The War Violin by Rae Weiser

Author:Rae Weiser [Weiser, Rae]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: La La Land Press

Chapter Twelve

Frances looked at Nicholas’ photo on the desk in her room and thought back to all the days she’d look at it just hoping he’d return. Eight local boys had been killed in the war so when she felt awkward around Nicholas, she’d remind herself she was lucky to have him back.

In their two years apart, each had matured into different people and they didn’t fit together like they did in high school. It didn’t help that her mother placed a wedding announcement in the newspaper that read, Palm Springs High Homecoming King and Queen Soon to Wed. She included a picture of the couple in high school and a picture of them supposedly on the day Nicholas returned, staging a picture at the church with Nicholas in his dress blues and Frances looking lovely in her bridesmaid dress.

Next to their front-page wedding announcement was an article on Nicholas with a headline that read Village Marine Returns from Iwo Jima. The reporter interviewed Nicholas about his time fighting in the Solomon Islands, yet the details Nicholas gave were light. He talked more about the pleasures of being back home with his beautiful fiancée than what he experienced abroad. He’d only talk about his fellow marines. “It’s a brotherhood for life.” He was quoted saying. “We did the job we had to do, together.” Details of the offensive came from the reporter doing research outside of his interview with Nicholas, filling in information about one of the bloodiest battles in the war with sources he found elsewhere. Nicholas wouldn’t talk about what went on, not to the reporter, his fiancée, or anyone who asked. Almost as if baffled by the lack of details he got out of his subject, the reporter ended the article giving his impression of Nicholas, saying “this young man is a national treasure and our local hero, too humble to boast about his sacrifices for the nation.”

These two front page newspaper articles made them local stars. All the single girls envied Frances as the one who gets to marry the handsome marine. Everywhere they went, Nicholas would be thanked for his service and they’d be congratulated on their upcoming wedding. It had been thrilling initially. Frances loved the attention yet was worried about making it work out. With the spotlight on them, breaking it off and crushing what so many viewed as a fairy tale romance would be even harder.

Frances styled her curls so that they fell softly around her face, a nice change from being pinned back under her Gray Lady uniform cap. She applied a deep red lipstick that she last wore on New Year’s Eve, the night she hoped 1945 would be the year the war ended. Her wish came true and life was returning to normal. The village felt alive and full of possibilities. Torney, on the other hand, was the opposite. Each day that passed, the hospital was closer to shutting down. Frances found herself saying goodbye to someone she cared for too frequently as an army nurse would be reassigned or a doctor discharged.

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