To Hunt and Protect
Page 18
“Right. I’m glad you thought about it. What do you mean by ‘bias’?”
He takes a sip of beer, “I’m a guy. I see the world through the lens of a guy. I can imagine how the world might be for a woman, but that’s only a guess. I don’t know nearly enough about the experiences of servicewomen, or how those women feel about their experiences to have any judgement. In that sense, I’m not stupid, but I’m definitely ignorant.”
“And now that you see the problem, do you want to fix it?”
“I do.”
“Often, we just need to be heard. If you fix our problem, then it makes you feel better, but it diminishes the woman. From the outside, it looks like she is a fragile little thing that needs help. That plays to the male ego, and does nothing to lift up a woman or truly help her.”
John, “It’s like training. If the instructor does everything for the student, the student doesn’t learn, frustrating both of them.”
“Yeah, exactly.”
“So, listen like you did earlier for me?”
Liz smiles, “Yeah, it’s a start.”
“You know, this is lesson is the beginning of my remedial training. If I’m going to complete this PQS, you’re going to have to instruct a lot more.”
She grins, “I know.”
“Does it annoy you that I’m such a poor student?”
“You’re not. You’re an exceptional student and I enjoy the company.”
“I do, too. Dessert?”
“Another beer.” She gets the attention of the waiter, lifts her glass and holds up two fingers.
“I didn’t know you knew sign language.”
“Just a few signs. The one finger salute, stuff like that.”
John grins, “Oh, I know that one. Unlike Goose from ‘Top Gun’, I do have some control of my fingers.”
“Good to know. It’s because we’re nukes. We’ve been potty trained and everything.”
“Yep, and Goose was an aviator. Quite a wild creature. Uncivilized.”
“John, you said your whole family were sailors?”
“Yeah, my adopted family. My pop, grandpop, and great grandpop. An ancestor probably sailed with Noah.”
“Are you worried about discrimination in this war?”
“I try not to think about it.”
“You have to. Some misguided red-neck could kill you.”
“And I could meet wonderful people like you. I can’t crawl into a hole.”
Liz sighs, “Are you taking this seriously?”
“I am, but we also have a war to fight. I can’t lead from the rear.”
“Okay, I think I get it.”
“Look, I don’t want to die a stupid death. I don’t. You know, in that one way, Cumberland was accidently trying to protect me.”
“How?”
“He wanted to send me to an internment camp.”
“Oh shit. Did he tell you that?”
“Yes. He also wrote Halsey asking for a relief.”
“What an ass.”
John, “Admiral Lee told me not to go out alone. His assumption is that you being with me serves as a degree of protection.”
“I see that. I have duty tomorrow. What are you going to do?”
“I don’t know. I’ll figure it out. Hang with one of my guys or stay on the boat. Do you think it will be better in America?”
Liz, “No, it’ll be worse. I don’t think they have red-necks here.”
“They have red-necks everywhere. Remember Crocodile Dundee? Shall we go?”
“Sure.” He pays the bill and they leave. Liz says, “Let’s walk.” As they walk down the street, she takes his hand.
“Um?”
“Now, they know we’re walking together.”
“Thank you.”
“Does it make you uncomfortable?”
“No, you just surprised me.”
“Okay, just don’t get any ideas.”
“I’m male.”
“Uh huh. I know.”
“I also know I’m in no way ready for anything you deserve.”
“What do I deserve?”
“You deserve a whole man. Someone who can bring their whole self into a relationship. At best, I’m half a man. I haven’t processed losing Lisa.”
“I know. I’m right in the same boat. I may deserve a whole man, but right now, I just want a friend.”
John, “I can be that. I don’t care much what he thinks, but if Cumberland sees us, he’ll freak.”
“Just a heads up. If I see him, I’m going to kiss you. Fuck that ass hole.”
He looks at her, “Um, okay.”
COVE WEST OF SYDNEY
2142, 7 February, 1942
Mallory goes forward to drop the anchor. He shouts back, “Back her up!”
Amy, “Backing.” She puts the engine in reverse and guns it to start backing.
Gary, “About fifteen feet. Okay, thirty, forty, fifty, sixty, seventy, eighty,” he puts on the brake slowly. “Ninety feet of scope. That should be good.” He ties it in place with a snubber, and walks aft. “Ninety feet. With the tide coming in, we should be good. How low does it get?”
“We generally swing up and down about six feet.”
He looks toward the shore, “Okay, we’ve about three feet to high and ten feet under our keel. At low tide, we’ll have about seven. There might be a rock we didn’t see, but I think we’re okay.”
