The Great Alone (100 page)

“Lisa, I’m sorry.” He sat staring at his clasped hands, his head bowed.

“You should be. That was a terrible way to break something like that to people who care about you.” She was angry with him, angry that he hadn’t told her privately, that his whole family had been looking on. Didn’t he think the news would upset her? Didn’t he know how much she cared?

“I know it was, but I was hoping with you here that my family’s reaction wouldn’t be quite so emotional. I knew how much this was going to upset my mother. I’m her only son.” He looked at her. “I didn’t mean to hurt you, Lisa.”

She couldn’t stay angry at him, not when there was so little time left.

After that disastrous dinner, Lisa saw Wylie one more time before he left. He parked the car in front of her house and let the engine idle. The porch light was on, but Lisa made no move to get out of the car. All evening long, he’d acted as if it were just another date, and not the last one they’d have for a long time. She sat huddled in the passenger seat beside him, bundled in her scarf, coat, and gloves. She wished he’d say something—that he cared, that he loved her—anything that would let her know where she stood with him. But the silence just went on.

“I guess I won’t see you for a while,” she said finally.

He half turned toward her and laid his arm along the back of the seat. “Probably not.”

It was too dark to see his face clearly, but Lisa doubted that his expression would reveal anything anyway. She felt his hand stroke the back of her head and push the wool scarf back to touch her hair.

“Will you write to me?” she asked.

“Sure. Will you write to me?” It almost sounded like he was teasing her.

“Of course.” She’d write every day if he’d ask. “I wish you didn’t have to go.”

“Hey, I’m not all that happy about going into the Army, but I don’t have any choice. Besides, you aren’t going to miss me for long. Not in Alaska. I’ll bet there’s already ten guys standing in line to take my place.”

“It wouldn’t matter if there were a hundred. You make me so mad sometimes, Wylie.” She was close to tears. “Don’t you want me to wait for you?”

“Nobody knows what’s going to happen. I don’t think it is the time to make any promises we may not want to keep tomorrow. A lot of things can change, Lisa.”

“Maybe for you.” She stared blindly at her gloved hands, clenched tightly together on her lap.

“Why don’t we just wait and see what happens when I come back?”

“Sure.”

“Lisa. Would you look at me?” Reluctantly, almost warily she lifted her chin and gazed at him. “I am coming back. You can count on that. And you damned well better not forget me.”

His fingers tunneled under her page boy and gripped the back of her neck, drawing her toward him. He kissed her long and hard, as if determined to leave his mark on her. Lisa clung to him, equally determined that he would remember her, holding nothing back in her desire to show him how much she cared. But it hurt too much inside. In the end, she pulled away and bolted from the car, crying as she ran to the house.

CHAPTER LIV

Anchorage

December 7, 1941

Winter darkness continued to reign over the morning as Lisa approached the church steps to attend the nine o’clock service, accompanied by her parents and, grudgingly, by her younger brothers. It would be another two hours before daylight would brighten the sky. A man stood to one side of the church doors. There was the faintest break in her stride as Lisa recognized him.

“Do you see who’s here, Lisa?” her mother murmured, barely moving her lips. “I’ll bet he’s waiting for you.”

“Just because he’s standing outside doesn’t necessarily mean Mr. Bogardus is waiting for me.” But she was afraid her mother was right, and she didn’t know what to do about the situation.

It was ironic when she thought about it. Against her mother’s wishes, she had quit her clerking job at a local drugstore five months ago to take a better-paying job as a payroll assistant for a construction company from the States that had established a branch office in Anchorage to handle their government contracts in Alaska. Tall, boyish-looking Steve Bogardus was a partner in the company and managed the Anchorage office. He was her boss.

A month after she’d gone to work for the company, he’d asked her out. Naturally she had refused. Then two months ago he discovered that she had no transportation and walked the several blocks from her house to the office. He offered to pick her up in the mornings and take her home at nights, insisting that it wasn’t out of his way and that it wasn’t a good idea for a young, single woman to be walking alone down dark streets, not to mention the cold weather. At the time, it had seemed foolish to refuse a ride to and from work, especially with winter on its way. So she had accepted his offer.

Naturally her mother had met him the first time he’d come to pick her up. The minute she found out he was twenty-nine years old, an engineering graduate, unmarried, and a partner in the firm, all her objections to Lisa’s new job vanished. Then Lisa had made the mistake of mentioning that he’d asked her out and she’d turned him down. Now her mother badgered her constantly about him and demanded to know why she was throwing her life away on someone like Wylie Cole, who would never amount to anything, when she could have a man who had his own business and a bright future. She didn’t see why Lisa sat home every night when she could be going on dates with Mr. Bogardus. It made no difference to her that Wylie was stationed in Alaska and Lisa was able to see him, however infrequently. If anything, it made her more determined. Several times, her mother had taken it upon herself to ask Mr. Bogardus to stay for dinner when he’d brought Lisa home after work. He’d always accepted.

Lisa was in an awkward situation. To make matters worse, she liked being with Steve Bogardus and that made her feel guilty. He was so different from Wylie. His face was so expressive she was always able to tell when he was tired or when the pressure to complete a job was building up or when he was excited about something. He was attentive and kind, always opening doors for her or praising her work or remarking on a dress or her hair—sometimes even flirting with her. Wylie tended to be more aloof, seldom complimenting her and rarely demonstrative in his affections unless they were alone. Lisa knew Wylie wasn’t as experienced as her employer. How could he be? Steve Bogardus was older. Sometimes the age difference frightened her as much as his persistence did. And her boss could be very persuasive when he wanted something.

“Good morning, Mr. Bogardus.” Lisa forced a smile as she mounted the steps.

