Whispers of a New Dawn (27 page)

Becky nodded.

“No woman’s ever affected me like that in my life. One look at you just about knocked me out. But then came our weeks of quarreling and fighting, so I had to distance myself from that lightning burn as fast and as far as I could. I never quite made it, though. And the afternoon you walked out of the sea at Nanakuli I was finished.” He took her chin between his forefinger and thumb. “So help me, there has never been anything more beautiful on the face of the earth or in the face of heaven than you. You think I’m just spinning a line. But you’re wrong. I’d die for you. You have no idea how strongly I feel about Becky Whetstone. From the moment you stood up on that runway I was yours forever.”

He put both of his arms around her and pulled her in, kissing her gently. He took her breath, he took her strength, her thoughts and words, and she felt suspended in the air, held by him above the earth, nothing but sky beneath her feet and sun above her head.

“You wanted to know,” he whispered. “So I told you.”

“No. I need to hear you say it.”

“I did.”

She shook her head, tears cutting down her face, hands on his chest and shoulders and twining around his back. “No. I need your words. If you mean it. If it’s true. I have to hear your words. Tell me, Thunderbird. Tell me what you feel for me.”

“Beck—”

“Tell me.”

“I love you. I love you with all my heart. Everything. God knows how much I love you.”

His kiss came again. When he released her, the tears were slipping along her face, her arms still wrapped around his back with the last of her strength, he put his lips to her ear, kissed it, and whispered, “The sun’s come up for you again, girl. And so long as I live and can take you into my arms it doesn’t set.”

T
WENTY

H
ey!” Becky walked into an empty house in her flight jacket.

“Where is everybody?”

“I’m out here!” Jude called.

Her father was standing at the edge of the hill the house was built on, looking south toward Pearl Harbor, a large pair of binoculars to his eyes. “Take a look at this.”

Even without using the binoculars her father passed to her, Becky could see what he was excited about. “One of the carriers is leaving. With an escort.”

“A big escort. I count three heavy cruisers and eight or nine destroyers heading out.”

Becky refocused the binoculars. “I think it’s the
Enterprise
.”

“I think so too. Judging from where she started out.”

“Did you hear anything about this, Dad?”

“They’re on a weekend training op. Be back in Sunday night. Or Monday, December first.”

“Why now?” She handed the binoculars back.

“Did you hear what happened to the Japanese offer?”

“The one about a million gallons of airplane fuel in return for stopping the war in China? Has Washington said yes?”

Jude had the binoculars back at his eyes and was tracking the task force as it left Pearl Harbor behind. “They’re sticking to an easterly course. Washington said no, Beck. Rumor is Japan is still sending reinforcements to China and has no intention of pulling her troops out.
Who knows? But Tokyo said that was their final attempt to normalize relations with us. So anything could happen now.”

“That’s why the Big E’s suddenly doing a training exercise?”

“Well, we saw them taking on supplies last week, remember? Everybody knew they were heading out sometime. Today it’s a weekend exercise. Tomorrow, maybe something longer. Maybe all the way south. Or west. Or north.”

“What does that mean?”

“We have a large base in the Philippines so that’s a good bet—south and west. Midway Islands are north and west, we might reinforce them—we have an airstrip there. Wake Island and Guam are pretty much due west of here and a lot closer to Japan than Hawaii is—Guam’s practically in Japan. So are Manila and the Philippines for that matter. I can see task forces being sent to all those places and probably a lot more I haven’t thought about.”

“But the
Enterprise
is going east.”

“For now.”

“I thought—” Becky stopped. “You sound like you’re talking about war. I thought we might be past that.”

“Not with the U.S. turning down the last offer from Tokyo.”

Becky glanced back at the house. “So how come you’re the only one home? Where’s Mom? Where’s Aunt Ruth?”

“Your mother’s doing some extra flying lessons this evening. Nothing to do with the
Enterprise
heading out, just civilian students. Ruth—well, Ruth’s going up pretty soon.”

“Going up? What? In a plane?”

“I hope so.”

“How can she go up in a plane? She’s Amish.”

“Amish and shunned for not being Amish enough because she dared to come to Hawaii and continued to talk and eat with us. So she thought she might as well enjoy herself. Bishop Zook went up after all.”

“Twenty years ago.” She stared at her father. “Are you pulling my leg?”

Jude put an arm around her shoulder. “Manuku asked her. He’s the pilot.”

“She’s going up with him in a J-3?”

“Yes.”

“Why, he…he’s only—”

“Thirty-eight. Your aunt’s forty-four. Six years between them. Not so bad.”

Becky’s mouth was partly open. “Are you serious?”

“Ruth is. As serious as she’s been since her husband was killed. Haven’t you noticed?”

“She’s never talked about it.”

“I don’t think she wanted to talk about it or analyze it. Sometimes that spoils things, doesn’t it? I don’t recall wanting to talk to the guys in my squadron about your mother. I wanted to keep it inside and secret.” He smiled and walked with her into the house. “Isn’t that how you feel about Thunderbird?”

“I guess everybody knows I adore him. But I’m not sure I can ever really and truly love him, Dad.”

“Why not?”

“It’s not really about Moses. It’s not that he has to be Moses. I like Thunderbird just as he is. But I have this—this thing inside…where I feel if I let myself love him…he’ll be killed.”

“You believe that?”

“I don’t want to believe it. In my head I don’t really believe it. But all my emotions believe it and I don’t know how to stop that.”

“I can pray with you if you like.”

“I
would
like that. Maybe it will help me make my way out of this.” She sat on a stool in the kitchen and peeled a banana. “He told me he loved me, you know. The night after we toured Pearl.” She smiled with her eyes and her lips. “He made me pretty happy. And every time he says it again I’m even happier.” Her eyes turned a dark green. The smile vanished. “I can’t make him happy in return. I can’t say it.”

