All They Will Call You by Tim Z. Hernandez

Author:Tim Z. Hernandez
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780816536085
Publisher: University of Arizona Press

20

FRANKIE GETS HIS CHANCE

“Frankie enlisted in the military the day after Pearl Harbor was bombed,” Mary Lou said, proudly. “He went right in and signed himself up. Our other brother, Bob, went to the navy, but Frankie, well, since he’d always wanted to be a pilot he went straight to the air force. Yes, that was the day he finally got his chance—”

The morning of December 7, 1941, would set it off. Radio bulletins blared headlines that the Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbor. They had come by sea and by air, blackening the serenity of the Polynesian islands and exploding everything in their path. Sound clips rattled ears across the globe. They heard it in Canada, and in Europe, and they heard it in Mexico. Every last U.S. soldier was deployed posthaste. Young men, civilians moments before, filed into recruiting offices, gunning at their chance to even the score.

Frankie’s official enlistment shows January 19, 1942. He was twenty-four years old. He could hardly contain himself.

“Didn’t I tell you?” he said to his father. “I knew it. I knew it would come.”

John reminded his son, “We’re proud, Francis, but war is serious business.”

“Of course,” Frankie replied, slapping his brother Bob on the back. “But with us two at the helm, there’s no stopping us.”

Bob didn’t share his brother’s expressiveness. He nodded and gave his father a shrug.

What Frankie’s enlistment records don’t show, however, is that only a few hours after he told Dottie the good news, she was cornered into making a decision of her own.

“Did you even think of me when you went marching into that recruiting office?” she asked. “Of course you didn’t,” she added, turning her eyes away.

“You sayin’ you won’t wait for me?”

“Till when, Frankie? Next year? A hundred years?”

Frankie was silent.

“Wars don’t got expiration dates, you know. It’s in the radio and papers; it’s all I hear, young men like you, even better than you, dying every day. If it’s what you wanna do, you go right ahead—” She hesitated. Frankie waited for her to finish her thought. When she couldn’t, he spoke up.

“I don’t get it. I figured of everyone you’d be the proudest.”

She pulled his promise ring off her finger.

“It’s the war, you understand? I gotta go.”

“If you say so, Frankie.” She handed him the ring.

Frankie stood confused.

Dottie folded her arms. “It’s what you’ve always wanted anyhow, isn’t it? To fly. What do you have to be so sore about?”

“You of all people know this is my only shot, Dottie. If I don’t take this—”

“Don’t speak another word.” She stepped away from him.

“Don’t be rash, Dottie. Understand—”

“I understand fine,” she said, turning her back on him and walking off.

Frankie waited to see if she’d glance back. When she peered over her shoulder, he wanted to call out, “Tell me you’ll write me, Dottie!” Instead, he heard himself saying, “Dottie, it’s the war!”

She paused a moment, to look at him once more. She shielded her eyes from the sunlight, then turned and hurried away. He watched her blue skirt flittering behind her and her blonde hair rising and falling.

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