During his supper break on a fire control watch, while the welders are gone, Dart writes one of his most intimate and passionate letters to date. How powerful memories become, when memories are all you have.
“I have two urges at this moment. One is to sleep – the other is to spend the evening making love to you. I want to sit around nonchalantly (but inwardly very anxiously) waiting for the rest of the household to go to bed. Then, perhaps feeling very light-on-my-feet and excited, I’d like to raid the icebox. After Pepsi’s or cokes, and maybe sandwiches, I’d like to ask you if we should turn out the lights. Of course, you’ll say yes (you always have), and we’ll settle down on the davenport for a long talk (or something). It, of course would take us a little time to make ourselves comfortable.
“We’d eventually end up in each other’s arms, though, no matter how long it took us to get settled. Oh, my Darling, how much I want to relive those evenings over in some other way than by memory. I want to look up into your face and see the expressions in your eye. Do you know your eyes catch reflections, and light up in the most lovable and easily-remembered way?
“How about our sighs when we are kissing, or how very close and unified we seem when we kiss that special way? That makes me tingle and throb all over. The first few seconds of each time we do that are without description.
“Dot, I wonder if it’s as difficult for you to control yourself at those times as it is for me. In a way that frightens me because I realize afterward how easily we could, if we don’t control ourselves, become too passionate, and do something we do not wish to do yet. In another way, though, our special way of kissing seems to bring us as much together as anything possibly could, short of being married and spending our nights in that big double bed we plan. So, in that light, it satisfies me. I don’t think it’s wrong, for it seems to serve as a substitute for what we know is wrong. Because we both play an equal part in it, and because it just seemed to grow and be natural for us, it appears to me to be much more ‘right’ than the thing that I asked of you one night at your house.
“Thank you, Dot, for refusing that, or for saying that what I asked for was wrong. Together, Dot, we can’t go wrong, if we can keep our heads. And I think we can keep our heads.
“…I remember the little noises you used to make, involuntarily, when we’d be in an embrace like that, and I remember the way you say ‘I love you.’ It thrills me to hear you say that. …
Dot, I miss you so much, and I long for the day when we can be together again. Then, for the days a little farther on when we can be married, and I can come home to you every night, to see you smiling, to kiss you, to eat supper with you.”
Dot is happy she waited until later in the day to write. If she’d done so earlier, her foul mood would have tainted her letter, but now she has a great letter from Dart, plus she’s seen “Rhapsody in Blue,”and her mood is much improved.
The reason for her bad feelings before was the fact that she had three exams in three classes, and she doesn’t feel she did herself any favors on any of them. It’s bad enough she’s let herself down, but she feels terrible about letting Dart and her parents down, too.
As for the movie, she loved the music, but didn’t think much about Gershwin’s love-life, or lack thereof. Still, if that was his life, they couldn’t very well change it just for the movie. The pianist in the film reminded Dot of Dart’s brother – same dry wit and dead pan delivery of jokes. Dot wishes she could master that skill.
She’s sorry Dart was unable to get a call through over the weekend, but that shouldn’t let it keep him from trying again. She enjoyed his drawing of the Charleston house. She says her house and the USO sound like they have a lot in common; there’s always plenty of activity and noise in each one.
She can’t understand why Dart’s mother doesn’t want him to give her parents a portrait of him for Christmas. Dot knows for sure they’d love it. They’ve told her they’d like a good photo to share with their friends so they can see how lucky Dot is.
Yes, time has flown since they’ve known each other, but that doesn’t make the coming years look any shorter on the calendar. It was two years ago on December 5 that Dart first wrote that he loved Dot. He was 19 and she was 17. How she wanted to write the same thing back, but she felt she was too young to know her own mind, so she forced herself to hold back. She knows her mind now, and she’s not afraid to tell him that she’ll love him for all time.
She promises to send a list of addresses if he will do the same, but it’ll not be today.
