Dart writes an especially sweet and poignant letter today. First he tells of being hailed to the office via loudspeaker, where he finally met up with Fred! They spent several hours talking and walking, making plans to go into town the next evening to see a play.
At noon the next day, Fred came dashing in on Dart as he was shaving, saying that in two hours, he’d be gone. At 3:15, Dart saw a convoy of trucks loading a group of Marines onto a ship across the bay in ‘Frisco. By 4:00, Fred’s stay in the United States had ended. Dart watched until Fred’s ship passed under the Golden Gate Bridge and headed out to sea.
Dart says they talked of many things, including Dot, but there was a sad bit of news to mar the reunion. “Another of our friends and classmates, 1st Lt. William A. MacDonald, was lost when the Liberator he was co-piloting was shot down over the lines in France.” Dart related that some of the crew parachuted to safety, some landed in German hands, and Bill stayed with the plane to try and get it back to base. The plane crashed within sight of our lines.
“I could ramble on about what a swell, good-looking and good natured fellow Bill was. I could also say something about his fiance, our classmate, a neighbor of mine. But sad words and eulogies are of no use. They are heard so often now that they begin to lose a little of their effect. All I can say is that it’s a darned shame.”
This simple telling of the death of a young man I never knew, 70 years after it happened, caused me to mist up. Such a terrible waste! A loss to the world for all time. And replicated millions of times in dozens of wars in the intervening decades. Will we ever learn?
Dart told Dot a little about his latest liberty with his new buddy “Leffman. They missed seeing Jimmy Dorsey by five minutes and saw a pretty good film called Dr. Wassell.
He suggests to Dot that they drop the “unworthiness” business. He happens to think they are very well suited, in addition to being very much in love. He dispels her notion of his brain power by saying he’s simply been lucky that the tests have asked the questions he happens to know the answers to. Next, he runs down a list of his “flaws,” including frequent and pointless cussing and essential laziness. He claims he could go on, but instead he acknowledges that they are both human and he hopes the little bad traits they both have will not prove daunting or insurmountable to live with. All he knows now is that she’s the one and only girl for him, with or without her faults.
He comments on the opening paragraph of her letter that he received today. I can’t tell if he enjoyed it’s bold flirtation, or if he was a little nervous about where she picked up a line like that. (All those movies she sees, maybe?)
He tells her that his parents think a lot of the picture Dot sent them, and they think a lot of the girl who sent it. He tells her that he has placed all of her photos on display and continues to get a little thrill every time he looks at them because they enhance his memories of the time they were taken. “I remember how contented and natural it seemed to have my arms around you or to walk hand in hand with you.”
He closes by saying that letters are absurdly feeble for expressing what is in his heart, but he is so glad he was able to tell her in person and to know that they are “in it together.”
Dot begins her letter to Dart with a breathless description of her day. She raced from work to the beach, where she felt like floating in Long Island Sound all night. It was the hottest day of the hottest summer on record. While at the beach, she saw the mailman who informed her there were two letters from Dart waiting for her at home. I get a kick out of how much the whole town of Greenwich seems to be invested in this romance!
Her cousin Janie wanted Dot to go home with her after the beach visit, but knowing what was awaiting her, Dot decided to head home immediately. She says she’ll spend the night at Janie’s house after they see Dragonseed tomorrow night.
She tells Dart that she finally worked up enough nerve to do a back dive yesterday. “As far as form goes, well, I didn’t have any, but on the other hand, neither did I suffer from any physical injuries.”
She wonders how he’ll ever manage to gain any weight if he skips meals to do laundry. She also requests that he send her his pictures of their leave together. She just wants to see what they look like and then promises to return them to him.
As she finishes the letter, it’s nearly midnight, making it 9:00 PM where Dart is. “I’m wondering if you can see the gorgeous moon. They always seem most beautiful the times it doesn’t do me any good.”
