Dorothy Garlock (18 page)

“Thank you,
Oma
,” Sophie said as she leaned over and gave the older woman a kiss on her cheek. “Whether I knew it or not, that was exactly
what I needed to hear.”

Gitta’s hand found Sophie’s and held it tightly. “Always remember that you are special, Sophie,” she urged. “Knowing what
is right is something that will always serve you well, even in love.”

Sophie blushed, the tiniest welling of tears coming to her eyes.

“Supper!” her mother suddenly called from the kitchen.

“Come now, dear,” Gitta said, rising on tottering legs. “You know how your mother gets when food gets cold.” Sophie did not
immediately follow, choosing instead to watch as the elderly woman slowly made her way across the porch and into the house.

“You’re the one who’s special,” she whispered.

For the first time, Sophie was glad she hadn’t gone to her special place.

C
OLE PAUSED
from his task to wipe the thick sweat from his forehead with the back of one gloved hand. High above in the cloudless sky,
the sun relentlessly pounded down upon him with the persistency of a hammer driving a nail.
It has to be nearly one hundred degrees!

“We haven’t been at this for even three hours!” Jason barked.

“What’s your point?”

“That here I am working my ass off and you’re already quitting!”

“Can’t a guy take a break?” Cole snorted.

“This close to lunch?” his brother shot back. “Hell, no!”

Cole chuckled as he bent back to his work. He and Jason had spent the bulk of the morning unloading a flatbed truck of supplies
just arrived from Springfield into the fenced storage yard just behind their father’s hardware store. While Jason grabbed
the long beams of wood, hoisting them effortlessly up onto his muscled shoulders, Cole busied himself picking up heavily laden
sacks of nails, hammers, and other smaller tools; with his bad leg, it was too difficult to balance the larger items. Cole
knew that much of what they were unloading was destined to become part of the Hellers’ new barn.

Initially, his father had asked only Jason for help, but the older Ambrose brother had shown no reluctance to drag Cole into
it. Cole was thankful that he had; even though they were out in the blazing heat, their once white shirts rolled tightly at
the sleeves and filthy from dust and sweat, there was no small amount of pleasure to be found in each other’s company. They’d
been trading needling barbs from the first load, a playful whack on the arm here, a brotherly insult that would make a preacher
blush there. He couldn’t help but love every minute.

“How many hours were you spending in those Chicago libraries, anyway?”

“What the hell are you talking about?” Cole asked.

“You’re as soft as a boiled egg!” Jason teased as he headed back to the truck for another load. “I’ve made at least four trips
to every one of yours! Mary Ellen could have done just as much as you in only half the time! Are you even trying at all?”

“No wonder I’m the one that’s going to be a math teacher,” Cole shot back. “You never could count for a damn!”

Scarcely a week had passed since Cole had taken Sophie on a picnic and he had been surprised to find that he was growing used
to being happy. They’d managed to see each other a couple more times since, and during each meeting, Cole felt his feelings
for the dark-haired beauty growing in leaps and bounds. They had made plans to see a movie later in the week, a date he was
looking forward to with great anticipation.

But today was a time to be given to his brother; Jason would be leaving on the next morning’s train, bound for California,
the navy, and finally some distant foreign shore. Who knew how long he would be gone? Cole couldn’t believe that their time
together had passed so quickly; it seemed as if it were only yesterday that Jason had burst through the kitchen door, fresh
from Hallam Falls, his induction date still a moment set far in the future. But somehow, the weeks had fallen away as surely
as the rising and setting of the sun. Come tomorrow, Jason Ambrose would be off to war.

For as long as he could remember, Cole had wished that he were the one that would be sent off to fight, but now that Jason
was about to leave, he found his thoughts to be uncertain. Sophie’s words still echoed in his head, that no one should wish
to go to war but simply accept it as an unwanted but necessary responsibility, and he felt a bit ashamed of his earlier bravado.
Still, he felt secure in the knowledge that his brother, as well as all of the other Americans who had answered their country’s
call, were fighting the just fight and would be home just as soon as their duty was fulfilled.

