The Intruders (41 page)

Jake merely needed a checkup occasionally. His collapsed lung and the
resultant infection had been more serious than the bullet hole in his
shoulder, which healed quickly, yet by now he was well on his way to a
complete recovery. He went with Flap every morning anyway and kibitzed
as the Marine went through his exercises. Then they went to the golf
course and rode around in a golf cart.

One day they rented clubs. They merely slapped at the balls, since
neither man could swing a club with any vigor.

Slap the ball a hundred feet, using mostly arms and wrists, get in the
cart and drive over to it, slap the thing again. It was crazy, but it
felt fine.

After that they played daily. Gradually the shoulders and ribs loosened
up and they swung more freely, but neither man had ever played much golf
and neither was very good.

They were standing on the carrier pier at Pearl Harbor when Columbia
arrived in early February.

“Look who has returned!” the Real McCoy shouted when they walked into
the ready room. “The prodigal sons are back!”

“We only came aboard for a change of underwear. It’s been hell, golf
every day, hot women every night …”

They were surrounded by people shaking their hands and welcoming them
back. When the mob scene had subsided to a low roar, the Real asked
Jake, “By any chance did you bring a copy of the Wall Stmet Journal?”

“I hate to give you the bad news, roomie, but the market is down a
thousand points this morning. They’re talking about a depression.”

“Aah…… said the Real, searching Jake’s face.

“Millionaires are leaping out of windows even as we speak.”

“You’re kidding, right?”

After lunch Jake went to his stateroom with McCoy. He crawled into the
top bunk and let out a long sigh. “Feels so good.”

“Got something to show you,” the Real said. From his desk he brought
forth a series of aerial photos. “We took these before we smacked that
hijacked Cuban freighter. See that big blast area-4hat’s where the pile
was that you and Flap blew up.”

:’You guys bombed the Cuban ship?”

“Oh yes. The government of Indonesia thought those weapons might go to
some of their own indigenous revolutionaries, so they asked for our help
before we even offered it.”

“I never saw anything about it in the papers.”

“They. never told the press.”

“I’ll be darned.”

That night the entire squadron went to the 0 Club en masse. It was an
epic party, complete with a letter the next day from the C.O. of the
base to the captain of Columbia complaining about rowdy behavior and
demanding damages.

That night Jake and Flap slept in their bunks aboard ship.

Before the ship sailed, Jake spent a quiet moment with Lieutenant
Colonel Haldane. “I’d like to stay in the Navy, Skipper. I want to
withdraw my resignation.”

Haldane smiled and offered his hand. Jake shook it.

“There’s one other thing,” Jake said slowly. “I hear that some of the
guys are going to get some traps the first day out of port just in case
they need to fly during the transit to the States. I’d need too many to
get current, but I’d take it as a personal favor if you’d let me and
Flap get one.”

“I need up chits from the flight surgeon.”

“That’s the rub. I think I can get one but I don’t think they’ll give
Flap an up. The doctors at Trippler want him to do more physical
therapy. He still has some balance problems.”

“According to that report we received from CINCPAC, he took a rifle butt
in the head.”

“Yessir. One hell of a butt stroke. He had lost a lot of blood by that
time and didn’t have the reflexes to minimize the impact.”

“Well, you and Flap take your medical files to the flight surgeon and
have him look you over. Then have him call me.,%

“Aye aye, Sir.”

Somehow it worked out. Jake and Flap rode the catapult two hours after
Columbia cleared Pearl. By some miracle he didn’t question he got a
plane full of gas, so he had to burn down or dump before he could come
back into the pattern.

They yanked and banked and shouted over the ICS as they did tight turns
around the tops of cumulus clouds. Jake managed a loop and a Cuban
eight before Flap begged for mercy. He was dizzy.

Jake smoked into the break at five hundred knots. The air boss never
peeped. Better yet, Jake snagged a three-wire.

On the morning of the fly-off Jake took the Pried-Fly duty.

All the planes of the air wing were to be launched: the crews were
selected strictly on the basis of seniority. Tonight they would be home
with wives and children and sweethearts.

