"He did do that. A better standard of living than I had before."

"Me too. They were saying afterward that he was the one who bombed our squadron that time."

"He did that too. That's another one of the contradictions of capitalism. It's funny, Singer. The last time I was in the hospital, the chaplain popped in out of nowhere to see me."

"What chaplain?"

"Our chaplain. Chaplain Tappman."

"Sure. I know that chaplain. Very quiet, right? Almost went to pieces after those two planes collided over La Spezia, with Dobbs in one plane and Huple in the other and Nately and all the rest of them killed. Remember those names?"

"I remember them all. Remember Orr? He was in my tent."

"I remember Orr. They say he made it to Sweden in a raft after he ditched after Avignon, right before we went home."

"I went down to Kentucky once and saw him there," said Yossarian. "He was a handyman in a supermarket, and we didn't have much to say to each other anymore."

"I was in the plane when we ditched after the first mission to Avignon. He took care of everything. Remember that time? I was down in the raft with that top turret gunner Sergeant Knight."

"I remember Bill Knight. He told me all about it."

"That was the time none of our Mae Wests would inflate because Milo had taken out the carbon dioxide cylinders to make ice cream sodas for all you guys at the officers' club. He left a note instead. That was some Milo then." Singer chuckled.

"You guys had sodas too every Sunday, didn't you?"

"Yes, we did. And then he took the morphine from the first-aid kit on that second mission to Avignon, you said. Was that really true?"

"He did that too. He left a note there also."

"Was he dealing in drugs then?"

"I had no way to know. But he sure was dealing in eggs, fresh eggs. Remember?"

"I remember those eggs. I still can't believe eggs can taste so good. I eat them often."

"I'm going to start," Yossarian resolved. "You just convinced me, Sammy Singer. It makes no sense to worry about cholesterol now, does it?"

"You remember Snowden then, Howard Snowden? On that mission to Avignon?"

"Sam, could I ever forget? I would have used up all the morphine in the first-aid kit when I saw him in such pain. That fucking Milo. I cursed him a lot. Now I work with him."

"Did I really black out that much?"

"It looked that way to me."

"That seems funny now. You were covered with so much blood. And then all that other stuff. He just kept moaning. He was cold, wasn't he?"

"Yes, he said he was cold. And dying. I was covered with everything, Sammy, and then with my own vomit too."

"And then you took off your clothes and wouldn't put them on again for a while."

"I was sick of uniforms."

"I saw you sitting in a tree at the funeral, naked."

"I had sneakers."

"I saw Milo climb up to you too, with his chocolate-covered cotton. We all kind of always looked up to you then, Yossarian. I still do, you know."

Tags: Joseph Heller Catch-22 Classics
Source: readsnovelonline.net