On Seas So Crimson

by James Young

  “Sorry I’m late, Jo…” Sadie began.

  “Oh stop apologizing,” Jo said mirthfully. “It’s your husband and his brother’s fault for volunteering to be the duty officers tomorrow.”

  Sadie stopped dead and turned to look at David.

  “Volunteered?!” she asked in shock.

  “The two duty officers that were assigned both have newborns,” Sam said quickly. “One of them didn’t know it, but his parents were going to surprise him today.”

  Sadie looked at both twins.

  “Sam, someday we are going to have to get you married so you stop doing nice things for other people’s families,” Sadie said evenly.

  “Or alternatively his brother could let him ride off a cliff by himself just this once,” Peter observed lowly, drawing a heated look from David.

  “I seem to recall a certain pilot cadet that benefited from David and I being joined at the hip,” Sam replied, drawing a pained look from Byrnes and a puzzled look from Nancy.

  “I should probably do the introductions for Sadie’s sake,” Jo said lightly. “Sadie, this is Commander Keith Hertling, or ‘Uncle K.’ He was in my father’s destroyer squadron when we were all at Newport News. Beside him is his wife, Nancy, who basically raised me as a teenager.”

  “Hello Sadie,” Nancy said. “Josephine, sorry to interrupt, but we should probably serve the food before it gets cold.”

  Jo looked nonplussed for a moment at having forgotten that the dishes were already on the table.

  “Whoops! Yes, everyone sit down. Uncle K, will you say grace?” Jo said sheepishly.

  “Certainly,” Commander Hertling replied.

  As she took her seat, Jo felt herself mildly embarrassed.

  I should have put Uncle K at the head of the table, she thought. But I didn’t want all of the Cobbs to feel like they were back in the mess.

  “Amen,” she said, then raised her head to look down the table, a feeling of lightness in her chest.

  They say this is a holiday for family, she thought. I guess family’s what you make of it.

  “You seem pleased with yourself,” Nancy observed as the food started getting passed around.

  “Oh, just feeling truly thankful,” Jo said, causing a chuckle around the table. “A lot of happenstance had to take place to get everyone at this table.”

  “Well happenstance is one word for it,” Nick said teasingly as he looked at Patricia. As Sam turned to say something, the younger Cobb continued smoothly, “But whatever you choose, I’m glad to have Toots here with us. It’s almost like Mom put herself in a time machine.”

  “You know, Dad warned her about letting you read H.G. Wells,” Patricia replied, drawing a chuckle from Peter and her brothers.

  “I can only imagine what it was like for your parents having all of you in the house,” Sadie observed. “When I met David I found it hard to believe that he had a twin, much less four siblings.”

  “Just think, you haven’t even met all of them yet,” Peter said. “Eric’s the sane one at least.”

  “How did you meet Eric?” Jo asked, intrigued.

  “He was doing basic flight training just as these lugs were finishing getting me through advanced,” Peter replied as he finished preparing his plate. “From what I understand, he’s a gifted pilot.”

  “Apparently fairly lucky as well,” Commander Hertling observed. Jo saw Nancy’s arm move slightly.

  Pretty sure she just pinched him under the table, Jo thought.

  “So speaking of how everyone met,” Nancy said airily, “Just how did you meet your husband, Sadie?”

  “Well my school invites a group of officers in to talk to the kids every couple of weeks,” Sadie said. “David was chosen to talk to my class, and the rest is history.”

  Oh no, there’s much more to the story than that…but we’ll let it pass, Jo thought, giving the newest Mrs. Cobb a conspiratorial look. The phrase “whirlwind romance” definitely applies here, but when two people click…they click. Looking at Sam, she felt a moment’s sadness.

  Then again, when the powder train doesn’t ignite, she thought wistfully.

  “I just hope Mom forgives her sometime before this century ends,” Sam observed, giving his sister-in-law a smile.

  “Is your mother not a forgiving woman?” Nancy asked.

  “Mom is very forgiving…” Sam began.

