Nothing but a Smile
A Novel
Chapter 1On a warm June day in 1944, Wink Dutton, known most recently to the U.S. Army as Staff Sergeant Winton S. Dutton, special correspondent and burgeoning cartoonist and illustrator, stepped out onto the streets of Chicago in his civvies. In his pocket, he had seventeen dollars, the address of his buddy’s camera shop, a short list of publishers and advertising agencies, and the Purple Heart awarded to him for misunderstanding an ensign’s instructions regarding a flywheel aboard a sub he was supposed to be working up a piece on for the pages of Yank magazine.
The ensign had probably told him more than clearly to “Keep your finger out of this here,” but given the effects of a bottle of peach brandy the night before—a gift from a grateful quartermaster colonel for the boldly rugged rendering he’d done of him to accompany an article about fruitcake distribution and Christmas morale—the submarine tour seemed more like a cacophony of alarms, whistles, bells, and bellowing. He couldn’t think of a worse post-brandy story than, possibly, covering a rivete ...
read full excerpt from: China Witness ebook
