Don't You Know There's a War On? (14 page)

TUESDAY, AUGUST 8, 1945

First Atomic Bomb Dropped
on Japan.
Missile Is Equal to
20,000 Tons of TNT.

THURSDAY, AUGUST 10, 1945

Atom Bomb Loosed on Nagasaki.

TUESDAY, AUGUST 15, 1945

JAPAN SURRENDERS, END OF WAR!

THE WAR WAS
over. On Hicks Street people were actually dancing. We took off our dog tags and flung them away.

Then the adults took back the job of keeping things normal.

But not quite. We moved from Brooklyn to Long Island, out to this place called Levittown, with a house of our own. Small maybe, but it seemed huge. And no cockroaches.

Pop got a job with the post office. “Keeps my feet on the ground,” he used to say. But the funny thing was, at night, after he made his rounds, he started soaking his feet in, guess what? Salt water.

Same time, my mother quit work, but she got bored. Went back to school. Became a dental assistant. “Beats rivets,” she'd say.

My sister? She grew up. We even got to be friends, sort of.

As for Denny Coleman, after we moved, I didn't see him no more. Once I sent him a picture postcard. It was of
the Amagansett beach where those Nazi spies landed. He didn't answer.

His mother kept the store where it was. I know, because I went back once and looked. I think she got remarried. The store was there. Denny wasn't.

See, what I'm saying is, we moved away. My whole life got new. Changed.

Except for one thing.

I MAY BE OLDER
—almost sixteen now—but when the nights get dark and I'm lonely or down in the dumps because the day is as hollow as the hole in a stale doughnut, do you know what I do? I think of Miss Gossim. Cross my heart and hope to die. I do. And if I think hard enough—and it's the night—all of a sudden there she is! Miss Gossim herself, sweet as ever, smelling like a Brooklyn Botanic field-trip flower. Like she was in that apartment of hers way back when the stars were in the sky and I visited her.

Next thing, I'm looking right up into those soft blue-gray
eyes of hers and I'm saying, “Good-night, Rolanda Gossim.”

Then she whispers, “Good-night, Howie Crispers.”

But then, as if she was in some kind of movie, she starts to fade.

So in my head, I shout, “Hey, Miss Gossim, wait a minute! You can't go. I gotta find out. What happened to you? What's with Smitty? Where's your kid? Are you still a teacher?”

“Now, Howie,” she says over her shoulder with a toss of that frilly blond hair, “don't you think it's time you forgot all that?”

“No,” I say, “I can't. Besides, why should I?”

And in her most teacherlike voice, she answers, “Howie, don't you know? The war is over.”

And she's gone.

And look at me—I'm sixteen, for cheese sake!—and it still makes me want to cry.

Know what I'm saying?

AVI
is the author of more than sixty books, including
CRISPIN
:
The Cross of Lead
, a Newbery Medal winner, and
CRISPIN
:
At the Edge of the World
. His other acclaimed titles include
THE TRUE CONFESSIONS OF CHARLOTTE DOYLE
and
NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH
, both Newbery Honor Books, and most recently
THE SEER OF SHADOWS
. He lives with his family in Colorado. Visit Avi at
www.avi-writer.com
.

Discover great authors, exclusive offers, and more at
hc.com
.

T
HE
B
ARN

B
EYOND THE
W
ESTERN
S
EA
, B
OOK
I: T
HE
E
SCAPE FROM
H
OME

B
EYOND THE
W
ESTERN
S
EA
, B
OOK
II: L
ORD
K
IRKLE
'
S
M
ONEY

B
LUE
H
ERON

E
NCOUNTER AT
E
ASTON

T
HE
M
AN
W
HO
W
AS
P
OE

N
IGHT
J
OURNEYS

N
OTHING BUT THE
T
RUTH

A P
LACE
C
ALLED
U
GLY

P
UNCH WITH
J
UDY

R
OMEO AND
J
ULIET
—T
OGETHER
(
AND
A
LIVE
!)
AT
L
AST

S
OMETHING
U
PSTAIRS

S
OMETIMES
I T
HINK
I H
EAR
M
Y
N
AME

S.O.R. L
OSERS

T
ALES FROM
D
IMWOOD
F
OREST

                
Ragweed
                  

                
Poppy
                       

                
Poppy and Rye
        

                
Ereth's Birthday
      

T
OM
, B
ABETTE
& S
IMON

T
HE
T
RUE
C
ONFESSIONS OF
C
HARLOTTE
D
OYLE

“W
HO
W
AS
T
HAT
M
ASKED
M
AN
, A
NYWAY
?”

W
INDCATCHER

Cover art © 2001 by Patrick Faricy

Cover © 2003 by HarperCollins Publishers Inc.

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Dates throughout are the dates that headlines appeared in newspapers, not the dates that events occurred.

DON'T YOU KNOW THERE'S A WAR ON?
Copyright © 2001 by Avi. The author gratefully acknowledges John Dunning's
On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1998) as the source of quotes
here
and
here
. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

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FIRST EDITION