Whispers of a New Dawn (19 page)

Harrison smiled. “The Coast Guard can handle it.”

There was already a fire going and a pig roasting when they arrived. Three men and a woman were playing guitars and leading singing for about a hundred people seated on the sand at Waikiki Beach, just down from the Moana Hotel. The five servicemen joined them. After a half hour of singing Paul Thor, dressed in a bright-red Hawaiian shirt with pineapples, palm trees, and flowers along with khaki shorts, got up and began to talk about forgiveness, his Bible open in his hand. He only spoke for ten minutes but when he was finished Batman leaned over to Raven.

“Hey. Thunderbird. That sure cleans out the pipes.”

“Yeah,” Raven responded, Thor’s words still tumbling about in his head.

“Letting go and moving on.”

“Yeah.”

After grace they lined up for food and Raven put ten dollars in a bucket to cover the five of them. A woman sitting beside the bucket protested.

“Oh, no donation is necessary from servicemen, sir. You do enough for us already.”

“I haven’t done anything, ma’am, except fly planes in circles.”

“You’re a pilot?”

“All of us are. Except our friend in Coast Guard whites. He’s from the cutter
Taney
.”

She gave him the ten-dollar bill back. “Do you fly the new P-40 Warhawks, Lieutenant?”

“I don’t. Batman here does. And Wizard.”

“Batman? Like the comic book?”

“He’s a lot like the comic book.”

“The P-36 is about to be mothballed.” Wizard grinned.

“We’ll see about that,” grunted Raven. “It’s a tough plane.”

“It’s as much a museum piece as Eddie Rickenbacker’s SPAD. It can’t do anything except look pretty in the sky.”

“We’ll see.” Raven returned the ten to the woman. “Pastor Thor needs a new shirt. This is our contribution.”

“Oh, my.” The woman was surprised. “You don’t like his shirt, Lieutenant?”

“We prefer blue. With coconuts and surfboards.”

Juggler looked at the others. “We do?”

Wizard rubbed his hands together. “Come on. Move along. Let’s eat. Grab a plate and fork and let me at the pig.”

“What’s the rush?” asked Batman. “The pig ain’t going anywhere.”

“But I am. The Hawaiian Rita Hayworth awaits. I need to discuss the Bible with her.” Wizard looked around. “And there she is. The future Mrs. Wizard.” He stopped dead. “Oh, boy. I really am in love. I haven’t seen anything that beautiful in my very long lifetime.”

“You’re only twenty-one.” Batman tried to find out who Wizard was staring at while he heaped potato salad onto his plate. “Where are you looking?”

“Over there. Under that palm tree. She’s talking to Pastor Thor, for pity’s sake.”

“Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.” Batman smiled. “I see her. Whooo. She’s as hot as the sun.”

“Hotter.”

No one else was paying any attention. Harrison and Juggler and Raven were digging into the greens and pineapple spears and people were bunching up in the line behind the group. Finally Juggler nudged Wizard.

“Hey. Romeo. Grab some chow and keep moving. You gotta eat, love or no love.”

“Man. She kills me. I’m dead. I don’t need food. I don’t need anything.”

“Oh, yeah? Glad to hear it. So maybe you’ll leave my mom’s Christmas cake alone when she sends the next batch over from Wisconsin.” He glanced up from the slices of roast pig. “Okay, where is the princess?” He spotted Pastor Thor. Then he gave a low whistle. “Oooo. I see what you mean. I think I’ve lost my appetite too.”

Batman helped himself to a glass of punch. “You know who she is, right? That little slice of sunlight and volcano?” He took a drink and looked at Pastor Thor and his companion. “That’s Thunderbird’s flight trainer.”

Wizard reacted. “What?”

Raven looked up from a platter of rice. “What?”

“Isn’t it? Isn’t that her?” asked Batman.

Her blond hair ignited as the sun dropped into the mountains behind them. Pastor Thor had said something that made her laugh and she tossed her head.

