There’s scarcely an iota of romance in Dart’s letter today. Too little time before he stands watch, too much on his mind.

He begins with, “Today I was home for a few minutes. No, not really, truly home, but for a few minutes today, the war, the Pacific, the Haggard did not exisit. Fred Dixon came down to the ship to spend the morning and eat lunch.”

They spent some time looking at Dart’s photos, talking over old times and their plans for the future. “It was really good to see someone from home again, someone who called me by my first name. I hear it so seldom that Fred’s use of it jarred me. I’d almost forgotten I had any other name than Pete.”

Fred dislikes ships. He dislikes his island. He’s bored with his humdrum assignment and envies Dart’s travels, even as he doesn’t envy some of the things Dart has experienced. His envy’s a case of ‘the grass is always greener.'”

Dart wonders when their paths will cross again – the Pacific, the Orient, perhaps even Cleveland.

Dot’s letter is also just one page long, but much more intimate than Dart’s. It was one year ago today that Dart was in Greenwich. “The third time in my life that I saw you; yet it took only the first meeting to know that I was in love with you.” This time last year was also the time she heard his mother say on the telephone that he could extend his visit in Greenwich by a day and Dot ran upstairs to kiss him. How she longs to relive that moment! Now!

But the 1945 version of the day was not quite so blissful. She babysat for Chris and Eric, but this was the day Eric decided to run his tear ducts completely dry by howling the entire day. “He’d be stiff competition for Nelson Eddy.”

She’s exhausted and must fall into bed.