teddy was there with frankie gordon , another sergeant from intel , and a few other guys , all of them shipping out in a week , but he dumped frankie the moment he saw her , left him in midsentence and walked down to the dance floor , lost her for a minute in the throng between them , everyone pushing to the sides to make space for a sailor and a blonde in a white dress as the sailor spun her across his back and then shot her above his head in a twirl and caught her coming back down , dipped her toward the floor as the throng broke out in applause and then teddy caught the flash of her violet dress again .