TDTLBU Chapter Twenty

 "This is not a joke," a radio announcer in New York assured frightened Americans. "This is a real war."

The devastation at Pearl Harbor was unthinkable. And it hit close to home. On the evening of the Sunday they first got the news, Melissa had come running up to the Stewart's front door in tears. Ronnie had opened the door and she fell into his arms, sobbing out her news. Fred Ryan, her cousin drafted into the Navy only months before, had been killed when Japanese bombs sank his ship. He was only one of thousands. 

America struck back like a wounded viper, rearing its head to face its enemy with glaring, rage-filled eyes. Until now, America had stayed in the shadows… a silent giant, unwilling to plunge into the bloody nightmare of war. But now the war had been brought to her shores. American men had died. And the giant was silent no longer.

✯✯✯

“Look at this, willya, look at this!” Ronnie was practically shouting. He slammed the newspaper down on the kitchen table, jabbing his finger at the headlines. Donna dropped the dishes in the sink and moved to look over his shoulder. Jim pushed his almanac aside and leaned forward. On the front page of the paper, above a photo of the USS Arizona sinking sideways into the sea, screamed the headline,

U.S. AT WAR, JAPAN’S PLANES ATTACK AT PEARL HARBOR

“War…” Donna’s eyes filled with tears. She had never seen her son so angry… her quiet, serious, level-headed son. Reaching out, she laid her hand on his shoulder. He was tense with rage. “What… what are you going to do, Ronnie?” she was afraid to ask the question. Afraid to hear his answer. 

“I’ll tell you what I’m gonna do,” he snapped, snatching up the paper and crumpling it in his fist. “I’m… I’m…” he stopped midsentence, his face turning swiftly from red to white. His eyes were very gray. He closed his eyes, took a trembling breath. Dropping the paper on the table again, he clenched his hands at his sides. When he spoke again, his voice was calm and steady.

“I gotta get my chores done.” He crossed the kitchen in a few long strides and opened the door. But before he stepped out, he turned back. “Mom…” he sighed again. “Mom… I’m… I’m sorry…”

He slipped out the door before she could answer. Emma had entered the kitchen while he was going out, unnoticed by her parents. Donna sank into a chair next to Jim and they sat in silence, her left hand gripped tightly in his right. Without a word, Emma moved towards the table, picked up the crumpled newspaper, and smoothed it out on the table. She glanced over the headline briefly and shook her head. 

“Emma.” her mother’s voice sounded strangled.

“Yeah, mom?”

“I’m glad… you’re a girl.”

Emma said nothing, just waited, her eyebrows raised in confusion.

“They can’t… take you away from me…” Donna rose from the table, choking back a sob as she threw her arms around her daughter. 

“Mom…” The words hovered on her lips, but she found she couldn’t say them. 

They’ll need nurses, Mom. Don’t you see? There’ll be hundreds… thousands of wounded men over there. Don’t you see, Mom? This is my calling. This is what I’ve been working for all my life… a chance to do some good in the world. This is what I was born to do. They’ll need me, Mom. This is something I can do.”

“He’ll be okay, Mom.” 

✯✯✯

“What should I do, Lord?” Ronnie muttered aloud as he scooped feed into the barn trough. He often prayed out loud as he worked, finding he could think better that way. “Congress has declared war. They’ll be needing men.” 

Lifting a bale from the haystack in the back of the barn, he snapped the twine that held it together and stuffed hay into the feeding nets that hung in the stalls. Lately, everything had been going exactly as he had hoped it would. He’d been working for years to develop good breeding stock and it was just starting to pay off. He was saving money, planning to build a little house in the back pasture that hadn’t been used for years. It would serve his purpose well until he inherited the farm… and he hoped that was a long way off, for he planned to work side by side with his dad for many years yet. As soon as he had saved up enough, he would ask Lissie to marry him and by this time next year… maybe they’d be living in that little house that was still as yet just a dream. It was a good, solid future… one a man could build a life on. But the war threatened to change all of that.

“They killed a lot of good men at Pearl Harbor,” he added as he pulled out the milking stool and set to work on the cows. “Thousands of ‘em. Someone’s got to stop ‘em before it’s too late.” He sighed, falling silent as he concentrated on his work. 

“It’s not that I’m afraid, Lord…” he looked up towards the rafters of the barn as if searching for a sign from heaven. “It’s just… things have been so good here. I’ve been blessed, Lord, and I hate for that to change. Leaving home… leaving Lissie… I can hardly stand the thought of it. But Lord…” He stood, lifting the full milk pail and smacking the cow on her rump to move her out of the way. 

“If you need me to go, Lord…” he glanced around him at the familiar walls of the barn, taking it all in. The words came to him in a rush… as vividly as if he was hearing an audible voice.

“I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?”

He answered out loud.

“Here am I; send me.”