Jake and Flap were, of course, not flying off. They were riding the
ship into port. Flap had an appointment at the Oakland Naval Hospital
and Jake was catching a commercial flight to Oak Harbor via Seattle to
pick up his car, then he was taking a month’s leave. He thought he
would head for Virginia by way of Chicago. Maybe look Callie up, see
what she was up to. At the end of the month he would report again to
Tiny Dick Donovan at VA-128.

The fly-off went well. One by one every plane on the ship taxied to the
catapults and was shot aloft. They rendezvoused in divisions over the
ship and headed east.

When the last plane was gone and the angel helicopter had settled onto
the angle and shut down, theship secured L from flight quarters. Jake
went down to the strangely empty It flight deck and walked around one
last time. T

Not really. He would be back. If not this ship, then another. Once
again he savored the ody aroma of steam seeping up from the catapults,
felt the heat as it mixed with the salty sea breeze.

He was wandering the deck when Bosun Muldowski approached. He stunned
Jake with a salute. Jake returned it.

“Hear you’re staying in, Mr. Grafton.”

“Yep. Your example shamed me into it.”

Muldowski laughed. “It’s a good life,” he said. “Beats eight to five
anywhere. Maybe if I had found the right woman and had some kids …
But you can’t live on maybes.

Didn’t work out that way. You gotta live your life one day at a time.
That’s the way God fixed it up. Today do what you do best and let
tomorrow take care of tomorrow.”

Jake was packing in his stateroom when the ship docked at the Alameda
carrier pier. The Real McCoy had flown off with the Marines-he had
earned it. McCoy’s steel foodockers sporting new padlocks sat one atop
the other by the door. His desk was clean and nothing hung in his
closet. His bunk was stripped and the sheets turned in.

Jake had also turned in his sheets and blankets. Last night he had
packed the suitcase he was taking on leave-now he was stuffing
everything else into the parachute bags. ‘me suitcase he had purchased
in Hawaii. The padlocks for the bags lay on the desk. Net gain after
one eight-month cruise: one suitcase and some new scars.

The engagement ring he had purchased for Callie oh those many months ago
was the last item left in his desk safe. He held it in his hand and
wondered what to do with it. The suitcase might get stolen or lost by
the airline, shuffled off to Buffalo or Pago Pago or Timbuktu. For lack
of a better option, he put the ring in his shirt pocket and buttoned the
pocket.

The telephone rang. “Lieutenant Grafton, sir.”

“Mr. Grafton, this is the duty officer at the officers’ brow.

You have a visitor. “MeT

“Yes, sir. You need to come sign her in and escort her.”

“Okay, but who is this pers–?” He stopped because he was talking to a
dead phone. The duty officer had hung up.

There was obviously some mistake. He didn’t know a soul in the San
Francisco Bay area. He glanced at his new watch, guaranteed to be
waterproof to a depth of three hundred feet or his money back. He had
four hours to catch the plane from the Oakland airport. Plenty of time.

He grabbed his ball cap and headed for the ceremonial quarterdeck at the
head of the officers, brow. It was on the hangar deck, which was the
scene of hundreds of sailors coming and going on a variety of errands,
most of them frivolous. Crowds of sailors stood on the aircraft
elevators shouting to people on the pier below. Near the enlisted brow
a band was tooting merrily.

He saw her standing, looking curiously around when he was still a
hundred feet away.

Callie McKenzie!

As he walked toward her she spotted him. She beamed.

“Hello, Jake.”

He couldn’t think of anything to say.

“You’ve lost some weight,” she said.

“Been sick.”

“Oh. Well, aren’t you glad to see me?”

,,Thunderstruck. I’m speechless.”

She looked even better than he remembered. As he stared her eyes danced
with amusement and a smile grew on her face.

“I never expected to see you here,” he told her. “Not in a million
years.”

“Life is full of surprises.”

“Isn’t it, though?”

He was rooted where he stood, unable to take his eyes off her and unsure
what to do next. Why was she here?

Why hadn’t she written in five months? Then a thought stuck him: “Did
you come with someone?” he asked, and glanced around, half expecting to
see her mother, or even I some man.

