The Journey Home

by K'Anne Meinel

  “She’s pretty angry at you,” she said as she stood in the doorway to the greenhouse. Stephanie had gone out to the barn for some aged manure for her plants.

  “Yep,” he said in his short way of non-speaking. He couldn’t help but know she was with the looks she gave him.

  “I really care about her Cal, you’ll take care of her in anything happens?” she glanced at him and a silent communication was sent and received between them. He nodded; he couldn’t help but know she loved the woman. That was all Cass needed to know, it relieved her mind a bit that she was leaving her family.

  Timmy and Tommy and little Summer weren’t as easy to leave either. They asked endless questions, many of which Cass had no answer to.

  Seeing her in her dress outfit though shocked them all. It was here, it was now, these were the last moments they had together. Despite the snow Stephanie had insisted on them all going to the train in Merrill that would be taking her away. The wagon was hitched up and Cal had struggled to get in the back with the children. Stephanie was planning on driving. When Cass came out in her woolen outfit with the matching coat, her bag in her hand they were all stunned. This was real.

  “Whewwee don’t you look nice,” Cal commented and avoided the dirty look that Stephanie sent his way.

  Stephanie felt a lump form in her throat.

  “Cass, you look so nice!” Timmy nearly shouted, he was impressed. Tommy nodded too and his rooster tail bobbed. They had played ‘soldier’ in the yard many times but had no idea what it meant. Stephanie had told them it was disrespectful and made them stop when she discovered them at it.

  “You’d think you’d never seen me in a skirt before!” Cass blushed at the compliments; she had eyes only for Stephanie though. They had said their goodbyes last night. Sweetly, passionately, and they had both cried. They knew that it might be the last time but hadn’t said anything about that. They had made plans for ‘when’ she came back, not ‘if.’ Cass petted the four dogs being careful to keep them away from the wool she was wearing, dog hair tended to cling. She patted them all one last time and climbed the seat on the wagon.

  “Walk Stella, walk Stanley,” Stephanie ordered the well-trained horses and they began to plod along.

  The trip to Merrill was a long one, everyone was sad. When Cass had suggested the horses trop Stephanie had begrudgingly ordered them to. They had been waiting for the order as their ears had been twitching. They sensed their human’s sadness and didn’t understand it. They were willing to obey though and their trot brought them rapidly along so that Cass wouldn’t miss her train. It would be a long train ride, there would be many stops along the way, first in Wausau, a few before she would arrive in Green Bay, and then many along the shores of Lake Michigan before she arrived in Milwaukee. Her training would begin the following day in Milwaukee.

  They got to the train on time, but barely. It was already huffing and puffing and blowing up steam. Cass hugged each of the children and a surprised Cal. He hadn’t bothered getting off the wagon.

  “I’ll do what I can as soon as I can,” he promised.

  She nodded not trusting herself to speak. She looked at Stephanie. They had promised, neither would cry, neither would give away what their real, true, relationship was. A cursory hug and she would be gone, that was all, each had promised.

  “All aboard!” the conductor called.

  This was it.

  Cass gave Stephanie that cursory hug. Something about it though didn’t seem right. She gave her an extra one and that was when Stephanie grabbed on almost desperately. She was resigned, she wasn’t happy, but she was resigned that Cass was leaving her, for however long it took. She wasn’t going to break down but feeling her against her this one last time was almost too much. She hugged her tightly before nearly shoving her away and towards the waiting train.

  Cass got on and stood there looking at her little family. The two brave little boys waving madly, the little girl imitating them with no idea why, the woman she had found and was leaving, the love of her life. Then her brother who gave her a mock salute from the back of the wagon.

