Navy Christmas (Whidbey Island) by Geri Krotow

Author:Geri Krotow [Krotow, Geri]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2014-11-01T00:00:00+00:00

September 1945

Japanese prison camp

IT TOOK THE prison guard three hits with the handle of his baton to Henry’s backside before Henry’s vision cleared and he remembered where he was.

The vision of climbing over Fort Casey with Sarah vanished. He cried out at the anguish of losing her, if only his memory of her.

Reality had become too hard.

The guard yelled at him and Henry didn’t try to make out the Japanese. He’d given up on that months ago. At first he’d taught himself the language, little by little, as he put together what the guards said to them.

He looked at where the guard pointed.

Buck lay on his side, his eyes unseeing. One of the last men he’d come to this hellhole with two years ago had died.

Lucky bastard.

No.

He owed it to Buck and every other G.I. who’d died in this labor camp to get back to Whidbey. To live the life he’d set out to have with Sarah a decade ago.

A world, a lifetime, away.

He wordlessly picked up the small spade the guard pointed at and carried it over to his colleague. His brother-in-arms. Jersey hobbled over with a woven bamboo tarp of sorts. Together they lifted Buck’s thin, lifeless form onto the makeshift litter, trying to keep as much dignity in what they did while the Japanese guard yelled at them and no doubt shouted obscenities at them the entire time.

They made a slow funereal walk to the outer parts of the camp, where their captors had forced them to bury one friend after another. No thinking was involved. If Henry stopped to think, he’d die. Thinking brought too much despair.

He dug the shallow grave. Shallow was all that was possible in the rocky soil with such a poor tool and his failing strength.

Would Sarah reject him when she saw him? Would Dottie run in fear?

No thinking.

Only surviving.

He focused on the spade, the pitiful amounts of dirt each motion moved.

He breathed.

* * *

“IT’S TOO HARD.” Jersey’s whispered observation reached Hank’s ears as the two lay side by side on the dirt floor that had been their sleeping area for the past year.

“No. Hang on. They’re getting more and more desperate. We have to be close.”

“Maybe.”

“Did you see the guard’s eyes today?”

“I try not to look at the bastards.”

“He’s afraid. They’re hungry, too. They’re losing. Our boys will be here any day now.”

“Do you really believe that, Henry?”

“I do.” He had to.

“You have a wife, a family. It helps.”

“You have your girl, Jersey.”

“We were engaged. I can’t expect her to still be waiting for me.”

“Why not? There aren’t any other men at home. Everyone’s off fighting.”

“Maybe. Maybe.”

They lay in the darkness, staring at the meager roof over their heads, shivering in the cold night.

When Henry first heard the rumble, he thought it might be one of the Japanese vehicles that carried the guards from point to point around the large compound. Or maybe Jersey was having a bad case of diarrhea.

But they hadn’t eaten in days and their bodies had nothing to eliminate.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.