Jude poured Becky a glass of pineapple juice. “I’ll bet he’s a happy guy just to have you as his girl.”

“That’s what he says. But I wish I could say to him what he said to me. It’s like I’ve got something caught in my throat.”

“I think Thunderbird is a patient guy.”

“He says he is. But he won’t wait forever.”

“How do you know?”

“No man will, Dad.” She drank the juice in one long swallow.

Jude opened the fridge. “What do you want for supper?”

“I don’t care. What does Nate want?” She looked over her shoulder into the rest of the house. “Where is he?”

“He’s up too.”

“What?”

“He went up with Thunderbird.”

Becky stopped as she lifted the glass pitcher of pineapple juice. “He’s up in a Piper J-3 with Thunderbird.”

“No, sir. Not a J-3. They’re up in a Curtiss P-36 Hawk. Billy Skipp gave the okay. I have no idea where they are right now. Maybe tracking the
Enterprise
?”

“Dad! Nate could barely handle the stick when I had him up this week. How can he handle a fighter? Even an old fighter like the P-36?”

“Don’t let Thunderbird hear you say that. He’s pretty fond of his bird. Figures it can handle anything.”

“I know what he thinks. How did he get involved with Nate?”

Jude put a plate of fried chicken and coleslaw in front of her. “Nate called him up last night after you were in bed.”

“So Nate was sneaking around.”

“He knew you’d be upset. That you wouldn’t think he was anywhere near ready to handle a fighter plane.”

“And he’s not. Who put that idea in his head?”

“You did.”

“Me?” Becky pushed away the chicken.

“Didn’t you tell him he’d feel more comfortable handling a bigger plane? That the Piper was too small and light for him?”

“Sure I did, Dad. But just to encourage him. He was so stiff and tight. His clumsiness at the controls was bringing him down. You know how good he was before China. I was just trying to buck him up.”

“Well, you did. He was smiling just enough after the phone call to make your mother thank God at bedtime and all the way to the
Peterson airfield this morning. Thunderbird was supposed to pick him up at our house at one o’clock.”

Becky pulled the plate of chicken back and began to nibble at a drumstick. “I’m surprised. But Christian’s with him. And he’s talked with Nate several times. He’s very good. Very gentle, more gentle than any man I’ve known except for Moses.” She didn’t want to laugh but did. “I can just see them crammed together in the cockpit. I’m sure it’ll be a short flight.”

“Short or long, if it helps Nate it’s worth it.”

“Of course it will help him. Thunderbird’s a great pilot. And a great guy.” She shook her head and played with the other pieces of chicken. “I just can’t tell him that in the way I ought to.” Becky clenched a fist and jammed it against her chest. “I can’t stand being trapped inside, Dad. I hate not being free.”

Jude wiped his fingers on a napkin and reached across the table to take his daughter’s hand. “Time to talk to Eternity about it.”

She bowed her head. “Could you pray in German, Dad?”

“Will you understand the German?”

“Some of it I will. It doesn’t matter. He’ll understand it.”

“All right, honey.”

Jude began to pray quietly. “
Herr, setze meine Tochter Becky in Freiheit.”

Becky understood that much.
Lord, set my daughter Becky at liberty
.

His prayer grew and the sentences became longer and more complicated and Becky got lost trying to follow the German. So she calmed her mind and let the words flow through her and through the air and find their way to God while peace worked its way into her mind and into every part of her body. The only thing she found herself doing was whispering, “
Gott sei gelobt, Gott sei gelobt, Gott sei gelobt.” Praise God, praise God, praise God
.

When Jude had pronounced
amen
she opened her eyes.

“Thank you, Dad. I always feel a lot better when I’m prayed over in German.”

“Do you feel free enough to say what you want to say to Thunderbird?”

“I don’t know.” She folded her hands in her lap. “Do you ever miss being among our Amish family and friends?”

Jude leaned back in his chair, toothpick in his mouth. “Sure. There are many people I love. Your mother and Nate feel the same way. And of course Ruth. But then I remember how some of the Amish in Paradise felt God had taken Moses away because of your great sin of loving him too much. I remember that they will not let me fly. Or serve my country. I look at the faces of my students—” He tapped the side of his head. “I see them right here—and I know how satisfied I am that the skills they’re learning can keep them alive when they fly, whether they’re civilians or military.”

He leaned forward and took the toothpick out of his mouth. “And today’s civilian is tomorrow’s fighter pilot if we go to war. So if we train them well the odds improve as far as some of them surviving combat and returning home to their parents and their wives and their children. It’s hard to think of throwing that over to return to the Amish church. In fact, I won’t. Neither will your mother.” He looked at her steadily. “We’re never going back, Becky.”

The door opened before Becky could respond. Her mother rushed in, blond hair loose and blowing back, flight jacket open, green eyes flashing, a smile opening up her whole face. “My goodness, what a day. My students were as sharp as tacks. I haven’t done so many loops and rolls since the ’20s. And Ruth! Quiet Ruth! I have never seen her so animated in my life.”

She kissed her husband and daughter and took a seat, immediately peeling a banana. “Manuku must have had her in the air over an hour and a half. He handed the stick to her seven times, he says. And there was Ruth on the runway, twenty minutes after landing, and she still had a leather jacket and helmet on—they fit her perfectly—and she didn’t want to leave the plane. But Manuku had several students to train so she finally walked back to the hut with me. Her eyes were as bright as a sixteen-year-old’s. And her hair came loose when she pulled her helmet off, pins flying everywhere, and she left it loose. I’ve never seen her look so becoming. The silver and white in her black hair made
her so—so—” She ate the banana in small bites and hunted for the word she wanted. “Well, she was enchanting. Not a very good Amish word. But that’s what she was.”