“No.” She reached out and touched his arm. “All these sailors are
staring at us. Can you sign me in so we can go somewhere and talk?”

Jake flushed. “Oh, yes, sure.”

The officer of the deck and quartermaster of the watch grinned
shamelessly, enjoying Jake’s obvious discomfort Jake scribbled his name
beside Callie’s in the visitors’ log, then steered her away with two
fingers on her elbow.

“Let’s go up to the flight deck. Fme view of the bay area from up
there.”

Indeed, the view from the flight deck was spectacular. The San
Francisco skyline, Treasure Island, airliners coming and going at San
Francisco International and Oakland-the panorama would have frozen most
people who had spent the largest part of the last eight months looking
at empty ocean dead in their tracks. However Jake Grafton was too
acutely aware of the presence of Callie McKenzie to give the scene more
than a glance, “How are your folks?” he asked finally, breaking the
silence.

“They’re fine. And yours?”

“Okay. Almost called you a time or two.

“And I almost wrote you. I should have. And you should have called.”

“Why didn’t you write?”

“I didn’t want to influence your decision. To stay in or get out, what
to do with your life. This was your decision, Jake, not mine.”

“Well, I made it. I’m staying in.”

Jake Grafton ran his fingers through his hair. “I was looking for
something. Turns out I had it all along and just didn’t realize it.”

“What were you looking for?”

“Something worth doing. Something that made a difference. The war was
such a mess … I guess that I lost sight of what we’re all about here.
It’s more than ships and planes and cats and traps. I realized that
finally.”

“I always thought that what you did was important.”

“Your dad didn’t.”

“Dad? I love him dearly but this is my life, not his.”

“So what are you going to do with your life?”

She didn’t answer. She lowered her head and began walking Slowly. Jake
stayed with her. When she got to the bow of the ship she stood looking
across the water at San Francisco with the wind playing in her hair.

“I guess I’m like most modern women. I want a family and a career.
Languages have always fascinated me, and I have found I love to teach.
That’s the big plan, but some of it is contingent.”

“IN what?”

“Well, I don’t think that’s very fair. After all, lady, you shoved me
out into the cold to make up my own mind.”

“You were never out in the cold, Jake. There hasn’t been an hour in the
last eight months that I wasn’t thinking about you. I’ve read and
reread your letters until I almost wore out the paper. Especially that
last letter. I think I was wondering too, wondering if you loved me as
much as I loved you.

… You were always with me too,” he confessed, and grinned. “Maybe an
hour or two now and then you slipped away, but most of the time you were
there.”

Her hand found his. They began strolling along the deck.

The breeze was fresh and crisp.

“So why did you come here?” he asked.

,,I came to get married.”

He gaped. it was like a kick in the stomach. He had thought … He
jerked his hand from her grasp.

“Who’s the lucky guy?” he managed.

“You,” she said, her head cocked slightly to one side, her Ups twisting
into a grin.

“Me?”

“Who else could it be? I love you more than words can tell, Jacob Lee
Grafton.”

“You want to marry me?”

She laughed. He had always liked her laugh. “Do YOU want me to get
down on one knee and propose?”

,,I accept,11 he told her, and seized both her hands.

“Where and when?”

“This afternoon. Anywhere.” -My God, Woman This is sudden. Are you
sure?”

,,I,ve been thinking about this for a year,” she told him.

“I’m absolutely certain.”

“Well, I’ll be …” He took off his cap and ran his fingers through his
hair. Then he remembered the ring. He pulled it from his shirt pocket,
looked at it, then put it on her finger.

Now she was surprised. “You knew I was coming?”

,,No. I bought that for you over a year ago. Been carrying it ever
since.”

“Oh, Jake,” she said, and wrapped her arms around his neck. Her lips
found his.

He finally broke the embrace and seized her hand. “Come on. We’ll need
a best man. My BN is still aboard. He and I were going to have lunch
together.”

The quickest way to Flap’s stateroom was into the catwalk behind the
island, then into the 0-3 level and down. On the catwalk Jake happened
to glance at the pier. There was a pink Cadillac convertible parked at
the foot of the officers’ brow with four women in it.