“We have to at least try,” Betty argued.
“I should never have gone with him to the beach in the first place. And nothing really happened anyway. I managed to escape.”
“And what if you hadn’t?” Betty said.
The thought chilled Daisy. “The fact that you had to escape from your date says everything. If we don’t stop him, he’s going to keep at it with other WARDs. Who’s to say he hasn’t already?”
Fluff crossed her arms. “Absolutely not. I just want to forget about it.”
“We don’t have to decide anything right now. But let’s disinfect all these scratches,” Betty said, heading off to the bathroom and returning with a bottle of iodine and a handful of cotton balls.
They cleaned Fluff up as best they could and phoned Lei to find a replacement for her shift at Little Robert.
“What should I put down for a reason?” Lei asked.
“Sick and tired of men,” Daisy said.
21
THE ADVERSARY
Betty and Daisy blew into Little Robert and straight to Nixon on the balcony. “Sir, we need to have a word with you.”
Nixon frowned. “I’m busy.”
“This can’t wait.”
He relented and ushered them into his office. Dunn was nowhere to be seen. Nixon sat down in his broad leather chair but made no motion for either of them to sit. The rash on his neck now bubbled with tiny white blisters that caused Daisy’s skin to itch.
“This better be important,” he said.
Betty and Daisy glanced at each other. Normally, Daisy would have let Betty do the talking, but something inside her had broken at the sight of those scratches on her sweet friend’s body. “Sir, we’d like to file a complaint against Lieutenant Dunn on behalf of Fluff Kanahele. Last night Dunn took her to a secluded beach and proceeded to fill her full of whiskey and try to have his way with her.”
Nixon slowly shook his head. “And how do you know this?”
“From Fluff, of course.”
He slammed his fist on the papers on his desk, nearly spilling his coffee. “This is the exact kind of crap I don’t need right now. Men and women working together is a recipe for disaster. Didn’t I say early on no fraternizing?”
Daisy pointed out, “That would include Dunn, then. He asked her out.”
Betty added, “Sir, the problem is not that they work together. The problem is that Dunn tried to force her into sexual activities against her will. Which would be bad enough, but he also happens to be our supervisor.”
“You say ‘tried.’ What does that mean?” Nixon asked.
“Fluff ran away. He even went after her, but she hid under a bush for half the night before finally climbing through a forest of thorns. You should see her right now. Her whole body is one big scratch,” Daisy said.
Beneath those bushy eyebrows, she thought she saw a flash of concern. “If you don’t believe us, stop by our house later and see for yourself.”
Nixon’s gaze went to the photo of his wife. “You take care of the girl and I’ll have a talk with Dunn later. You are dismissed.”
“Sir, please—”
He waved then toward the door. “Go on. I have a call to make.”
Daisy was willing to take this above his head to Danielson or even Admiral Nimitz if she had to, but for the time being, she and Betty retreated back to their stations. Dunn, who was usually in and out of the main room all day, made himself scarce. And when he did come near, he kept his eyes on the board. Daisy would have spit on his shoes if he’d come close enough.
* * *
The following day, Daisy took the test for filterer at the end of her shift. Unlike the intelligence test, which was about thinking, the filterer test would be about knowing, and filled with highly specialized questions. When Daisy sat down at the desk and picked up her pencil, she could scarcely hold it in her hand. Despite a pep talk by Fluff, who knew more about test taking than the average person, her nerves came on like an earthquake. Thelma sat in front of her and the sound of her pencil scratching away on the paper made Daisy feel even worse.
For at least five minutes, she stared at the first question. What are the altitude and azimuth of an object located due south and on the horizon? This was an easy one. She knew the answer, but kept second-guessing herself. All around her, girls were furiously writing. She thought back on the conversation with Walker and his advice about going with the first thing that came to mind, and how he had referred to her as genius.
Daisy, you know this! She took a few deep breaths and forced herself to write. Once she answered the first one—altitude is 0, azimuth is 180—each subsequent question brought a new layer of confidence. This was not some pointless elementary school test. These questions were relevant and critical to their mission of winning the war. To saving lives.