Like a wild mare
, thought Raven in surprise.

She wore a Hawaiian skirt with red and pink flowers and a simple white T-shirt with a necklace of small seashells. Her arms and face and legs were gold in the sunset. Now and then she would draw her hand back through her hair and it would spark. Again the pastor made her laugh and she lifted her foot so that only one toe was touching the sand. Then she touched a finger to her lips and rubbed it back and forth
slowly while she nodded her head. There was another necklace of seashells on her ankle that caught the last of the sun. It swung with every movement of her leg as she traced a pattern with her toe on the beach. Once she looked toward Raven and his friends. There was a final flare of light and her green eyes burst into flame.

You have tiger eyes
.

She put a hand up to shield out the sun. Seeing the men in their uniforms she gave them a smile that made Wizard groan, it had so much strength and beauty.

It opens up your face like a breaking wave curls white and opens up the sea
.

She kept looking at them and Wizard put down his plate in the sand and started toward her. “I’m not passing up this chance to meet the Lord’s woman for me.”

“Hey.” Batman chewed and swallowed quickly. “Wait up.”

Juggler gulped his punch and ran after them. “May the best man win.” He glanced back. “You guys coming?”

Raven lifted his glass in a toast. “Enjoy her company. See you back at the jeep.”

Harrison was sitting in the sand, busy with his plate of food. “I’m sticking with Thunderbird, guys. See you later.”

Wizard and Batman and Juggler shook the pastor’s hand and crowded around Becky like a football team going into a huddle. Raven heard her laugh a third time, a sound he realized he’d rarely heard. He turned away, trying to sip at his punch.

Harrison looked up at him. “They can think what they like, Thunderbird, but she was looking at you.”

“Forget it, Harrison.”

“I mean it. Where her eyes landed was pretty clear to me.” He bent over his plate again. “The smile was for you too.”

“I doubt it.”

“Yeah?” Harrison popped a cherry tomato into his mouth. “When do you go up with her again?”

“Tomorrow morning at seven.”

“Dollars to doughnuts you’re in for a big surprise. When love
happens, and God opens the heavens, I want you to remember who told you so. And I want an army breakfast of bacon and beans on the house.”

Raven sat down on the beach next to him. “I’m good for that.”

Harrison smiled. “Glad to hear it. I just hope you remember once she turns you inside out and has you doing hoops and loops over Diamond Head in your P-36.”

“How about I just do a victory roll over your ship instead?”

Harrison shrugged and continued to eat. “Okay with me. So long as it comes with bacon and beans.”

F
IFTEEN

R
aven was up at three. He ran four miles, did his push-ups, then lay on his back and looked at a sky that was half stars and half dawn.

The old man is a shadow to me, Lord—I can hardly make out his face. All I’ve ever wanted to do is get back at him. Now you’re telling me to forgive him and move on. Not so easy. But I’ll give it a shot if it will make me a free man. I need your help with that. And hers. I just don’t know how to ask
.

He was at the Piper J-3 at six. Weeks before he’d started showing up early to get under her skin. Now he admitted to himself a stronger reason had been in play from the first—the pleasure of watching her walk across the runway to him. She moved like a breeze, and her spirit couldn’t be diminished by the cloud cover or his own fears or by the sunrise itself—her beauty and heart was stronger than all of it. Whether she felt his gaze on her each morning he didn’t know. But he did know he had pushed all his feelings for her as far away as he could and denied every one of them. It was time to say something, to make it or break it.

“Hey!”

Her shout came across the airfield to him. She was walking across the tarmac and waving, holding her goggles and leather helmet with the other hand. The sight was as wonderful as ever—her oversized flight jacket, a white T-shirt, pants that were snugger than her usual pair, short hair loose in the dawn air, a smile he hardly ever saw being given to him, pure and strong, like white terns,
manu o ku
, in the Hawaiian sky.

“Hey.” She was still smiling. “I saw you at the barbeque last night.”

