HE GOT THE LEAVE! The entire class got a nine-day leave which will give Dart almost exactly 60 hours in Cleveland. We can all breathe again!
Less exciting, but equally important is the news that Dart received his Seaman First Class rank and his Fire Control rating. He was only one of nine in his class to receive the first class rank. The Fire Control rating is one of the most important to have at sea, and one of the most difficult to get. As of Saturday, he’ll also be getting $12 more per month.
At the end of his leave, he must report to Shoemaker, California, “which is one of the most horrible stations ever.”
For the last two days it’s been raining so hard that Dart’s been unable to get to the Western Union office to send the telegram he’d planned for his folks and best girl. Except for a light drizzle at Point Montara, it’s the only rain he’s seen since Nebraska on the way west so many weeks ago.
Now he’ll buy his train ticket, spend a day washing and packing, and, with luck, take his last liberty in San Francisco.
He’s coming home!
As Dot writes this letter, she’s unaware that Dart will be heading home soon. She tells him that she’s just discovered another reason why she’s so grateful to have met him. She just ran into a former beau and he’s deplorable. Since they dropped each other, he has been expelled from most of the private schools on the East Coast and now has a criminal record! She asks Dart not to judge her too harshly because she was only 12 years old at the time. “Oh, I’m so lucky to know and love you.”
Taking the optimistic view, she asks if there’s any reason she couldn’t find her own way to his folks’ house from the station on Tuesday morning. She’s concerned that she’ll be arriving so early in the morning that she might disturb them unnecessarily if they have to pick her up. Little does she know that they will likely have been up for hours, in eager anticipation of Dart’s arrival.
She’s very proud of his ranking second in his class, because when he is rich and famous, she’ll be able to brag that she knew him when… She claims that after hearing the news, she ran right upstairs and destroyed all of her old report cards.
Like Dart she’ll also be moving this week, so she has some cleaning and packing to do.
There’s one small favor she’d like to ask of Dart if they see each other over his leave. Could he please not say too much about the election? She’s afraid Dewey won’t win and she’d hate to be subjected to too much gloating from Dart and his family.
She comments that this was a rather flat note on which to end the letter, but end it she must.