  “…once she gets her pound of flesh.” David finished. He reached over and squeezed his wife. “I think we’ll live, and it’s been worth it so far.”

  Sadie blushed slightly, and Jo had to fight to keep her face passive at that one.

  Yes, I imagine being newlyweds with no responsibilities and your own house would make that worth it, Jo thought. Especially if we look up and there’s a little Cobb in July or August.

  “Well maybe she will actually respond to your letters,” Patricia observed.

  “Oh, she responded to your letters,” Nick said. “She just didn’t respond to you.”

  “Nick!” Sam and David said simultaneously, as Patricia looked at her brother in surprise.

  “What do you mean, she responded?” Patricia asked.

  “Nothing,” Nick said, looking as if he was suddenly quite aware that both his brothers were within easy arm’s reach. “Family business, it can wait until after dinner.”

  “For someone who is in the ‘silent service’ you sure do talk a lot,” Sam stated pointedly.

  “Which submarine are you on?” Commander Hertling asked pleasantly.

  Thank you, Uncle K! Jo thought internally.

  “Sir…” Nick began.

  “Stop that at the table,” Jo chided with a smile.

  “Sorry, Keith,” Nick started again. “I’m on the Nautilus.”

  “Ah, Lieutenant Commander Freeman goes to our church,” Nancy observed. “Have you met Agnes and the girls?”

  “Yes, ma’am, I mean, Nancy I have,” Nick said. “Lieutenant Commander Freeman makes it a point to rotate the wardroom through his house on Sunday evenings. Good way to meet some of the other sub commanders as well.”

  “Those girls are angels,” Nancy observed wistfully.

  The fates are cruel for never letting you have children, Jo thought sadly. You would have made a great mother.

  “Smart as whips too,” Nick observed. “Going to be a handful when Sadie gets to teach them.”

  Sadie smirked.

  “Being a handful and a fifth grader go together like peanut butter and jelly. How many girls are you talking about?”

  “There are five of them,” Nick replied. “No brothers, so it seems like the oldest one has become a tomboy. She apparently gave one of the neighbor kids a black eye for making her younger sister cry.”

  “Sometimes a young man needs a good right cross,” Patricia observed quietly, causing all three of her brothers to smirk.

  “Or a shove out a tree house,” Sam and David said in unison.

  Cobb Residence

  Mobile, Alabama

  1700 Local (1800 Eastern)

  26 November

  “I don’t think Beau was ever the same after your sister shoved him out of that thing,” Samuel Cobb said, causing Eric to jump. The younger Cobb had been regarding the old, broken down tree house that sat in the notch of a massive elm tree in the Cobbs’ backyard.

  “Well anyone with a lick of sense could have told him it was a bad idea to tell Patricia she wasn’t allowed in the tree house anymore because she was getting boobs,” Eric observed after a moment. “Sorry to leave so suddenly, I had to get out of the house to catch some air.”

  “Yes, your mother was quite put out until I told her, in no uncertain terms, you weren’t being rude, and she’d remember why if she thought about it,” Samuel said evenly. “It took me ten years after getting back from France to be able to stand the smell of pork chops cooking.”

  Eric looked at his father in shock.

  “But Mom cooked them every Sunday as far back as I can remember,”
Eric said when he regained his composure.

  “Yes she sure did,” Samuel replied. “Said she told me not to go off to that fool war, and she was going to be damned before she went the rest of her life without a pork chop because I was too stubborn to listen.”

  Holy shit, Eric thought. No wonder Grandma Cobb said Mom had the disposition of a cottonmouth when suitably crossed. Sure that was when Grandma had had a couple drinks too many and Mom pushed her, but still…

  “You never forget what a man burning smells like,” Samuel said quietly. “Your mother didn’t understand that then, and maybe watching you rush out of the house like you’d just seen Old Scratch come in the front door will make her understand.”

  “I just didn’t want her to think it was because Beau came in wearing his uniform with his new flame,” Eric said.

  “That was her first thought, yes,” Samuel allowed. “Which is why I was so forceful in making sure she understood it had nothing to do with that. Your mother is still wrapping her mind around what happened to you, son. I still don’t know all the details—but I recognized that look on your face.”

