Love and War in California by Oakley Hall

Author:Oakley Hall [Hall, Oakley]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781466881471
Publisher: St. Martin's Press

Chapter 9

1

On Tuesday morning I sat with Liz Fletcher on a concrete bench in the shadow of the Ad Building, watching the students crossing the Quad heading for classes or the parking lot.

She had a cloth bag in her lap, hoops of wood for handles. Out of the bag she brought a doll with a china head and hands, in a long white dress. The doll’s eyes rolled shut when it was turned on its back, open when held upright. The face was old-fashioned, with a rosebud mouth and blooming cheeks.

“Isn’t she beautiful?” Liz said. “She’s Emma. She was my mother’s. She’s going to be the Bombing Raid Baby.” They were doing civil defense in her psych class. “She’s going to be a famous actress when she grows up, aren’t you, Em?” Liz went on. She contrived for the doll to nod like a puppet.

“Smart, too,” I said.

Liz spoke in irritating baby talk, bending over the doll. “But her loverboy’s gone off to be a sailor!”

She said in her normal, lisping voice, “My father says I’m too old to play with dolls.” She sat with her leg brushing mine, ankles in silk stockings crossed. She smelled of flowers, like Dessy. Her dark hair was gathered up to show the pink lobes of her ears. I was glad that Bonny didn’t have a nine o’clock on Tuesdays.

“What did Errol say about me?” she said.

“He called you ‘that lovely young woman.’”

She rocked the doll back and forth, so the doll’s eyes opened and closed.

“What did Jack Warner say?”

“He offered Bonny a screen test.”

“That letch,” she said. “Do you think Richie has a girlfriend in Pensacola?”

It was as though her mind circled like a fly around the idea of Val Ferris but didn’t quite want to land on it.

“It’s airplanes he loves in Pensacola. You’re his girl.”

“He’d better marry me in June if he wants me to be his girl,” Liz said. She held up her doll to touch my forehead with its china lips. She looked at her watch and said she had to hurry. I watched her striding across the Quad, carrying her doll in its bag.

2

Heading for Mr. Chapman’s class, I passed my fraternity brothers Ernie Baker and Bill Holmes in the hall. When I said hi, both of them glanced away as though some sergeant had commanded “Right face!” then went on along away. I almost stumbled with a sudden weakening of my knees. I was being silenced! They must’ve decided it last night.

After class I met Bonny in the Caff. She looked tired, the flesh beneath her eyes transparent, her face thinner. It was as though she was suddenly older.

“Charley’s marrying that girl in the photograph,” she said. “Eunice Coster. He wrote my parents a really awful letter. He’s never coming home. He loves Australia. He loves Eunice’s whole family. Mr. Coster sells cars. After the war he’s going to set Charley up selling boats. Of course Charley would be so happy if he never had to look at a med school textbook again, and he won’t have to go into practice as junior Dr.

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