  Cal watched her go; he knew what a wrench it was. He also knew that Stephanie blamed him for it. He should be the one going. She was right about that. He had heard them arguing, many times in the last few weeks since Cass’s announcement. He had also heard their lovemaking. He knew how much his sister loved this woman. She was an admirable woman. She had grown so much in the time she had been with them, he himself admired her and he didn’t admire too many. Her anger was understandable. He watched as the train pulled out of sight and Stephanie shepherded her little ones back to the wagon. She helped the two boys climb into the wagon and lifted the little girl over the side. He got one final glare from her before she called to the horses.

  “Walk Stella, walk Stanley.” The wagon lurched where it had settled in the snow, slightly frozen in its tracks.

  ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

  Dear Family,

  Having never been on a train before I realize now why it took so long for my poultry and dogs to arrive. They start and stop a lot. Just when we get up a good speed, and it’s really fast and going well, it seems to have to slow down to stop for another town. It took me three days just to get to Milwaukee!

  There isn’t much to see with the snowstorm through the windows. I don’t see it’s much different from where we live, a lot of trees.

  I seem to be getting yelled at a lot from my arrival in Milwaukee. Me and dozens of other men and women who got off the train. All the people seem to know how to do is yell. It must hurt their voices too as they all seem raspy. I bet I could cure that with a little bit of honey and hot water! If they would just ask us instead of yelling it. There is a lot of contradictions. They tell us to ‘march’ and then yell to double time it which means practically running!

  I don’t have much time to write this so I have to leave time to get it off to you. I wanted you to know I’d arrived safe and sound.

  Much love,

  Cass

  Cass was very lonely. Having never been off the farm for any distance the new sights and sounds she was experiencing were also frightening. She didn’t let it show though. It did take a long time to get from Merrill to Milwaukee and sleeping on the train was not comfortable. She tried to polite and friendly to others in uniform but it was misconstrued and she learned not to speak to any males in uniform.

  Milwaukee was a confusing array of people, more than showed up at the Fourth of July celebration in Merrill. More than Cass had seen at any one time in her life. She nearly had a panic attack. Getting yelled at all the time wasn’t pleasant either. They seemed to think that all the new recruits were idiots. Trying to cram school in with Army protocol they had a lot to do. Someone seemed to have it in against Cass for her ‘accelerated’ programs. She found the book work to be easy, the practical experience a breeze, but the Army protocols she had a bit of a problem with. Some of them just didn’t make sense.

  “Can’t you understand, this is the way the ARMY does it,” was shouted in her face on more than one occasion. Questioning authority only led to more shouting and disappointment. “Don’t you know ANYTHING? You dammed hick, just LISTEN!”

  Cass learned to ignore anyone who began to shout at her. She heard what they said of course, she couldn’t help that, but she didn’t let it get to her anymore, she became inured to it, which was really the point. They needed soldiers, they needed them quick, they didn’t need someone that was going to question authority and want to know WHY they did things the way they did. Cass learned to keep her mouth shut, to obey instantly, to do what she was told. Others she found had similar problems, they were after all individuals. It was that individuality though they were trying to train out of them. Do it their way, the Army way, or there was the Highway. Except you weren’t let out to go on the highway, you would end up in some corner of the world shuffling papers.

  Cass got to know many of her bunkmates as they were all crammed in a converted wareh
ouse. Bunks two and three high meant for some tight quarters. They couldn’t help but share their stories.

  “So you’re a FARMER Cass?” she was teased.

  “How in the world do you know this stuff? Oh I know, you butcher your own stock so anatomy must be a cinch for you!”

  She took their teasing with good natured resilience. She helped those she could to get through the difficult courses that the Army insisted their nursing corps needed. Her advancement ahead of her new found friends meant though that she would graduate well ahead of them.

  The other women found it amusing that she didn’t know that under her stockings she should shave the hair from her legs. When they explained about removing it from her underarms as well Cass was shocked. Having hair on your legs and underarms was natural, God made you this way, and the woman insisted it was more hygienic to remove it so Cass complied. She learned to put toilet paper on the nicks she made from the razor but the oddity of having no hair on her legs and underarms was a strange feeling and took some getting used to. She felt the strange garters holding up her stockings were worse than the Army issued bra that strangled her and made her feel so odd as it cupped her normally unfettered breasts.

  ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

  “Cassandra Scheimer?” a voice called from the end of their makeshift barracks.

  Cass slid off her bunk, she had been lucky to get a top one; with her large frame she would have been miserable on one of the second or third bunks. “Yes sir,” she called and got to attention at the end of her bunk when she noted the insignia on the shoulders.

  “Orders,” he said looking her over carefully. In her fatigues she looked pretty good; she filled them out a little more than most of the women. He was careful to look around hoping to catch one of them in some sort of disarray, maybe even a glimpse of skin as he left.

  “What is it Cass?”

  “Did you fail one of the courses?” someone asked hopefully to much laughter. It was no secret that Cass spent every moment possible studying, even propping up her books as she ate. When she wasn’t doing that she was writing her family back home. She had only gone out with the others once or twice and found the nightlife in Milwaukee not to her liking. She didn’t drink and the noise of the bands was just that to her, noise.

  “What is it?” several others asked.

  Cass opened up the official looking envelope and found she was assigned to a Lieutenant Colonel Anderson and she was to report immediately upon receipt of these orders for transfer. She re-read it twice to be sure before turning and beginning to pack her duffel bag. She changed out of her fatigues and into something a little more official, she hadn’t been given her final grades or her insignia that would designate her a Lieutenant in the Army but she was expecting them any day. These orders were a little premature. It was as she was pulling up her skirt she heard at the door again.

  “Cassandra Shei..Schimerrr?”

  “Yes sir?” she immediately stood at attention, her skirt askew she was just grateful she had her regulation blouse on and buttoned.

  “At ease, orders,” he said eyeing her up, he was a different messenger but still had the same hopeful look of seeing the women in their underwear.

  “Thank you,” she answered and since he wore no insignia she knew she didn’t have to salute him or anything and he left disappointed. She opened the envelope and found her test scores; she had scored in the top levels in all of her courses. She was officially a nurse in the United States Army Corps of Nurses. Something that normally took months had been pared down to weeks due to her background. Some of the classes she hadn’t even bothered to take, she had just read their ‘official’ books and took the tests. She was also now a Lieutenant and the insignia was in the packet. She attached them to her uniform and quickly finished packing.

  “Wow Cass, congratulations,” Bonnie Ellington said breathily. She was in awe of this big girl from the Big Woods. People had teased her about being backwards but she had shown them all up and been nice about helping those who struggled such as herself.

  Giving hugs all around to those who were left in between classes she took her bag and headed over to the commanding officer’s offices to request transport to wherever this Lieutenant Colonel Anderson was stationed.

  “Lieutenant eh?” a voice said close to her ear as she entered the building.

  She turned to find a friend of her laughing at her and found herself pulled into a hug.

  “Congratulations Cassy,” Fish told her gleefully.

  “Thanks Fish, do you know where this Lieutenant Colonel Anderson is and where I’m going?” she asked knowing of anyone on the base, Fish would probably know.

  Fish lowered her voice conspiratorially, her thick glasses that gave her the nickname falling forward on her nose, “Yeah but I ain’t allowed to tell you.”

  Cass stood back up and shook her head at her friend. “Could you tell me then please where I need to go with this,” she indicated the orders.

  “Lieutenant!” an official sounding voice barked from the door that had just opened across the office. Both Fish and Cass stood at attention. “In here!” the Colonel called.

  Cass found herself, not for the first time, escorted into the Colonel’s office. She had been a royal pain in his ass. Whoever Doc Stettin had written, notified, or badgered, she had been pushed through unnecessarily fast and while her grades had supported his claims of her experience, he hadn’t liked her attitude. She asked too many dammed questions.