Her smile and friendliness startled him. “Yeah. I was there with some of the guys.”

“Why didn’t you come over and say hello?”

“It looked like you had your hands full.”

She rolled her eyes and laughed. “Did I ever.”

“They were all pretty excited this morning. Every one of them got hot dates with Becky Whetstone.”

“Hot dates? Is that what they told you? Coffee with Batman, breakfast with Juggler, oh yeah, a movie with Wizard. Does it—” She hesitated and dropped her smile. “Does it bother you, Thunderbird?”

“I never noticed you had freckles before.”

She looked up at him, her emerald eyes taking in the sun as it rose out of the ocean. “I don’t.”

“You do. Right over the bridge of your nose. Really small. You’d have to look real close to see them.”

“I guess I haven’t looked close enough.”

“You know…I’m not sure how to talk to you…there’s been so much of the other stuff…I’m not sure what words to use…to be sweet and tight…”

“I’m not sure either, Thunderbird.”

He felt an urge to touch her. It seemed to him that something in her was almost compelling him to do that. He reached out his hand and stopped. She wasn’t smiling. But there was no anger in her eyes either. The moment confused him. He reached out again, ready to pull away if she said something. She didn’t. His fingers touched her skin and a shock went up his arm.

“This is nuts,” he said.

“I guess.”

“Is it okay?”

“Yeah, Thunderbird, it’s okay.”

He smoothed back her hair and ran his thumb along her chin and the line of her jaw. Her green cat eyes stayed on him and took on more and more of the fire of sunrise. It seemed like a daydream to him.

“I’ve been a fool, Becky. I haven’t been honest to God or honest to myself. The Lord knows I haven’t been honest to you.”

“Thunderbird—”

“I had to step away from my old man so I could see he was standing in front of you. It’s this crazy thing. One minute it’s night and the next it’s daybreak. Light changes the whole world. Have you noticed that? I can see Becky Whetstone.” He stroked his thumb over her lips. “You’re easily the most beautiful thing God ever made. You’re more than the ocean and the volcanoes and the islands. You’re more than everything.”

A soft smile took over her face. “A really handsome aviator once told me I was ugly and scrawny.”

“He was wrong.”

“And he said I was nothing more than a kid.”

“The guy didn’t know what he was talking about. Forget him.”

“I’m having a hard time doing that.”

“Can I help?”

“I wish you would.”

“Hey!” Two of the ground crew drove up in a jeep. “You guys need a hand getting airborne?”

Raven pulled away his hand and stepped back from Becky. “Sure. Yeah. Thanks.”

“We’ll get the wheel blocks and the prop. This is Piper Eleven, isn’t it? We gassed it up last night.”

“Great.”

Raven tugged back the canopy and began to climb into the backseat. He looked down at Becky who hadn’t moved.

“Hey.” He smiled. “You coming?”

She held back. “Do you need me, Thunderbird?”

Raven took off his aviator glasses. “Yeah. I do.”

“Really? Or are we just trying to make up and be nice to each other?”

“I need you.”

She kept her eyes on his. “Okay.”

“Becky.”

She was putting on her helmet and goggles. “What’s up?”

“You really think the guy was a hotshot aviator?”

She sprang up and had her hands on both sides of the cockpit. She looked back at him. “Are you serious?”

“Yeah. After all these weeks. I’m serious. Finally serious.”

“I
know
he’s a hotshot aviator.”

“You know it?”

“Yeah, Thunderbird. I do.” She jumped into the cockpit and had her back to him. “So now show me.”

“Beck—”

She turned around. “If everything’s changed this morning and it really is a different world, a world where you’re freer than you were twenty-four hours ago and your old man’s out of the picture—” She stopped. Then she reached across the space between them and gripped his hand. “The kind of world where you can have feelings for Becky Whetstone and she can have feelings for you—then show me that world. Show me you care for her, Thunderbird. Do a tight barrel for Becky Whetstone. Just a bit is enough.” She let out her breath in a rush. “I’m scared.”