“About time to eat, I reckon,” Robert summoned them from the rear of the store.

“Truer words have never been spoken!” Jason shouted.

Their father had sent out for bagged lunches from Marge’s; thick-cut turkey sandwiches piled high with lettuce and tomatoes,
ice-cold bottles of milk, even generous cuts of apple pie. Cole had hoped that Robert might join them while they ate, but
he had no more than set the lunches on the steps when he headed back inside the hardware store. The two of them sat in the
shade afforded by the rear door’s overhang, their legs dangling over the side of the steps as if they were much younger children,
and ravenously dug into their food.

They ate in silence, each brother more than content just to share the other’s company. But as Cole finished his meal, his
intentions began to nag at him a bit. He had already decided that this would be the day he would tell Jason all about Sophie
and had begun to realize that this was a time as well suited to the task as any. Though he was no longer working under the
direct gaze of the summer sun, he nonetheless began to sweat.

“There’s something… something I wanted to tell you about,” Cole struggled.

“Yeah?” Jason answered, popping the last bite of his apple pie in his mouth.

Cole took a deep breath. “I’m seeing a girl.”

“What?” Jason barked, leaping to his feet so quickly that anyone passing by on the street would have been convinced that his
rear end was on fire. With a beaming smile stretching from ear to ear, words poured from his mouth as quickly and surely as
spring rain. “Who is she? How did you meet her? Don’t you dare leave out even one detail or I swear to Christ I’m going to
punch you so hard you won’t wake up until the middle of next week!”

Though Jason had threatened him with physical violence, Cole found that he had to fib a bit as he recounted his first meeting
with Sophie Heller. When he recounted their time at Marge’s counter or the ride home in the pickup, he left out all mention
of Ellis Watts and his two companions. He further neglected to tell Jason about the burning of the Hellers’ barn. As badly
as he wanted his brother’s advice about what he should do, he had given Sophie his word, and that was a bond he was not willing
to break.

Jason smiled. “Sophie’s a nice girl.”

“She definitely liked your picnic idea.”

“I knew it!” Jason exclaimed, playfully punching his brother in the arm. “I would have bet the farm that you weren’t asking
me about first dates because of some interest in my love life!”

“So you caught me! I’m guilty!”

Cole told Jason about how he had picked Sophie up at the newspaper office and taken her to Watkins Creek. He spoke of how
nervous he had been but was then just as honest about how easy it was for him to be in her company and of how effortlessly
they had talked of their lives, all the sorts of moments that he had never before shared with a woman. Recounting their meetings
since that day, Cole felt as if he were experiencing them all over again, and his heart could not help but swell with joy.

“I’m happy for you,” Jason said, and Cole knew his brother truly meant it.

“It’s still hard for me to believe it’s true.”

“But it is,” his older brother said as he threw a sweaty arm around Cole’s shoulder and gave him a squeeze. “If there’s anyone
who’s ever deserved to be happy, truly happy, it’s you, Cole.”

“I just don’t want to screw it up.”

“You won’t.”

“That’s easy for you to say.” Cole laughed. “But I’m still new at all of this.”

“Just be glad you don’t have to leave her.”

The smile that creased Cole’s face fell flat at his brother’s words, replaced by a sickening feeling that rumbled in the pit
of his stomach. The one worry that he had had about speaking of his newfound relationship with Sophie was that it might cause
Jason to reflect on his own feelings for Mary Ellen Carter, a fear that now appeared to be justified. Tomorrow, Jason was
not only leaving Victory, he was also leaving his girl.

“How’s Mary Ellen taking it?” Cole asked carefully.

“About as well as can be expected, I suppose,” Jason said. “At first, after I’d gone and volunteered for the war, it was pretty
easy for both of us to just put it out of our minds. We just sort of denied that it was even happening. Going off to fight
was this faraway thing that we didn’t have to worry about, even though we both knew that it was coming, no matter how much
we tried to pretend otherwise.

