“Catch-22” By Joseph - Khamkoo

“Catch-22” By Joseph Heller 246
‘They’d cut you off in your prime and slice you up for a salad.’ Major Danby’s face fell.
‘A poor one, then.’
‘They’d let you rot and use you for fertilizer to help the good ones grow.’
‘I guess I don’t want to live like a vegetable, then,’ said Major Danby with a smile of
sad resignation.
‘Danby, must I really let them send me home?’ Yossarian inquired of him seriously.
Major Danby shrugged. ‘It’s a way to save yourself.’
‘It’s a way to lose myself, Danby. You ought to know that.’
‘You could have lots of things you want.’
‘I don’t want lots of things I want,’ Yossarian replied, and then beat his fist down
against the mattress in an outburst of rage and frustration. ‘Goddammit, Danby! I’ve got
friends who were killed in this war. I can’t make a deal now. Getting stabbed by that
bitch was the best thing that ever happened to me.’
‘Would you rather go to jail?’
‘Would you let them send you home?’
‘Of course I would!’ Major Danby declared with conviction. ‘Certainly I would,’ he
added a few moments later, in a less positive manner. ‘Yes, I suppose I would let them
send me home if I were in your place,’ he decided uncomfortably, after lapsing into
troubled contemplation. Then he threw his face sideways disgustedly in a gesture of
violent distress and blurted out, ‘Oh, yes, of course I’d let them send me home! But I’m
such a terrible coward I couldn’t really be in your place.’
‘But suppose you weren’t a coward?’ Yossarian demanded, studying him closely.
‘Suppose you did have the courage to defy somebody?’
‘Then I wouldn’t let them send me home,’ Major Danby vowed emphatically with
vigorous joy and enthusiasm. ‘But I certainly wouldn’t let them court-martial me.’
‘Would you fly more missions?’
‘No, of course not. That would be total capitulation. And I might be killed.’
‘Then you’d run away?’ Major Danby started to retort with proud spirit and came to an
abrupt stop, his half-opened jaw swinging closed dumbly. He pursed his lips in a tired
pout. ‘I guess there just wouldn’t be any hope for me, then, would there?’ His forehead
and protuberant white eyeballs were soon glistening nervously again. He crossed his
limp wrists in his lap and hardly seemed to be breathing as he sat with his gaze
drooping toward the floor in acquiescent defeat. Dark, steep shadows slanted in from
the window. Yossarian watched him solemnly, and neither of the two men stirred at the
rattling noise of a speeding vehicle skidding to a stop outside and the sound of racing
footsteps pounding toward the building in haste.
‘Yes, there’s hope for you,’ Yossarian remembered with a sluggish flow of inspiration. ‘
Milo might help you. He’s bigger than Colonel Cathcart, and he owes me a few favors.’
Major Danby shook his head and answered tonelessly. ‘ Milo and Colonel Cathcart are
pals now. He made Colonel Cathcart a vice-president and promised him an important
job after the war.’
‘Then ex-P.F.C. Wintergreen will help us,’ Yossarian exclaimed. ‘He hates them both,
and this will infuriate him.’ Major Danby shook his head bleakly again. ‘ Milo and ex-
P.F.C. Wintergreen merged last week. They’re all partners now in M & M Enterprises.’
‘Then there is no hope for us, is there?’
‘No hope.’
‘No hope at all, is there?’
‘No, no hope at all,’ Major Danby conceded. He looked up after a while with a halfformed
notion. ‘Wouldn’t it be nice if they could disappear us the way they disappeared
the others and relieve us of all these crushing burdens?’ Yossarian said no. Major
Danby agreed with a melancholy nod, lowering his eyes again, and there was no hope
at all for either of them until footsteps exploded in the corridor suddenly and the
chaplain, shouting at the top of his voice, came bursting into the room with the
electrifying news about Orr, so overcome with hilarious excitement that he was almost
incoherent for a minute or two. Tears of great elation were sparkling in his eyes, and