Dart has an hour and a half until the lights go out for the night, and he still needs to write to his parents. He’s doing all he can to convince them to take a trip to New England this summer.
As he writes, he keeps looking at the Easter picture Dot sent. It sends him over the moon. In fact, he thinks it’s about the best picture he’s ever seen of her. “After almost two years of knowing you I’m still amazed that such a wonderful, pretty girl should be in love with a rawboned sailor like me. I don’t think there’s a thing to worry about, as far as our bright-eyed dreams’ coming true is concerned. With you and me together, we can have a share in each other’s fun and hardships for the rest of our days. There could be nothing better than sharing everything I have with you forever.”
He sounds a little like Dot in the next paragraph, trying to convince her that he’s unworthy of a girl like her. He calls himself a “dimwit,” (Hardly!) and a “hypochondriac.” (Well, maybe, but that’s not so bad…)
In her letter of April 10, Dot mentioned that by the time he read that letter, it would be time for April’s full moon. As it turns out, the letter didn’t arrive until nearly time for May’s full moon. He’ll run topside soon to check it out, and urges Dot to do the same so they can watch it together. Then he tells her that regardless of how romantic and dreamy full moons can be, they are not always so good for for military security.
He asks her if she’d read in Readers’ Digest that the military had reduced regulations to the bare minimum:
1) If it moves, salute it. 2) If it doesn’t move, pick it up. 3) If it’s too big to pick up, paint it. Funny!
Referring to some remark Dot made about him not hanging her picture up among all the “pin-up girls” lest she suffer by comparison, he says he wouldn’t dare display her photos in public “for these wolves to howl at.” He says most guys who are serious about their sweethearts keep their pictures private. Then he adds that perhaps by the time he’s been at sea for 15 months, he will have devolved into a “chip off the old fur-pile” himself, but he hopes not.
Dot assumes it was Dart’s intention to scare her out of her wits with his suggestion that he was considering joining the regular Navy. She says she should just act nonchalant and agree that it’s a fine idea, but she’s afraid he might think she means that and do something drastic. She has no desire for him to make the Navy a career. She advises him to think back to the arguments he made against her joining the WAVEs and he’ll see that many of the same points would apply to him in this case. She strongly urges him to resist the idea. “I don’t want you coming home for good at an age when we should both be grandparents.”
Referring to a snapshot of himself that he enclosed in a resent letter, she disagrees that he looks “glum.” She rather likes that far-off look in his eyes, especially if his eyes are looking toward Greenwich. She can’t get enough of his pictures. When she shows them to everyone, their envy for her grows. She asks if he ever got the photos she sent from Easter. (Isn’t it interesting how their letters so often mention the same topics on the same day,?)
Her friend Nancy is coming to live at the Chamberlain house for about a week. He family has to move out of the house they’re in, but the new place won’t be ready for about a week, so everyone is scattering around Greenwich to stay with friends. Soon after that, Nancy will begin her training with the Cadet Nurse Corps at the University of Connecticut. Dot is sure she’ll make a great nurse because she’s such a sweet kid. She again asks Dart to write Nancy a letter to give her a thrill.
Dot was just recalling Dart’s July visit to Greenwich. They had each other convinced that his mother would be happy to allow him to stay an extra day in Connecticut so that he would be well rested for his return trip to Cleveland. She remembers how happy she was when she heard that Helen had, indeed, given him her blessings to stay on a little longer. She was so happy that she ran up the stairs and gave him a huge hug. She still thinks of that moment every time she passes that section of the stairs. How she wishes she’d said more during his brief stay, but if he’ll come home soon, she’ll say everything she can think of to convince him just how much she loves him.
Dot enclosed a clipping of Arthur Chamberlain’s story about the Fix-It Shop published in the Readers’ Digest. Very interesting reading!
