It’s a good thing we get to send these letters for free I never thought I’d write so many letters in my whole life as I wrote since I been here. I got a one-day pass and Red and me went with a bunch who caught the recruit bus in to Buford and we went to a movie. It was Suspicion starring Cary Grant and Joan Fontaine and afterwards just about everybody got drunk and tried to pick up local girls but me. Only 19 days and I should be able to come home…
Dear Will,
I just don’t know how the days could go any slower. I keep thinking about when you get here and how it will be. How long will you be able to stay? Will you take the train again? I got a surprise for you but I won’t tell you till you get here. The boys got a calendar and they drew a big yellow star on the day you get off, and they put a big x on every day just before bedtime…
Only six more days, green eyes!…
Dear Will,
How many quince pies you want?…
Dear Elly,
I don’t know how to tell you this because I know it’s gonna break your heart. I’d rather do anything than tell you this sugar but we just got orders and it looks like we are not gonna get our weeks leave like we expected. Instead we’re being assigned to the New River Marine Base at New River, North Carolina and we leave direcly from here next Thursday. They won’t tell us why we don’t get leave but theres plenty of grumbling and a few already went AWOL soon as they got the news. Now honey I don’t want you to worry about me, I’m doing fine. I just hope you and the kids are too and that you’ll understand and keep your spirits up…
Dearest Will,
I tried real hard not to cry because I know your the one whos doing the hard part and I held off till bedtime after your letter came but then I just couldnt hold the tears in any more…
Dear Elly,
Well, I’m here at the new barracks and you can send my mail to PFC William Lee Parker, 1st Raider Bn., 1st Marines, New River Marine Base, New River, North Carolina. I got my gold stripe and had to pay Bilinski a buck to sew it on for me cause I’m so clumsy with a needle. Bilinski is this Polish butcher from Detroit who’s in my outfit and always out to make a buck. So we call him Buck Bilinski. Me and Red got bunks side by side this time and I’m sure glad we din’t get separated…
Dear Will,
Miss Beasley and I looked at a map and found New River and now I imagine you up there where the map shows that river poking into the land beside the ocean…
Dear Elly,
I’m sorry I haven’t written for so long but they’ve really been keeping us busy the whole outfit is wondering what they intend to do with us and when but it seems like soon and it seems like it’ll be the real thing whenever we leave here because they got us in intensive combat training, even close hand-to-hand combat. I made up my combat pack so many times I could do it in the dark with my fingers glued together. Theres five kinds and we got to know what to put into each kind. The full field transport packs got everything in it down to the marching pack thats only got the bare essentials. They got us in the water a lot in little rubber rafts. Me and Red were talking the other day and supposing why they’re drilling us so hard and whatever it is, we think its gonna be big…
Dear Will,
I know I ought to be brave but I get scared when I think about you going to the front. Your the kind of man who belongs in a orchard keeping bees and I think back to how I worried about you doing that and now compared to what you might have to do how foolish it seems that I worried about the bees. Oh my darling Will how I wish you could be here cause the honey is running and I wish I could see you out there in the orchard beneath the trees filling the water pans and taking off your hat to wipe your forehead on your sleeve…
Dear Elly,
We’re under orders now for sure but they arent saying for where. All they say is we got to be ready to ship out when word comes down…
Chapter 17
'Good morning. Carnegie Municipal Library.'
'Hello, Miss Beasley?'
'Yes.'
'It’s Will.'
'Oh, my goodness, Will-Mr. Parker, are you all right?'
'I’m just fine but I’m in kind of a hurry. Listen, I’m sorry to call you at work but I couldn’t think of any other way to get word to Elly. And I have to ask you to do me the biggest favor of my life. Could you possibly go out there or pay somebody else to get word to her? We just found out we ship out Sunday and we got forty-eight hours’ leave but if I take a train clear down there I’ll have to turn around and come right back. Tell her I want her to take the train and meet me in Augusta. It’s the only thing I can figure out is if we meet halfway. Tell her I’ll be leaving here on the next train and I’ll wait at the train depot-oh, Jesus, I don’t even know how big it is. Well, just tell her I’ll wait near the women’s rest room, that way she’ll know where to look for me. Could you do that for me, Miss Beasley?'
'She’ll have the message within the hour, I promise. Would you like to call back for her answer?'
'I haven’t got time. My train leaves in forty-five minutes.'
'There’s more than one way to skin a cat, isn’t there, Mr. Parker?'
'What?'
'If this doesn’t get her off that place, nothing will.'
Will laughed appreciatively. 'I hadn’t thought of that. Just tell her I love her and I’ll be waiting.'
'She shall get the message succinctly.'
'Thank you, Miss Beasley.'
'Oh, don’t be foolish, Mr. Parker.'
'Hey, Miss Beasley?'
'Yes?'
'I love you, too.'
There followed a pause, then, 'Mr. Bell didn’t invent this instrument so Marines could use it to flirt with women old enough to be their mothers! And in case you hadn’t heard, there’s a war on. Phone lines are to be kept free as much as possible.'
Again Will laughed. '’Bye, sweetheart.'
'Oh, bosh!' At her end, a blushing Gladys Beasley hung up the telephone.
Elly had ridden on a train only once before but she’d been too young to remember. Had someone told her four months ago that she’d be buying a ticket and heading clear across Georgia by herself she’d have laughed and called them a fool. Had someone told her she’d be doing it with a nursing baby and changing trains in Atlanta, heading for a city she’d never seen, a railroad depot she didn’t know, she’d have asked who the crazy one was supposed to be.