  “Lieutenant,” he sneered at the word. He had known about it and her orders. He didn’t like that she was way ahead of the rest of her class. He didn’t like that he had no choice in the matter. Whoever was pulling strings on her behalf, she was given A class treatment. “A transport is leaving from Mitchell field at eighteen hundred hours, you’re to be ON it,” he barked. He gave her another paper and told her that a Jeep would be waiting outside for her. Then giving her her first official salute he dismissed her. There was so much more he wanted to say to her but with someone pulling strings that even he didn’t know about he couldn’t take the chance. He never knew when he might have to salute her as a higher officer. Already he sensed that being a lieutenant was not all she was going to be. She was too astute, too knowledgeable, and too bossy to be anything but an officer.

  Cass gave a quick hug goodbye to Fish who saluted her and opened the door for her. Sure enough there was a Jeep waiting for her with a man, a boy really in the driver’s seat. He saluted and said, “Ma’am,” to her but that was all.

  They drove rapidly through town to Mitchell Field. She smiled as she had heard of the history of this airfield. The original fields were purchased and established in 1920 by Thomas Hamilton, a local business owner and part time aviator and named Hamilton Airport. It had even hosted world renowned aviator Charles Lindbergh in August of 1927. Just two years ago in 1940 a new two-story passenger terminal building was constructed by the Works Progress Administration which President Roosevelt had provided to get people back to work. Last year on March 17, 1941 the airport was renamed after Brigadier General William Mitchell and became known as Mitchell Field. In later years, January 1945 it would become a prisoner of war camp.

  Arriving at the gate he showed her papers and they were waved through. They drove rapidly to an already warming up plane on the tarmac. Several people were boarding.

  ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

  “Lieutenant Scheimer?” a man shouted over the noise of the engines.

  At Cass’s nod he took her bag from the back where she had thrown it and escorted her to the steps where he handed her the bag. She glanced back to see the young boy who hadn’t said a word to her on the entire trip across town driving away. She looked up and started climbing the steps into the plane. Her heart was in her throat. Months ago she had had her first train ride and now they wanted her to fly in a plane. She had never been so scared in her entire life.

  “Ma’am, your orders please?” a voice a little muffled inside the plane asked and Cass handed
him her orders. He quickly read through them nodded once and showed her to a seat by a window. He helped her put on straps that tied her to it and then stowed her bag above her in a net. She didn’t want to be tied in but didn’t want to question why they were necessary, she knew that asking questions only angered people in this Army. She looked around and saw many people on this transport, a couple of them she vaguely remembered seeing around the base and she exchanged nods with them. An enlisted man came to sit next to her.

  In no time at all the plane was pulling up the gear that held the door and steps in place and securing it. Her mouth went dry as she felt movement. She looked around to gauge the reactions of the various people on board. Most didn’t seem to notice they were even moving. She grabbed the arm rests and looked out the window as the ground began to move by. It was similar to the sensation that she had gotten in her first train and then car ride. Seeing the ground passing by underneath was dizzying she had found so she looked out at the buildings instead of the ground. Faster and faster they went and then with a swooping sensation they were in the air. Cass held on very tightly as they began to climb rapidly, it felt like they were going to go straight up and she was terrified.

  “You’re first plane ride ma’am?” the man sitting next to her inquired over the noise.

  She looked at him mutely and he repeated his question. Her ears felt odd until with a little yawn she made them pop. She nodded and looked away from him back out the window. She couldn’t see anything because of the angle of the plane. She tried to lean forward to look closer out the window but could still see nothing. They were getting higher and higher and finally the plane began to balance out. It turned slightly and she could see farmlands far below them. They were in neat little squares and she realized roads and different crops must make them. She leaned forward and looked as far as she could her nose nearly pressing against the window. She could see a wing with the engine on it with the long narrow thing spinning around in front of it. She could see water, frozen over, and snow melting all over. She wondered if it had melted up north and would the sap be rising but she knew this was a false spring, it was far too early for sap to be rising in the trees.