For the first time ever, Daisy finished a test feeling as if she had done well. Quite possibly even aced it. Thelma had given her a smug look when they walked out, but at least kept quiet. Daisy started when she saw Dunn standing at the door, collecting tests, his body taking up half the space. She froze for a split second, and in that time, he managed to strip her down and tour her body with his eyes. There was no option but to pass. As she squeezed by, he pinched her side and whispered, “Watch yourself, Wilder.”
* * *
Lei showed up with assorted boxes of Chinese food for dinner—lemon chicken, chow mein and assorted dumplings. Daisy knew it was to cheer up Fluff, but Lei also seemed on edge. They filled their plates and decided to make a picnic in the backyard and enjoy the moonlit evening and cricket songs. Daisy had yet to mention Dunn’s words to anyone. Fluff had not wanted them to tell, and they had told, and now it looked like repercussions were already coming down.
They kept the conversation light, about weather and food and the latest social happenings about town, but you could sense an undercurrent beneath their words. In the nearby grass, Blanche was stalking a lizard or a mouse, her tail twitching.
Halfway through the dinner, Lei made an announcement. “I want to run something by you.”
“We’re all ears,” Fluff said.
“George has been acting strange lately, going out at odd times and coming back rather full of himself. To tell the truth, I’ve been worried there might be another woman. But last night I heard him boasting that he would soon have enough money to pay off all his debts and then some.”
“Anything specific?” Betty asked.
“That was all he said. But I’m worried he’s going to get into big trouble, or worse, get himself killed.”
“Can you ask him about it?” Daisy said.
Lei looked defeated. “Absolutely not. He flies off the handle when I so much as mention money. I’ve never been afraid of my husband, but lately, I’m not so sure. I’ve been trying to go on as though everything is normal while I’m getting my ducks in a row.”
“What kind of ducks?” Fluff asked.
Lei’s mouth puckered. “I’m going to leave him.”
A cane toad trilled nearby, sending an invitation out into the night. A lone male looking for a mate. The irony was not lost on Daisy.
“That’s brave of you, but it sounds like he’s left you no choice,” Betty said.
Lei nodded, tears pooling in her eyes. “When the trust is gone, you have nothing.”
“If you need to come stay with us, you can. We’re on a military base. You’ll be perfectly safe if he gets any dumb ideas,” Fluff offered.
“Thank you.”
Betty fumed, “If he so much as lays a finger on you, he’d have a truckload of angry WARDs to contend with.”
“Don’t worry about me,” Lei said.
“How can we not worry about you, for goodness’ sake? George sounds like he’s turned into a shady character. And divorce is a big deal,” Fluff said.
L
ei shrugged. “I’m better off alone and moving forward than hitched to a scoundrel. Plus, now I have a purpose every day. Being a WARD has been an unexpected blessing.”
That it was.
* * *
Daisy went into work with a pit in her stomach. In the middle of the night, her mind had taken off galloping on Dunn’s words. Watch yourself. Had she heard him wrong? She went through a whole list of possible variations, none of which made sense. Regardless of what he’d said, the pinch and the look were enough to catch his meaning.
As she’d feared, it wasn’t Nixon or Danielson who called the girls into the classroom, it was Dunn. Daisy slipped into the back row, behind Val and Joyce and Rita. Thelma sat in the front with her legs crossed and her hair done up in a fancy knot. Dunn called out the girls from the other shifts first, drawing the whole affair out much longer than he needed to. Waiting was something Daisy was good at—working with horses required a huge amount of patience—but right now her foot was tapping like a dying fish.
Dunn picked up the final two tests and stared down at them for a while. His eyes were a little too close together, giving him a rat-like appearance. “And finally, our last two new filterers are Thelma Bird and JoAnn Abramson. Congratulations, ladies.”
