Motor City at War by Sabra Waldfogel

Author:Sabra Waldfogel [Waldfogel, Sabra]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-03-14T16:00:00+00:00

She stopped again. Stymied. How should she sign it? “Love, Bess?” “Best, your gal Bess?”

For crying out loud, she told herself. Sweethearts for three years, even if we had a lousy farewell.

She added Love, Bess. Then, P.S. Sam says hello, and so do my mother and father.

Now she would have to wait. What was different? How many Saturday afternoons had she wasted, tethered to the kitchen phone? He was still making her wait.

Bess hoped that work might distract her, but the next few weeks were unusually quiet. None of the rank and file came storming in with a grievance. No one went on strike. Clara caught up on her correspondence and her paperwork. Bess reorganized the files. Both of them cleaned their desks until they were so tidy that it looked as though no one worked there. None of these chores helped Bess to stop yearning for a response from Jack. She felt like the little girl who pulled the petals from a daisy. He loves me, he loves me not…

One afternoon, there was so little to do that Clara said to her, “I never thought I’d hope for a strike. Nothing important is going to happen today. Take the afternoon off.”

It wasn’t one of her mother’s days to volunteer, and when Bess came home, Anna sat at the kitchen table, listening to the radio. “You’re home early,” she said.

“We’re not busy. Clara let me leave early. Did the mail come?”

“There’s a letter from Jack.”

She sifted through the envelopes. She found it and hefted it. “It doesn’t weigh a lot.” She thought of the Army’s telegrams. We regret to inform you… Those were lightweight, too.

“Take it upstairs. It’s not my business to know what it says. He didn’t write to me.”

“I can’t wait. I have to know.” She tore it open.

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