“Good morning, Lisa.” Then he greeted the rest of her family with equal cordiality. “I didn’t see you drive up. Don’t tell me you walked to church this morning?”

“It wasn’t far, really. Our car refused to start.” With the high wages her father was receiving, they’d finally been able to get rid of the old farm truck this last summer and buy a car. “I guess it hasn’t gotten used to these Alaskan winters yet.”

“Neither have I.” He shuddered in a mock reaction to the cold temperature. In spite of herself, Lisa smiled. “I wish I had known about your car though. I could have given you a ride to church.”

“We will let you take us home, Mr. Bogardus,” her mother said. “But only if you say you will stay to dinner.”

“As usual, you’ve twisted my arm, Mrs. Blomquist.”

Lisa avoided his eyes. “We probably should go inside. I think we’re blocking the door.”

“You’re right. It’s probably warmer inside, too.” He opened the door and held it while the Blomquist family filed through.

Lisa stepped farther into the lighted vestibule and paused to slip off her gloves and unbutton her heavy coat. She smiled and nodded to the ushers standing at the inner doors to the sanctuary, passing out the morning’s programs. As Steve Bogardus walked over to stand with Lisa and the rest of her family, she noticed Wylie’s mother and grandmother at the far end of the vestibule.

“Excuse me. I’m just going over to speak to Mrs. Cole for a minute. I’ll join you inside.” She moved away from her family and her boss, hoping that Mrs. Cole might have heard from Wylie. More than three months had passed since she’d seen him, and almost that long since she’d had a letter from him, although she had written to him regularly. His warning that he was a notoriously poor correspondent was small consolation. “Good morning.” She smiled at both women, then belatedly noticed the aging Eskimo woman with them and nodded to her as well. “Matty.”

“Lisa.” Trudy Cole greeted her warmly. “I was hoping I’d see you in church this morning. We received a letter from Wylie yesterday. I was just showing it to Mother Cole. He said he might not have time to write you and asked me to pass on his news.”

“His news?” She took the sheet of paper his grandmother offered to her. The letter was short, covering little more than half the page.

“Yes. The Army asked for volunteers with knowledge of Alaska and its terrain to form a group called the Alaska Scouts. I think he gives the full name of it in his letter.”

“ ‘All-Alaska Combat Intelligence Scouts,’ ” Lisa read.

“That’s it. They’re going through a lot of specialized training. That’s why he wasn’t sure he’d have time to write you.”

“He sent along a picture.” Matty handed her the snapshot she’d been studying. “Wylie’s the one in the middle.”

Lisa stared at the three men in the photograph, dressed alike in parkas, each with a rifle slung loosely over his shoulder. Between the parkas’ fur hoods and the straggly beard growth, their faces were barely visible. They didn’t look like soldiers at all. In fact, Lisa wasn’t sure she would have recognized Wylie immediately if Matty hadn’t already pointed him out to her.

“He’s growing a beard.” She wasn’t very thrilled about that.

“Yes.” The tone of her voice seemed to indicate that his mother shared the opinion. “He says it will keep his face warm.”

“I suppose it will,” Lisa conceded, but she thought it made him look like some wild and woolly mountain man.

The resonating notes of the church organ filled the air as the organist struck the opening chords of the call to worship. “I think it’s time we took our seats.”

“Yes.” Lisa returned the letter and the photograph. “Thanks for letting me know about Wylie.”

“You don’t have to thank me for that,” his mother assured her. “Some evening when you don’t have anything to do, come over to the house. I’m usually there by myself anyway. Between the Army and all the contractors, Ace is flying parts and equipment all over Alaska. I hardly see him any more.”

“I’ll do that,” Lisa promised.

Her family was seated in one of the rear pews. She noticed that her mother had conveniently saved her a place on the end next to Steve Bogardus. She sat down beside him and reached for the hymnal. As she listened to the organist play, her thoughts centered on Wylie. He hadn’t forgotten her even if he hadn’t had time to write. Then the service began and she gave her attention to it.

Midway through the minister’s sermon, she heard a distant rumbling that resembled muffled explosions. Others heard it too, and heads turned and ears strained to identify the odd sound. A faint questioning murmur went through the congregation.

For once the minister didn’t drone on, and the morning service ended at its appointed time. As Lisa took her place in the long line slowly filing out of the church doors, everyone was asking a variation of the same question: “Did you hear that noise?”

“At first I thought it was thunder.”

Lisa turned to Steve Bogardus. “What do you suppose it was?”

“More than likely they were conducting some maneuvers out at Fort Richardson. We probably just heard the echo of their guns.” He smiled to indicate his lack of concern.

The explanation seemed more plausible than thunder in December. After shaking hands with the minister, Steve Bogardus led the family out of the church. “My car’s parked down the street.”

Before they reached the bottom of the steps, Lisa heard the wail of a siren, then realized there were more than one. She stopped. So did everyone else around her.

Then someone came running up. “It’s on the radio. The Japanese are bombing Hawaii.”

“No,” she murmured.

“Come on.” Steve took her arm. “Let’s go to my car. There’s a radio in it.”

Lisa broke into a run. All the things Wylie’s father had said were running through her mind. She tried to tell herself it wasn’t true, that it was all a false alarm. There wasn’t really going to be a war.

But the radio announcer confirmed the story that Japanese bombers had struck Hickam Field and the naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, and he further stated that more than a dozen warships in the harbor were in flames and predicted monstrous losses. All off-duty soldiers in Alaska were ordered to report immediately to their units, all non-military aircraft were grounded, and the streets were to be cleared of all civilian traffic. Everyone was to return home and wait further instruction.

When the announcer began to outline evacuation procedures in the event of an enemy attack, Lisa murmured, “My God, they really believe the Japanese might invade Alaska.”