“I’m hungry. Let’s go below.”
“Me, too.”
As soon as they’re below, she jumps into his arms and gives him a deep kiss. An unmeasurable time after, they separate and smile at each other. Gary asks, “Food?”
“Yeah, luv.”
He pulls her into a kiss again. “I know it’s too soon, but…I…You…um…I love you, too.”
She grins and kisses him again, “I love you, luv.”
Another kiss, then he says, “I’m hungry.”
“I’ll whack something together, luv.”
“I’ll help. I know a bit of how to cook.” In a few moments they’re sitting across from each other, eating and smiling like kids.
Amy, “I’m giddy.”
“Me, too. I’m also terrified. We have to make this work.”
“I don’t want to think about tomorrow.” They finish and clear the dishes. She leads him into the stateroom.
QUEEN VICTORIA BUILDING, SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA
John and Liz walk, hand in hand, along the third-floor shopping center. John’s carrying their purchases. LCDR Greg Backes walks out of a hand crafts shop and stops, “What’s up?”
John let’s go of Liz’s hand, “Liz Petrea, Greg Backes.” He reaches back for her hand as she steps forward.
Liz, “Pleased to meet you.”
Greg shakes her hand, “Pleased to meet you.” He turns to John, “I’ve had something come up I need to talk to you about. Commander, could you give us a minute?” He moves John well away until they’re alone, “What the fuck are you doing?”
“Nothing. Look, she’s worried I’m going to get killed because I’m half Japanese.”
“I was your best man less than three months ago.”
“We’re not dating.”
“Don’t you think it’s fucking…what?”
“We’re friends. She just lost her husband, too. I waited fifteen years for Lisa. Do you really think I’m looking for anyone else?”
“Don’t hold hands.”
“Yes, dad.”
Liz, from down the hall, “Are you done arguing over me?”
John, “I believe we are.”
Liz, “There’s a bar downstairs. Let’s get something to drink and talk.”
After they’ve ordered and they’re settled in, Liz asks, “Commander, are you pissed off at me?”
Greg, “The optics weren’t great. That said, I want my friend to be happy.”
Liz, “Do you want your friend to be alive?”
Greg flushes and he looks down. Then he lifts his head. “Oh.”
Liz, “I know, John, but you’re not made of HY-80, either.”
Greg, “What are you two? I’m confused.”
John, “Friends, like I said. That is all I can handle right now.”
Liz, “The same. Is he your friend, Commander?”
Greg, “My name is Greg. Yes, he’s my friend. I’ve known John for fourteen years. I’m sorry, John, but I don’t see anything Japanese when I look at you.”
Liz, “Do you recognize that other people do?”
Greg nods, “Yeah.”
Liz softens her voice, “Did you know Admiral Lee ordered him not to leave the ship alone?”
Greg looks at his friend, “No. John, why didn’t you say?”
“I don’t want to be a problem.”
Greg, “Jesus Christ, John, you were never a problem. More than anything, you’re the solution. Get off your fucking cross, we need the wood.”
Liz grins, “Amen. Greg, you and I, we can’t let him be alone out here. It isn’t safe.”
Greg, “When’s your next duty day?”
“Tomorrow.”
Greg, “Shit, me too.”
John, “Guys.”
Liz, “I’ll explain this to Captain Tucker. He’ll get it.”
John, “Guys?”
Greg, “Are you in three section?”
Liz, “Yeah. I’ll swap with the REA. He shouldn’t have an issue with it.”
John, “Can I talk, please?”
Liz turns to John, “No.” She turns back to Greg, “He’s going to have to do official stuff. We need to support that, too.”
Greg, “No problem. On my end, I can clear the decks a bit. Anything where I have to be on board, John will want to be there anyway.”
“Okay, Tucker and Johnson, very much, want our crews to work together. There are only three boats like ours in the world.”
John, “Guys, you don’t need to swap around duty days. I’ll just stay on the boat.”
Liz, “Won’t work, John. You’re an XO. You’ll have official stuff you have to do. This way, we got you covered on any day.”
Greg, “Liz, have you met our skipper?”
Liz, “Oh yes. We were eating lunch and a couple of pilot friends joined us. Poor John here had three beautiful women sitting with him. Commander asshole stormed in and started yelling at him for being ‘unseemly’. Spike took him to task. It was beautiful.”
Greg, “Who’s Spike?”
Liz, “Lieutenant Commander Samantha Hunt, commander of the Black Knights squadron. She’s an F-14 pilot with 35 kills. She doesn’t suffer fools.”