JoAnn Abramson? Daisy knew without a doubt that she had scored higher than JoAnn. Nothing against her, but JoAnn could not keep her aircraft straight if her life depended on it. Sure, she was book smart, but put her under a little pressure and she caved in six seconds flat. Daisy had to sit on her hands to avoid hurling her pencil right at Dunn’s face. So this was how it was going to be. While Thelma and JoAnn went up to collect their pins, Daisy slipped out the door.
Betty took one look at her face and said, “Oh hell.”
The main room in Little Robert was close enough quarters where Daisy had to keep quiet. Being a sore loser in front of Nixon and Major Oscar and the rest of the girls would do nothing for her cause. But as soon as they hopped out of the truck after work, she told the whole story, starting with his comment the other day.
“Dunn fudged the results. I am certain that I scored higher than JoAnn, and probably Thelma, too. He’s screwing with me because we went to Nixon,” Daisy said.
Betty kicked a coconut frond in their path. “Son of a bitch! We can’t tell Fluff, though. She’s already terrified to go back, and I don’t blame her one bit.”
“What are we going to do?”
Dunn wielded all the power.
“We’ll figure out something.”
* * *
They arrived home to a whole new Fluff. She was waiting for them at the front door with a huge smile. With her finger to her lips, she said, “Shh. Follow me.”
She led them to the linen closet in their room. The door was open and Blanche lay on the blankets with a bunch of wiggling hairless kittens latched on to her teats. Daisy felt her heart loosen, all the injustice and hurts of recent days falling away. “We have five tiny new additions to our household,” Fluff whispered.
Her face glowed like that of a brand-new mom. One who hadn’t had the pleasure of going through labor and delivery. Her scratches had gone down some, but still showed. Which was good. Daisy wanted Nixon to see them.
“They all seem healthy, and Blanche has been licking them clean for hours now.”
Blanche completely ignored the spectators and after a full round of licks, she laid her head down and sighed.
“We should leave them alone. She needs her rest,” Daisy said.
In the kitchen, Fluff told them, “I’m going to add Kitty Midwife to my résumé. They all came out smoothly except for the last one. Only his upper body appeared and then he was stuck. Blanche was straining, I could see it in her eyes. Some kind of womanly instinct took over and I grabbed a washcloth, placed it over the kitten and gently pulled. Pretty soon, a leg or something released and he slid right out. The sweetest little being I’ve ever laid eyes upon.”
As Daisy knew from horse births, a certain feeling released into the air and infused everyone involved with a sense of optimism about life. Perspectives shifted. Invisible but palpable, this feeling coated everything in a hopeful light. Soon, Dunn and Walker and the test faded, and the thrill of new life hummed around them. That night, they managed to bypass all work talk, and Daisy went to bed with a strange sense of calm.
22
THE DECISION
When faced with trouble, humans are known to stand and fight or run away. Daisy always considered herself a fighter. She’d rather stand face-to-face and deal with a problem head-on than run the other way. But right now, the lines were blurry on what to do. There were also other people to think about in this whole fiasco, not to mention her job as a WARD. The trickle-down effect of one slimy man and a bottle of whiskey.
Daisy had tried to reach Danielson, but he was on Maui doing more trainings with the WARDs there, and she couldn’t get a straight answer when he’d be back.
When Fluff returned to Little Robert, Daisy and Betty made sure she was never alone in the same vicinity as Dunn. Several people asked about the scratches, to which she replied, “I had a run-in with a thorny tree.” You could tell by their faces that they had their doubts about one tree inflicting so much damage, but no one pressed her. Dunn kept on being the same greaseball he usually was, and Nixon, though he hadn’t done a thing, did seem to be paying more attention. Daisy caught him watching Dunn on several occasions.
Fluff still didn’t know about why Daisy wasn’t chosen as filterer. Daisy told her she’d mixed up two formulas, thus ruining all her chances.
“That sounds fishy to me, but if you say so,” Fluff said, with her hands on her hips.
“I say so.”