“But then things changed. Mary Ellen started crying a lot. She tries to hide it from me the best she can, but every once in
a while I’ll catch her just staring at me, her eyes all swollen and wet with tears. Whenever this happens, all I can do is
tell her that I’m sorry, even if I’m not sure what I’m supposed to be apologizing for.” Jason sighed deeply; in that moment
Cole could see that he was struggling to control his own emotions. “I don’t think she’ll be able to make it to the station
tomorrow. I’m afraid it might kill her to watch me go.”

“I’ll watch over her,” Cole offered. “I promise.”

“I know you will.”

“It’s kind of hard to admit it, but I know how she feels.”

“How so?”

“For about the last week, I’ve found myself worrying about you going off to the war,” Cole explained. “Every time I pick up
the paper, I end up closing it without reading a single word. Now that you’re going, now that the day is finally here, it
all seems more real than before.” There was much that Cole found himself unable to say; particularly that he was afraid for
his brother. He kept trying to convince himself that Jason had always been a careful sort and he tried to cling to the belief
that everything would be fine. Just like Mary Ellen, all he wanted was for Jason to come home safe and sound.

They sat in silence for a while, unable to speak to each other. Cole couldn’t help but wonder just how long Jason would be
gone; the war in Europe had been raging for nearly three years already with no sign of letting up.
Surely, it can’t last much longer!
With the Japanese now involved, it seemed that the whole world was a powder keg just waiting to be lit. Cole already knew
that every time he ran into Mary Ellen, it was going to break his heart; he was the one person in Victory who would know just
how lonely and scared she was.

“I’m going to come home,” Jason suddenly said.

Cole put his hand on his brother’s knee and gave it a pat. Turning his head, he looked carefully at Jason’s profile, marveling
at how much he looked like their father; his green eyes and tight jawline were nearly the spitting image. Still, Jason possessed
a special sort of warmth, of character, a spark of life that Robert Ambrose had never had or had somehow lost along the way.
Cole knew that it was this spirit that would carry Jason back to Victory, back to his family, and back to Mary Ellen Carter
and their future together.

Jason suddenly sprang from the steps and began to trot back to the truck, then turned back to face his brother. All the sadness
and worry had gone from his face, replaced by a look of good humor and mischief. “We best get back to work,” he said with
a smirk. “After all, if I leave any of this to you, it’ll still be waiting for me when I get back home!”

Cole could only smile.

Cole was sitting by his bedroom window, trying to read a book, when he heard a light knock on his door. It was late, nearly
one o’clock in the morning, but he’d long since given up trying to sleep, unable to stop thinking about his conversation with
his brother. He’d picked up the book in the hope that it would distract him from his worries, but he’d read the same page
five times and was getting no closer to understanding its meaning.

He crossed the room quickly, fearful that it was his father; he’d tried to be as quiet as he could, but with his bad leg,
there was always the chance that he’d managed to interrupt Robert’s sleep. But when he pulled open the door, he found Jason
awaiting him, his shoulders slumped low and his mouth set in a deep frown.

“Is everything all right?”

Jason didn’t give any answer, but simply entered Cole’s room and dropped onto his back on the bed, one hand absently running
through his light hair. His eyes were bloodshot and wet and it looked to Cole as if he could break down again.

“Mary Ellen?” Cole asked softly.

Jason gave a nearly imperceptible nod. “I did everything I could think of to make her smile, cracked every dumb joke I knew,
even the ones I knew weren’t funny, but she just couldn’t get past the fact that this was our last night together,” he explained,
his voice cracking. “No matter what I tried, I couldn’t get her to stop crying. With the way she was carrying on, you’d have
thought tomorrow was my funeral!”

“She’s scared.”

“So am I,” his brother admitted.

“I’m sure she knows that.”

“There’s a part of me that’s glad she’s not going to be at the train station in the morning. As bad as it would be for her,
it sure wouldn’t be a picnic for me to see her all upset.”

“Even if she’s not there, Mary Ellen will be thinking of you all the same.”

Jason exhaled and sat up on the edge of the bed, trying his best to put up a good face but not doing the most convincing job.
“Anyway,” he said. “I didn’t come in here to jabber on about my love life, but to give you something.”