Greg, “What did Blunder-land do?”
John, “He said, ‘excuse me,’ and made a hasty retreat.”
Greg, “You know, he’ll never forgive you for that?”
“Yeah, I know. He hates me already. Thing is, he knows I can fire him at will. It tempers his behavior some.”
Liz, “How?”
John, “USS Fulton. I served with Admiral Klindt for six eventful months and we became friends. He knows what is going on. Halsey, and his chief of staff, Captain Van Zandt, also know.”
Liz, “How is he still in charge?”
John, “Where would we find a replacement?”
Liz, “You could…oh.”
“Yeah, those optics aren’t good. It’s for that reason, I think we should just deal, for now.”
Liz, “I’m pretty positive none of the guys I work with are sub qualified. I get it.”
John, “Guys, I’ll stay aboard tomorrow. It’s too late to arrange anything tonight.”
CHAPTER 15
S/V SEA BREESE, COVE WEST OF SYDNEY
0854, 08 February, 1942
Amy is tucked into Gary’s left side, “I love you, luv.”
Gary, “I love you, too.”
“You’re worried, aren’t ya?”
“We need to talk about how we’re going to make this work. I’m in contact with my grandparents in Minnesota. They would take you in, but during the war, we can’t move you. I have no idea if the Navy will bring me back during the war, and it’s going to last at least four more years. Can you wait four years for me?”
“I can wait as long as I must. Also, I can stay here while I wait. After the war, come get me.”
“A lot can happen in four years.” He rolls over and meets her gaze. “Mine is the best ship of its kind, but twenty percent of the men who served in the field I do died in WWII. It’s a fact. I think I have a good chance, but it’s warfare.”
“I can’t bear the thought of losing you.” She hugs him.
“I understand, but we need to be realistic. Look, love. I’ll give you the address of my grandparents, and I’ll write them about you. If anything happens to me, they’ll know and let you know.”
“This scares me.”
“I know. If you choose to be with me, it’s what you’re signing up for. Right now, I couldn’t get out of it if I wanted to. After the war, I’m going to retire. After that, we have the rest of our lives together.”
“Is that what you want, Gary?”
He smiles, “I do. I love you and I believe you’re strong enough to do this. But, do you believe you’re strong enough?”
She gives him a pensive look, starts to talk, then stops. Then, “It’s going to be hard?”
“We’ll only be able to stay in touch by letter, and those will take two to three months to go either way. You’ll get nothing for months, then a pile all at once. I won’t be able to tell you much, because what I do is classified. You’ll hear about battles and be starved for information and fearing I will be lost. Nobody around you will understand. Maybe your mom will. It will take even longer to send a package either way. The whole thing will be an ongoing heart ache.
“Even when you do get a letter, you’ll know it’s from well in the past. This will be the hardest thing you’ll ever do.
Amy is silent, her imagination working the images he’s conjured, “I need to know what we will be.”
“I love you, Amy. I want you for my wife.”
“You have to say it.”
“Amy, will you marry me? Will you wait four long engagement years during an awful war to be my wife?”
She smiles, gazing into his eyes, “No. luv. I will not do that. But, if you marry me now, here, while you are in port, I will wait as long as I must and follow you anywhere I must and do anything I must to be with you forever.”
Shocked, he shakes his head, “Are you sure, honey? It’s going to be a long time, and what if you…”
“Shut up. I’m not like that. Got it?”
Gary smiles, and blows out a breath, “Okay, then. We better tell your folks and I’ll need to tell…”
It’s all he gets out as she wraps him up and smothers him in kisses.
USS SAN FRANCISCO
0832, 8 February, 1942
ST1 Mike Brown walks off the brow in his tropical whites and heads toward the gate. He sees Kichiro sitting on a bollard and looking into the distance. “Hey, Kiche!”
“Yeah.”
“Kiche, what’s up?” TM2 Kichiro looks up at Mike, his eyes puffy and black. One eye is nearly swollen shut. “Shit, Kiche, what happened?”
“I fucked up, Mike.”
“What did you do?”
“I tried to drink in a white bar.”
“What?”
“They got white bars and Aboriginal bars. I went into the wrong bar and they kicked the shit out of me.”
“Let’s go below and have Doc fix you up.”
“He’s not on board. Now, I’m for sure getting busted.”
Mike takes Kichiro’s hand and helps him stand. Kichiro gingerly lifts himself upright, wincing. “Let’s go aboard the Horne. I saw the whole thing. No fucking way you’re getting busted.”