  “I never knew it would be like that, Dad,” Eric said in a rush, the words surprising even him. “I always thought it would be clean, antiseptic.”

  “Well of course you did,” Samuel said. “That is why I told all of you boys to plan on flying, because I’d had enough time in mud, blood, and filth for three generations.”

  “I still see Lieutenant Commander’s Cobleigh’s plane blowing up in my sleep,” Eric said. “The British sailors cut to shreds or burning.”

  “I won’t tell you it ever stops,” Samuel said. “I will tell you that eventually it doesn’t happen as often. The first year, I had to sleep on the couch because I almost strangled your mother.”

  If dad is going for the record of “most times I can shock my son in one night,” he’s well on his way, Eric thought, aghast.

  “I tell you these things because they are matters people who haven’t seen the elephant don’t understand,” Samuel said. “You need to be aware of them, and you need to make sure Joyce is aware of them.”

  “I…I never knew, Dad,” Eric said.

  “There were days I thought your Uncle Nicholas was the lucky one,” Samuel said, his voice breaking slightly. “If I hadn’t had you kids and your mother, I don’t know what I might have done.”

  There was the sound of footfalls behind them before Samuel could continue. Both Cobbs turned around in the dusk gloom.

  “Hello Beau,” Samuel said.

  Beauregard Jackson Cotner was almost as tall as Eric, but of an athletic build that recalled a racing animal or sleek jungle cat. His blue eyes were so light to be almost dull, and his hair was so blonde to be almost white. With sharp features standing out from his heart shaped face, Beau was the kind of man who would always be considered attractive but not strikingly handsome. An impartial observer, however, would have noted that his Army uniform, complete with second lieutenant bars and flight wings certainly helped matters.

  That is a man who found a good tailor, Eric thought.

  “Hey Mr. Cobb,” Beau drawled, his accent belying his parents’ Mississippi origins. “Just came out to see if Eric was okay.”

  Samuel smiled in return, then clasped his son on the shoulder.

  “Funny, I did the same thing,” Samuel said. “If both of us stay out here, dinner’s going to be a little frosty for everyone involved.”

  With that, Samuel clasped his son on the shoulder and gave him a reassuring squeeze before walking back towards the house with a nod to Beau.

  “Beau, I’m sorry,” Eric began.

  Beau looked at him in bemusement.

  “You ran out of there like you’d seen a water moccasin, Eric,” Beau replied sardonically. “While Deborah is many things, snakelike is not one of them.”

  “No, that she is not, from what little bit I saw before my stomach told me it was time to leave,” Eric said, grinning. “Although I didn’t think blondes were your thing.”

  Beau shrugged.

  “Hadn’t had much luck with brunettes lately,” he replied evenly.

  Eric winced inwardly.

  “I’m sor…” he started.

  “Will you stop apologizing for stuff you did not do, Eric?” Beau asked, exasperated. “Everyone in your family acts like your sister stabbed me in my sleep or something.”

  Eric was taken aback by the vehemence of Beau’s words.

  “I think we all feel somewhat responsible,” Eric said.

  “Or alternatively that’s what your mom wants you all to feel,” Beau said with a smirk. “In reality, I think we all should have seen it coming from a mile away.”

  It’s just a night for people to say all sorts of unexpected shit to me, Eric thought.

  “Oh don’t look like you bit down on a lemon when you were expecting a peach,” Beau continued, the smirk becoming a full smile. “Toots was…is a mule-headed woman. Wait, that’s not fair to her or mules. She’s a very strong woman.”

  “Do they teach you some of that Far Eastern mumbo jumbo at Army flight training or something?” Eric asked. “Because you seem to be way too calm about this.”

  “On the first day of flight instruction, we had a crash,” Beau said simply. “Instructor was showing the cadet how to do loops, and the top wing of that Stearman came right off. No idea how, no idea why, but at eight hundred feet there’s not a lot someone can do other than make their peace with God.”

  Eric pressed his lips in a flat line at the statement’s grim truth.

