.
"Good taste?" Jenny asked. The odd-looking amputation of the ear forced Garp always to wear his hair long, a style he often complained about.
"Fat Stew said that Bonkers has got 'good taste,'" Garp said.
"To bite you?" Jenny asked.
"I guess so," Garp said. "What's it mean?"
Jenny knew, all right. But she said, "It means that Bonkers must have known you were the best-tasting kid in the whole pile of kids."
"Am I?" Garp asked.
"Sure," Jenny said.
"How did Bonkers know?" Garp asked.
"I don't know," Jenny said.
"What's 'Jap' mean?" Garp asked.
"Did Fat Stew say that to you?" Jenny asked him.
"No," Garp said. "I think he said it about my ear."