One afternoon, with only a few markers on the board, and a handful of girls in the break room, Daisy saw Dunn walk over to Fluff. She had her back to the room and was placing a chit on the board. In one swish of his hand, he grabbed her left buttock and squeezed, and then moved on as though nothing had happened.
“Whoa!” Daisy said loudly, spinning around to see if Nixon had noticed. But Nixon only jerked his head up at the sound of Daisy’s voice. His gaze went around to everyone else in the room, who all stared her way. They were like a herd of cows when you drove through in a truck.
“What is it, Miss Wilder?” he finally said.
Fluff would kill her if she made a scene in the Command Center. “False alarm, sir. I thought I saw a rat.”
Nixon looked surprised. “I’ve never seen a rat in here, and besides, a little rat never hurt anyone.”
She knew she ought to stop there, but couldn’t help herself. “That’s not true, sir. Rats carry diseases that can kill you. They’re dirty little animals.”
Those in the room were still watching intently. To her surprise, Nixon held up his coffee, as though toasting, and said, “I’ll give you that, Wilder.”
For the rest of the shift, Fluff stayed within a three-foot radius of Daisy. Some kind of radio equipment malfunction drew Dunn away, thankfully. But if this kind of behavior went on, their lives would be miserable. Daisy debated telling Nixon what she’d seen, but it would likely backfire. Among the pressure coming down from Nimitz, rumors of new missions in the Pacific and managing a whole division of women, Nixon’s rash had doubled in size.
Throughout the next weeks, things hardly improved. Dunn played his usual charming self when it suited him, but made little digs at Daisy and Betty when he thought no one was paying attention. Thelma, on the other hand, wore her new pin like a fishing trophy and started offering unsolicited advice ad nauseam. Sadly, work had become something to endure, rather than enjoy.
They came home one afternoon to an envelope slipped under the front door. Fluff stooped over and picked it up, handing it to Daisy. Her name was spelled in large block letters on the front.
“My money says it’s from William Mike,” she said.
<
br /> Daisy tossed it onto the table.
Fluff scowled. “Wait a minute. You have to open it right now.”
Daisy started off down the hallway to see the kittens. “Not in the mood,” she said.
The cats were little bright spots in a dark world. Two gray tabbies and three black and white like their mother, their sea-blue eyes had opened and they were suddenly interested in everything around them. Daisy was smitten.
“Fine, I’ll open it for you, then,” Fluff said.
Daisy came back and grabbed the letter. “You will not.”
“Don’t you want to at least see what he has to say?”
“It doesn’t matter.”
Fluff softened her tone. “You might say that, but you don’t mean it. Look, it’s obvious you two really like each other—”
“Liked, past tense.”
“Not in his case, I imagine. And don’t hate me for saying this, I know you’re hurt and you have every right to be, but sometimes it’s better to let the past stay in the past. Did his father do something terrible? Yes. But Walker was a teenage boy, guilty mainly by association. A good man is hard to find, and he seems like one of the rare ones.”
Hearing Fluff stand up for Walker burned her ears. Easy talk for someone who didn’t lose their father right when she needed him most. But Walker was a good man, Fluff was right about that. Which made it even harder to walk away from him. She tucked the letter under her arm and said, “I’ll read it later.”
Later turned out to be as soon as she was done checking on Blanche and her mewling babies, who were now crawling all over the room with tiny paws and fuzzy tails. As soon as she touched the letter, it had begun sending bursts of heat through her skin. And now, no matter how hard she tried, she could not think about anything else. She tore open the envelope.
Dear Daisy,
I have so much to say to you, I don’t know where to begin. So I’ll start here: I’m completely torn up about not being able to see you. I think about you constantly and am on my knees asking for a chance just to talk to you one more time. I have something that I think could change your mind about me. So how about it? Please will you give me one more shot? If your answer is yes, please tie a ribbon (or rope or whatever you have) around the coconut tree out front tomorrow, and I’ll stop in. If no, I’ll drive on by.
Radar Girls Page 21