  Sometimes the check for that farm you bought clears quicker than you expect, he thought grimly.

  “Sort of brought it home for some folks that we are doing some serious shit, pardon my French,” Beau said. “So that’s when I had to ask myself if I was just running away from this situation when I went and joined up, or if this is truly what I wanted to do.”

  Eric nodded towards the wings on Beau’s chest.

  “Well seems like you have your answer,” he said with a smile.

  “Yes, but part of getting to this point was sorting out what happened with your sister,” Beau said. “In retrospect, when she asked me to learn chess and I refuse, that should have been my clue.”

  “The girl loves her chess,” Eric said.

  “Your sister’s a full blown woman, Eric,” Beau said, causing Eric to turn and give him a glance. The Army officer held up his hands defensively before continuing. “No, I don’t mean in that sense, although I think it’d be pretty rich of you to go getting self righteous.”

  Eric felt color start to come to his face as Beau went on.

  “I mean it in that she has her own wants, desires, interests, and way she views things,” Beau stated. “I mean, how many women can carry a conversation about Buck Rogers or talk about some Tolstoy guy? Not many, and I came to realize that she needed a man who could keep up with her. I’m many things, but I am not that man.”

  “She still didn’t need to leave you that way,” Eric said.

  “No, she didn’t,” Beau replied. “Then again, last time I checked she didn’t have enough money in her bank account to make it out to Hawaii on her own.”

  “No, no she didn’t,” Eric allowed. “I think Mom is still quite perturbed with Dad on that front.”

  “Your father has sworn up and down he wasn’t the one who gave her the funds,” Beau said with a smile.

  “No, he probably didn’t directly,” Eric replied. “But he’s a shrewd businessman and a lawyer to boot. If someone else put the money in her account in exchange for a future favor, Dad’s still telling the truth, isn’t he?”

  Beau gave Eric a conspiratorial smile.

  “You sound as if you know what happened,” Beau replied.

  “No, but I know Mom was muttering about how he could apparently make accounts balance better than Al Capone,” Eric said with a shrug. “Of course, there are lots of other suspects who could have been involved, and Grandpa Co
bb did bequeath all of us children some money for when we become adults.”

  “Joyce says you’re going to use yours to pay for law school starting in January,” Beau said. “So I take it that the extra thirty days Secretary Knox gave you ‘to just think about it’ are pretty much additional vacation time?”

  “I think I’ve done enough,” Eric said solemnly.

  “Yes, and I’m told you are quite adamant about having been sworn to secrecy about it,” Beau replied teasingly. “Despite there being some articles in the Saturday Daily Post and Life about when and where you were shot down.”

  “Hopefully you’ll never find out just how accurate German flak is,” Eric replied. “I don’t think my squadron leader ever knew what hit him.”

  The comment turned the mood awkward for a moment.

  “Well odds are I won’t be seeing any Germans,” Beau said. “No unless President Roosevelt can raise Atlantis between now and January when the Republicans and American Firsters make doing so illegal.”

  Eric gave Beau a questioning look.

  “I’m flying medium bombers,” Beau said. “I’ll be riding a Baltimore Whore.”

  “What?” Eric said at Beau’s deadpan delivery.

  “The Martin Marauder,” Beau said laughingly. “Martin’s main plant is in Baltimore, so they call the plane the Baltimore Whore because of its wing.”

  “This is me having no idea what you’re talking about,” Eric said.

  “It’s got a high wing on the fuselage that looks like it’s not supported by any struts,” Beau explained simply. “Fast as hell though, even if it’s a bit tricky to fly.”

  “Must be nice,” Eric said, then caught himself. “I don’t know why I care, it’s not like SBDs are my aircraft anymore.”

  “Well you could always change your mind again,” Beau said with a smile.

  “No thank you. The Queen is a nice young lady…” he began, then shut his mouth.

  Beau looked at him speculatively.

  “So, met the Queen have we? Does my sister need to worry?” Beau asked.

  “You need to keep that to yourself,” Eric snapped. “Seriously.”