Dart, claiming to be the luckiest guy on the ship, has received 12 letters since last night. Half of them are from Dot and one came from Fred.
He was sorry to hear of Gordon’s accident and hopes his recovery is speedy and that he has no lasting impairments.
The biggest news contained in Dot’s letters was that she’s planning to go to college in September. He’s delighted! And he’s not just saying that to get on her good side after his negative reactions to her previous plans! He, too, has been considering Kent State as his alma mater, if they take transfer credits from Case. He’s heard they have strong English and Journalism courses. If she starts in September and the war ends soon enough, he could enroll as a mid-year Sophmore at about the time she reaches that same point. He’s so very excited that she’s going to school and that they’ll be living so close to each other.
Of the letter from Fred, Dart writes, it “is the most disconsolate, bitter, discouraged piece of writing I’ve ever seen. If it were sent by a boy to his mother, it would break her heart. He has the makings of a great writer, but he’s cracking, I’m afraid….If he’s not a psycho case in less than a year, I’ll eat my greasy old sailor hat. I feel only pity for Fred.”
This paragraph was hard for me to read. Over the course of these letters, I’ve marveled at the depth of friendship and personal respect these two intelligent young men had for each other. Still, I knew I never heard Dad mention Fred when I was growing up. I asked Mom whether Fred returned to Cleveland after the war and if he and Dad stayed close. She said that although both of them lived in Cleveland when they got out of the service, they were never really close after the war. In Dart’s opinion, Fred had become dangerously angry and dark. Dart found none of the foundation for friendship that had been there in high school, and they just drifted apart.
He continued the letter later that evening to describe a beautiful night; perfect full moon, an array of sparkling constellations in the sky, the lights of aircraft landing on a nearby island. He said it was the kind of night that made every man on board wish for a sweetheart, a wife, or a family to share it with at that moment.
Soon, he must write to Dot’s parents, especially her father. His parents have counseled him that it’s still customary to have a young lady’s father’s blessing before announcing an engagement.
She asked him what other girls say when they hear sweet nothings whispered in their ear. He explains that he has very limited experience. He experimented once with the girl who wore the black sequin gown, but she simply said, “Oh, hush! You sound silly when you say things like that. Why don’t you say what you mean?” All he’d said was that she looked pretty, but he was not convinced, so he couldn’t convince her. He vowed then to never try that approach again until he could truly believe the sweet things he was saying.
He must leave her now to write a couple of letters. To her folks, perhaps?
Dot asks forgiveness for failing to write last night. After writing to Dart’s mother, she was too tired to hold a pen. She’ll try to write every day and hope that somehow her letters get through to him eventually. She’s terribly curious about what he might be doing now to prevent mail from coming in or going out. She hopes he’s safe and that she’ll soon have a letter reassuring her of the fact.
Tonight she vowed she’d stay home and catch up on three weeks worth of ironing. But, Mrs. Hollerhan called and whined that she really wished she and Dr. Hollerhan could go see a movie tonight. Consequently, Dot finds herself babysitting. She was clever enough to ask Mrs. H if she could bring her ironing, so now, she’s getting paid to do what she was willing to stay home and do for free.
Even though Gordon is doing better with his injury, Dot wishes the Navy would send him home. She wishes the Navy had the same point system the Army uses so that men with lots of duty time, or those who have sustained injuries can get home sooner.
In response to Dart’s question about whether Lake Sunapee ever warms up over the summer, Dot writes, “Sunapee is the nearest thing to Paradise on Earth, so naturally it warms up to just the right temperature in the summer, and stays that way just long enough.” I can see where I (and all of my cousins) get our blind spot about the perfections of Sunapee. I dare anyone to try and stop us from believing it’s the world’s most perfect place.
Returning to a subject that obviously weighs heavily on her mind, Dot writes, “You’re a great one for leaving me up in the air about something. First, you say the days of no mail will be ‘long, long days, for many, many reasons,’ But you fail to give the slightest hint as to what those reasons are. Then you say I continue to amaze you, but you don’t tell me why or how.” She says his letters are like crowssword puzzles. The thing is, he’s gone through these mail blackouts before and Dot has taken them in stride. Why is this one different? I suspect she has some kind of “vibe” that there is something out of the ordinary going on. She can’t really know about the near-destruction of the Haggard, yet she’s antsy. I think the girl is slightly psychic!
She figures the censors have Dart petrified. There hasn’t been so much as a period removed from his letters in weeks. She wonders if he’s ever been able to use the code he and his father devised to give some hints as to his whereabouts. She doesn’t see how that would have the potential for putting the ship at risk, but concedes that the Navy might know something she doesn’t.
How relieved she was to learn that Dart has whistled at girls! Up to the point of reading his embarrassing story about whistling, she was sure he wasn’t human, but now she’s reassured. “When boys whistle at me (which at my young age is far too seldom), I whistle right back at them. That usually embarrasses them more than anything I could think of to say.”
Her curiosity bubbles up again when she asks him what incident occured to make him change his about about the stature of that “if.” She begs him to open up. “The suspense is killing me. I’m awfully glad you changed your mind, but can’t you tell me why?”
She tells him he’ll have to wait for the answer to his question about how she’ll act when she gets married. “You see, I’ve never been married before and it will be a completely new experience for me. I’d be much obliged if you’d make a date now to be around then so I can give you a blow by blow description of what it’s like.”
In a sudden show of emotion, she writes that she misses him so much it’s almost unbearable. “Oh, why don’t the Japs give up now so you can come home soon?…I love you with all that’s in me. Remember that and keep it in mind ’til I’m around to constantly remind you.”
She signs off with “God bless you, Darling. I love you always, Dorothy.”
Then she adds a P.S. that her friend Cynthia just came home from college and asked to be remembered to Dart. She and her “intended” are just about as far along in their love life as Dot and Dart are, and they only met last August. “See, it makes a big difference where a sailor is stationed.”
