Dart was overjoyed to get two letters today after a brief dry spell. Mail delivery seems quite sporadic these days, in both Shoemaker and Greenwich.

Referring to Dot’s chiding him about his worrying over her health, he comments, “Didn’t you know that when a person tells another person not to worry, as you told me not to, it’s an unmistakable signal for worry to begin, especially when the party of the second part loves the very air the party of the first part breathes? You’re surely right about our love being like quicksand – only more pleasant. We think we’re as much in love as any two kids could be, yet we fall more deeply in love at every new occasion.”

Dart and four friends went bowling after dinner tonight. His scores were the lowest of the bunch but they had loads of fun.

He observes that Venice, Italy and Shoemaker have much in common – they are both flooded. Venice, however, is connected directly to the sea whereas Shoemaker just has lots of rain and bad drainage. Now he knows why all the buildings are on stilts and the roads are built on embankments.

If she insists, he will try his best to surprise her on his next leave. He’s not sure he can keep it a secret because he’ll be so excited, but if it means so much to her, he will make every effort. He thanks her and her mother for the standing invitation to stay at their house.

He doesn’t care if he catches her in overalls, shorts, curlers or face cream. He’ll be so happy to see her that nothing else will matter. She, however needs to brace herself for the day she first sees him wearing shorts. His skinny bird legs may cause her quite a shock.

All of the plans she’s making for the next time they see each other will take quite a while to accomplish. Bicycle rides, swimming, fishing, ping-pong, etc. He hopes they take forever. He knows if they keep focused on their goals and work hard, they’ll accomplish all they hope to, and have fun doing it.

He vaguely knows the Sammy Kaye music she referred to and he likes it, too. He’s never heard the Mills Brothers’ song ‘Til Then but he agrees with Dot that the words fit their relationship perfectly. “Something which gives me a nice little sensation every time I see, or hear it, is one little word ‘us’ and all its brothers and sisters like ‘we’ and ‘our.’ It seems natural, yet entirely new and pleasant, to be speaking of you and me in terms like that. Oh, there I go dreaming again.”

He wants her to tell Mr. Goldstein to go ahead and try to fatten her up. Her “other interest” liked her just fine when she was bigger than she is now, and likes her even more now. If he succeeds in fattening her up, he’ll defeat his purpose by making Dot dissatisfied, not Dart.

It’s  nearly time for Taps, so he must close, his heart overflowing with love and perfect memories of their time together. On the back page he wrote a note to Tonsillectomy and drew a weird little picture of her and her pappy.

Dot finally got some letters from Dart that have been sent out of order, but she’s thrilled to get them whenever they come.

Don called last night to give El the news that he will be getting eight days of leave before reporting to Ft. Devens until September. After that, he’ll start Tufts Medical School, just outside of Boston. No war service for El’s fiance! Dot recalls all the tears El wasted, and how little faith she put in God, Don or the Army. After all, Don graduated first in his class at Penn.

She loves Dart’s house plans but wants to think about them a little longer before commenting more. Her father says Dart has lots of good ideas, but he suggests not putting the three windows in the door because “those have been used on nearly every $5,000 house ever built.” I’m not sure what that means. Was $5,000 a lot for a house then, or did Arthur think it made the house look cheap?

She’s very concerned that his back is acting up again…or still. She begs him to take good care of it and not let it get worse, if possible.

Because there’s so little she can do for him for Christmas, she asks if he would please call her that day, collect. It would be like a gift she buys herself. She says he musn’t limit it to a three minute call, either. She’d gladly listen to anything he had to talk about, even if he was explaining the Mark I computer to her (again).

How could he so blithely announce he expects to be shipped out the middle of next week? That’s about now! She’d hoped he’d still be in the country for Christmas, but guesses that was too much to ask.

She urges him to take very good care of himself while he’s away. If he can only send one air mail letter per week from the ship, don’t always send it to her. She knows how hard his absence will be on his parents, so she begs him to write to them often.

As it is now, she can hardly stand being away from him, so she’s clueless how she’ll survive with him so very far away, in places unknown to her. She’ll be thinking of him constantly, and praying for his safe and speedy return. I can hear the dread and worry in her words.

She appreciates that he turned down a date with a Wave. She thinks he’d have been like her, and not had a very good time with anyone else, but he has the right to if he chooses.

Although she kisses his picture every night, she’d much rather it be a real kiss like the ones they shared on the stairs that night in Cleveland. As wonderful as the real thing was, the memory of it makes it seem even more wonderful, and it makes her miss him even more.

She signs off with, “Yours til the ocean wears rubber pants to keep its bottom dry.” Appropriate for a sailor, I guess.