Mare's War by Tanita S. Davis Page A

got nowhere to be. Ever since she got her uniform together, that Gloria thinks she’scute, trying to pass inspection wearing her red nail polish and flipped-up hair.
    Gloria leans down to where I am working on my footlocker and points into my box. “What’s this?” she say, reaching for a little bit of paper sticking out under my cosmetic box.
    “Nothing,” I say quick, and poke it back in.
    “Oh, nothing is nothing.” Gloria tries to make her voice like she’s the commanding officer. “What you got in there, Boylen? Love letters? That wouldn’t be GI, now would it?”
    “Cut that out,” Peaches says. “Gloria, can’t you find your own footlocker?”
    Gloria smiles, but I know she’s feeling mean. “It’s probably letters from her mama, trying to tell her to get her behind home,” she says. I can’t help it; I flinch. Everybody knows I haven’t got but one letter all the time we’ve been here.
    “Gloria Madden. Don’t be like that,” Phillipa says, looking ashamed of her friend.
    Gloria stretches out her eyes all big, like she’s sorry. “Oh, Marey Lee, I
forgot,”
she says, her voice all honey sweet. “Now, how come you don’t get any letters like everybody else? Didn’t you tell anybody where you were stationed? Or don’t your people know how to write?”
    I hear Peaches suck in a big, loud breath. My neck heats up, and I slam my footlocker hard.
    “Calm down, Marey Lee,” Peaches says, but I don’t need that. I know better than to get into it with Miss High andMighty. She’s out looking for trouble, and Lieutenant Hundley say there’d better not be none around here unless we want to be get “gigged,” what they call being on punishment detail, peeling spuds and scrubbing latrines with toothbrushes the rest of the month.
    “My people knows how to read and write just fine, Miss Gloria Madden! My sister, Feen, was top of her class last year. Don’t you talk mess about my family, Gloria Madden. There ain’t no call for that.”
    “I was just asking, Marey Lee,” Gloria says. She raises up her hands and backs up all sweet, like butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth. “I didn’t mean any harm. I swear.”
    I throw open my footlocker again. Lieutenant Hundley won’t be happy if that letter from Miss Ida pokes out from my things. I have got to get ready, and I don’t have time to pay any mind to Miss Gloria Madden.
    But like a low-down snake, Gloria flicks her forked tongue out to say one last poison word.
    “Don’t worry, Marey. You’ll hear from your folks soon. Unless you ran away and didn’t tell your mama where you went … You know I hear some girls do that? They aren’t even twenty and go off without anybody’s say-so.”
    I keep moving my hands in my footlocker, making my uniforms and equipment all nice and straight, but I can feel my face freeze. I can hardly hear over the roaring in my ears. Peaches say something, and then Gloria says, “Goodbye, girls,” as sweet as birdsong.
    “Marey Lee. Are you all right? Marey?” Peaches looks worried.
    I ain’t gonna let a little piece of nothing like Gloria Madden rattle me. She does not know a thing about me, nothing. I force my hands not to jitter while my heart slams hard.
    “I’m fine,” I say, and my voice sounds loud.
    I’m scared deep down, in my gut, but inspection is coming. I dust off my knees, straighten my hat, and get on with it.

    The battalion captain is a big white man with white gloves. He rubs the walls. He looks under the beds. He looks under the mattresses. He hollers that our shoes aren’t in a straight line, but I swear he kicks one. For once, Annie’s got her hat on straight. Nobody finds no fault with me, except my necktie ain’t—isn’t—straight. Shoot. Well, you can’t win ’em all. When it is over, we draw a deep, deep breath and fall out. It is time for the Saturday parade.
    We march out to the field and stand at attention while the brass talks. We stand till our feet are numb, but I