TDTLBU Chapter Eighteen

In spite of the different viewpoints they took, be it excitement for the adventure of soldiering or fear of the terrors of war, the citizens of the US seemed to breathe a mutual sigh of relief when the government officially declared neutrality. Let Europe fight its own battles. Why spill good American blood? Everyone went about their business as usual… only listening to the news with bated breaths… always something in the back of their minds alert and ready for the pronouncement of doom. Would it come? And if so… when?

There was a slight scare when Canada declared war on Germany and Canadian men marched off to defend its allies against the threat of Germany’s bloodlust. Was it that it just hit close to home because Canada was just across the border? Or was it a hidden sense of shame that the neighboring country had the courage to take up arms while the United States waited in the shadows?

Rumors of labor and death camps began swirling like dead leaves in a swift breeze. No one knew what to accept as fact or what to dismiss as hearsay. Capturing thousands of men, women, and children, young and old, and working them to death behind barbed war? Marking hated races with symbols of shame… beating them in the streets, shooting them down in cold blood… could such things be possible? Unable to accept the mere thought of such atrocities, many simply ignored the rumors. For rumors they must be.

1939 fizzled out in an uncertain pool of troubling news mixed in with the commonalities of mundane, normal life. Josh got his first job, working part-time after school at Steiner’s Garage and Lissie also took a job, at Dellinger’s Dry Goods. Ronnie was starting to invest in breeding stock and Katie became the main soloist in the church choir. Emma recklessly spent too much of her careful savings on three successive tickets for a new movie based on the book Gone With the Wind. She was in rapture and ecstasy at seeing a book on the screen, although she complained it didn’t follow everything in the book.

1940 began and with it, the Blitzkrieg. In April, Denmark fell to Germany and in June, Norway. The very next day, Italy joined Germany and together, they invaded France. France fell and the ravenous giant that was the Third Reich moved on to devour England. For months, America shuddered at the news of the destruction in Britain and the bombs that constantly fell, day and night. London was in flames. The death count was rising. All over Europe, the land was turning red with blood.

"The British army retreated," came the dire news. Half a million of them backed up on a beach in a tourist town called Dunkirk. Thousands of helpless men shot down by the Luftwaffe while they lined up to flee the beaches, not only in troop transport ships or battleships, but in hundreds of boats… yachts, houseboats, cruise boats, fireboats… every boat in England, manned by civilians. 

"Damn it, why don't we get going?" Josh had snapped in impatience. He was not among those who were desperate to avoid war at all costs. Neither was Ronnie. He said nothing when he was told of Dunkirk. But his blue eyes changed to cold, glinting, gray steel. He was angry.

Josh and Emma graduated high school. Emma threw herself full-time into her nursing career and Josh became more and more involved in mechanics, working every day that he could spare at Steiner’s Garage, while still doing all he could on the farm. Jerry asked Katie to go steady that year and she said yes without hesitation, although Emma threw the eleventh rule at her, teasingly.

“You and I are the sole survivors,” she told Josh. He grinned and said nothing, unusual for him.

It was the fall of 1940 that, for the first time, the war overseas made real waves in Jefferson. President Roosevelt passed the Selective Training and Service Act. Lissie rejoiced that Ronnie wasn’t old enough to register for the draft, but her relief was cut short when her cousin was sent off to the Navy. He wasn’t the only one to leave Jefferson during what became known as the “peacetime” draft. Several young men left. Lissie told the Cavalry that her cousin was stationed at the Pearl Harbor naval base in Hawaii and he thought it all great fun, but her voice trembled when she said it. 

It was accepted as unspoken fact now that one day Ronnie and Lissie would be tying the knot. They knew it, and everyone in Jefferson knew it, although he hadn’t asked her yet. And rumors were being whispered over Jerry and Katie who still were too young to make plans of that sort. If anyone said anything to Emma about marriage, she only laughed and said she was too busy to think of such things. She was the only girl from her old class who wasn’t attached in some way. Some shook their heads over her and said she’d be an old maid while others said she’d change her mind fast enough, once she got over her passion for nursing. It wouldn’t last, they said. Emma didn’t try to argue with them. She didn’t want to say out loud that she was preparing herself for the war that would inevitably be coming. When it came, she would be ready. 

“If I can’t fight as a soldier,” she promised herself, “I’ll fight as a nurse.”

As 1940 turned into 1941, people became uneasy. The war in Europe that was to be so short and over so soon was still raging, harder than ever, with no end in sight. It seemed that now half of Europe was over in the desert in North Africa, fighting the Germans there. A strange turn of events, that seemed. And in June, Germany invaded Russia. 

“It’s getting close now,” Ronnie told Josh with a troubled frown. “Maybe they’ll need us over there yet.” But he didn’t talk about it much. He was afraid to voice what he felt inside… what he knew must inevitably come to pass, sooner or later.

✯✯✯

Mickey was frustrated. All day long, people had been ignoring him. They seemed to have forgotten he was alive. He had tried talking, he had tried shouting, he had even tried screaming. And then they had noticed him long enough to say "Go outside and play, Mickey" and then gone back to not noticing him again. Shucks. All he had wanted was to tell someone about the big game in Warren next week. It was a football game and Mickey adored football with all his heart and soul. If he could just get someone to take him there…

But no. They wouldn't listen. They wouldn't even look at him. They were all too preoccupied with something or other. Something they had heard on the radio, probably. They were always getting worked up about stuff on the radio nowadays.

Mickey had paused on his way out the door to shove a few molasses cookies into his back pocket. Mom had a bad habit of leaving those lying around to cool and Mickey took full advantage of that fact. He pulled one out now and began to chew on it, reflectively. Picking up a stone, he threw it in the direction of a squirrel sitting on the top fence rail and watched with a sort of detached interest as it scampered away, turning from time to time to chatter angrily at him. 

He began slowly in the direction of the barn, kicking up clods of dust with every footstep. It would fly up in little clouds and drift away on the breeze. He decided it was about time to be looking for some excitement. Maybe he could get Sam to go fishing with him. But the sound of a gunshot echoed through the air, knocking all thoughts of fish far away from Mickey's mind. He followed the sounds of subsequent shots around the corner of the barn to the back. Ronnie stood against the back wall of the barn with his old hunting rifle, aimed at a piece of plywood he had propped up in the field.

"Watcha doing?" Mickey pulled a chunk of cookie out of his pocket and frowned at it. He hated it when cookies crumbled in his pocket. Unfortunately, a solution had never presented itself.

"Shooting." Ronnie flipped open the stock of the rifle to reload it. 

"Why aren'cha wearin' your glasses?" Mickey gloried in the privilege of talking with his mouth full, whenever Mom wasn't around.

"Wanted to see if I could do it without," Ronnie walked over to the target, Mickey shadowing him faithfully. Ronnie inspected the target and sighed.

"Didja get it?" Mickey pulled a squashed cookie from his pocket and offered it to his brother.

"Yeah, kind of. Thanks, but I already had some cookies."

"Okay." Mickey shrugged and stuffed it whole into his mouth, temporarily rendering himself speechless. Ronnie put his hands on his hips, cocking his head sideways as he looked at the target.

"I think it's good enough," he spoke quietly.

"Good enough for what?"

"Aw, don't worry about it, kid." Ronnie grinned down at him, ruffling his hair. "You wanna go fishing?"