My mother will have a fit when she discovers what I’ve done, but the truth is I feel perfectly safe with the Cocker Brothers. Their friends are good guys, too, although Lily likes to pretend Peter is a pain.
“Did you just enlist, or have you already been... over there?”
I regret my question. Something about it made him frown. I know so very little about the geography of the war, especially since we’re fighting both Germany and Japan and those are in completely different places.
“I hope my vague ‘over there’ didn’t make it seem that I’m a chucklehead.”
Jerald laughs, “No, I think that’s about right. Besides, I can’t say exactly where I’ve been or where I’m going. Confidential.”
“Oh, I see.”
Hank pauses his teachings. “My brother is a hero! Forget about geography, think deeper! Do you know where he lives? Underwater in the ocean where it’s so dark even the sun can’t reach it.”
“You’ll have to excuse Hank. He has grand ideas.” Jerald throws me a wink, then focuses back on the road to ask, “How old are you, May?”
“I don’t like numbers. I find them confining.”
A grin flashes, and his brother laughs like a balloon just popped.
Gertie explains, “No, it’s true! May is always saying that numbers are jails that limit the imagination!”
Hank asks, “Say, are you gals sisters? That’d be swell, huh? Two brothers and two sisters!”
Gertie is quick to explain, “We may as well be. There isn’t a single thing about me that May doesn’t know.”
“Oh well friends is alright too, I guess.”
“Best friends!” she corrects him. “Since we were five right after my parents moved here from Ohio, right May?”
I’m staring at Jerald as I answer a dreamy, “That’s right.”
Hank says, “We haven’t been to Ohio yet. I hear there’s a lot of snow.”
“There sure is. I was awfully young when we left, but my memory is very good, isn’t it, May?”
“Mmhmm.”
She continues, “You’d remember, too, if you were bundled up like that. Why, for all the months of winter I felt like a walking marshmallow!”
Hank laughs and I look over my shoulder to see her pleased that he finds her charming.
Their conversation continues with just the two of them and I lean in again to whisper to Jerald, “She’s normally very shy, except with me. Even with Lily and Sable, she doesn’t talk much. But they do so much talking, it’s hard to get a word in edgewise.”
He keeps his voice low, too, and it feels like it’s just us in the car. “Hank has that way about him, always has. He can make anybody feel comfortable.”
“What about you? Don’t you make people comfortable?”
“People like to talk. I’d rather not. I like quiet.”
Settling back, I touch my taffeta. “I can be silent, too.”
Jerald glances to me with a gleam in his eye.
We gaze out the windshield as Albany, Georgia slides by. I sneak a peek at him and he does the same to me, making me look away in a hurry. Drumming the armrest with my fingertips, I focus on the tail lights we’re following, wondering if Lily and Peter are getting along as well. She seemed to be flirting with him, despite her claim that she wouldn’t date him if he were the last boy on the Earth.
Gertie and I couldn’t understand it, because he’s got so much going for him — handsome, sharp wit, comes from a good family, nice prospects. When we pressed her, Lily’s temper became short. We dropped the subject entirely, until Gertie and I were alone. We both agree that Lily wasn’t telling us something.
Hank interrupts his own conversation to bellow, “Say Jer, pull over. Let’s drop the top. There’s a moon out!”
Gertie bounces in her seat, “Oh could we? We know where Sable lives. We won’t get lost.”
Jerald turns the wheel, “I wasn’t worried.”
But Marvin’s car is. The horn honks a loud aaahooooga!
Sable sticks her head out as they slow down, too. “Say, what gives?!”
I wave that it’s okay while Jerald and Hank work together to fasten the top down.
She frowns and disappears.
Turning in my seat I laugh to Gertie, “Can you imagine the argument they’re having right now? We don’t have time to waste!”
Gertie plays the role of Lily, “Oh, relax, Sabes! You’ll straighten your hair with that attitude!”
Soon both cars resume the journey, and I throw my hands into the warm night sky, “I hope we never get there!”
Gertie does the same. “This sure is swell, isn’t it, May?”
I cover my hair with my hands, enjoying how it whips through my fingers. “Mmhmm!”
Jerald smiles, “You’ve never ridden in a convertible, I take it?”
“First time! But I can tell you right now, when I have my own car, it’ll be one!”
Gertie cries out, “Me too!” while Hank laughs, happy his idea paid off so well.
I turn to Jerald, running a finger over my forehead to push my hair back so I can see. “Do you mind my asking, what do you do on the submarine? I’m afraid I don’t know much about them.” I hurry to add, “I’m willing to learn, and despite how it may have seemed, I’m quite bright!”
Jerald grins like he can’t help it. “I’m a planesman.”
“What’s a planesman?”
“We call it a boat. Or the sub. Or vessel, sometimes, I guess. But mostly we call it a boat.”
“What job does a planesman have on the boat?”
“I steer.”
My eyes go wide. “You’re in control of the whole thing?”
“The Captain is in control, but he trusts me and three other men to take direction as quickly as he gives it.”
“They must think the world of you. And while I was watching you drive I thought to myself, you look at home behind the wheel. Is that why?”
“Guess it is.”
“This must seem like peanuts compared to an entire submarine!” I pull back my windblown locks. “You steer the whole boat, wow! That’s so important!”
Dazzling green eyes land on me long enough for my heart to skip two beats, before returning to
