Vanished by Wil S. Hylton

Author:Wil S. Hylton [Hylton, Wil S.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781101616253
Publisher: Penguin Group
Published: 2013-11-05T08:00:00+00:00

TEN

WASTELAND

As Franklin Roosevelt steamed away from his meeting with Nimitz and MacArthur, the strategy for the war was settled, but it remained top secret. In fact, Roosevelt’s trip itself was secret. Though the president had met with reporters on the dock and at the Holmes mansion, the interviews were under embargo until his return to Washington, DC. Other than MacArthur, Nimitz, and a few senior commanders, no one in the US military knew which way the war was turning.

Certainly the men on the ground didn’t know. In the Central Pacific, they drove onward through Tinian and Guam, while in the South Pacific, MacArthur pushed across the rim of New Guinea—with the Long Rangers bridging the distance between them. Some days, they flew north to cover Nimitz; others, they zipped west to back MacArthur.

One rainy afternoon at the end of July, Ted Goulding kicked about the Big Stoop tent aimlessly. It was his day off, and Ted hated those. Every successful mission counted toward the end of his tour, and the day he finished fifty, he would go home. To speed things up, he’d volunteered to fly as a substitute for any crew with a sick man, but so far, no luck. So he was in the tent. Listening to the rain patter on the flysheet, he tried to imagine life in New York, the summer heat fading into autumn’s descent, the snow arriving soon to blanket the banks of the Hudson, and he picked up a sheet of paper to write Diane’s parents with a request.

“Hey folks,” he began. “Here I am at last. How is everything at home? How is Dee and our son Teddy? Please take good care of them for me because I will be home pretty soon. I wish this whole mess was over so that we could all come home. . . . There are only a few more months left of warm weather, then it will get cold. Could you look in a catalogue and find some warm clothing for Dee and Ted? Don’t worry about the money because I will send it to you. Get some nice warm little shirts, hats, mittens, and sox for Teddy, and get Dee some warm slacks, shoes, sox, gloves, and undies and such. Send me the list of things and the total amount, and I will send you the money. That way Dee won’t have to use up the money she is trying to save. Keep all this to yourself until you get the stuff and then give it to Dee and tell her that I didn’t even forget about the weather at home. I want them to be warm and healthy. . . . In other words, please make sure that Dee and Ted have everything they want.”

When the sun returned a few days later, Ted pulled his cot outside and stretched out below the tropical glare, baking the cold from his bones, but after a few minutes, Jimmie Doyle rousted him for a swim. They ambled toward the shoreline and tumbled through the rough surf.

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