She felt her body shaking in reaction. She had read the newspapers, too. If the Japanese invaded California and Germany overran Europe, the whole world would be at war. “You’re right. I’ll enlist, too. Jones said a year ago the Army would need nurses.”
He let go of her, his face flaming. “Over my dead body! You’re not enlisting in the Army!”
She laughed in disbelief. “It’s all right for you, but not for me. I have more training than you do, Trip. Don’t expect me to sit home and wait when my husband could be among the wounded!”
“I want you safe from harm!”
“And I wanted the same for you, but you did as you pleased. And now I agree. Our country needs us.”
“No…” He put his head in his hands and turned away.
Hildie put her hand on his back. “If it means our freedom, shouldn’t we all be part of it?”
He turned to her, face pale. “Don’t do anything yet. Promise me. We’ll pray about it.”
“Did you?”
“Yes!” He cupped her face. “I’ve been praying since December 7 about what to do.”
“And never included me.”
Trip winced. “I won’t do it again. Listen to me, please. One of us joining right now is enough. Give it a little time and we’ll pray and see what God wants for you.”
Everything moved faster than either expected.
Trip received his orders, and Hildie followed him to Camp Barkeley, Texas, and then to Fort Riley, Kansas, and then on to Fort Lewis, Washington. She lived in boardinghouses while he lived in the barracks. When he had a day’s leave, they stayed in her room, hungry for one another. Tens of thousands of Navy men and Marines headed for the South Pacific to fight the Japanese while the Army geared up to invade Europe. Trip received orders for Officer Candidate School.
“You can’t come this time, Hildie. I won’t be able to see you, and I don’t want you living among strangers. I want you to go home.”
Which home? Where? She didn’t know whether to go back to work at Merritt, where she would be surrounded by friends, or to Colorado Springs and live with Mom and Dad, or home to Murietta and Mama, if Mama would allow. No place would feel like home without Trip. She would stay in Tacoma until she could figure out what to do.
Trip dressed in his uniform while she sat on the end of the bed in the dressing gown Cloe had made. He leaned down and kissed her. “Maybe God will answer my prayers by then.” He brushed his fingers against her cheek and went out the door.
She didn’t have to ask what he meant, though he had never spoken his prayer aloud. He wanted her pregnant. He didn’t just want a child; he wanted her ineligible to join the military.
She flung a hand over her eyes and prayed God’s protection on her husband. If the slight morning nausea the last few days was any indication, God might have already answered Trip’s prayer. They might have something to celebrate rather than spending every moment worrying about what the future could hold. The future could hold a child! Then again, she might just be feeling sick at the thought of what could happen to Trip.
Hildemara waited another month before making an appointment. The doctor confirmed she was pregnant. Proud to be carrying Trip’s child, she sat with her hand resting on her abdomen during the long bus ride back to the apartment.
She would go home to Murietta. She didn’t want to add to Trip’s worries, and her husband wouldn’t want her living alone with a baby on the way. God has settled it, Trip. You’re going to be a daddy. I’m going home to Mama… Mama’s first grandchild! Perhaps Mama would even be happy enough to crow about it.
Rikka had gone home to see Melvin before he headed off to Marine Corps boot camp and then gone back to San Francisco. She had quit full-time classes at the California School of Fine Arts, preferring to pick and choose what she studied. She had found a job as a waitress in a fancy restaurant and loved everything about living in San Francisco. She claimed she loved Melvin, but she had no intention of becoming a farmer’s wife in Murietta. It remained to be seen whether romance or a lust for life would win out. With Rikka’s eyes fixed on city life, Hildemara assumed there would be plenty of room for her and a new baby.
Only a fool assumes.
38
1942
Hildie left her trunk and suitcase at the train station and walked home. Thinking to surprise Mama, she knocked at the front door. She didn’t know the woman who opened it.
She stood gaping. “Who are you?”
“I’d be asking you the same question.”
“I’m Hildemara Arundel.”
“I don’t know no Arundels.”
“Waltert. My mother is Marta Waltert.”
“Oh.” Her face cleared and she pushed the screen door open. “Come in, please. Your mama don’t live here no more. She lives out back in the cottage.” She put her hand under Hildie’s arm. “Here. You set yourself down. You look a little peaked.”
“Who are you?”
“Donna Martin.” She patted Hildie’s shoulder, poured her a glass of lemonade, and said she’d go get her mother.
A moment later, Mama raced in the back door. “What are you doing here, Hildemara?”
“Trip’s gone to OCS. He said I couldn’t go with him. I wanted to come home!” She burst into tears.
“Come on.” Mama hauled her up, apologized to Donna Martin for the intrusion, and pushed Hildie out the back door, down the steps, and along the path to the cottage. She opened the side door into the kitchen. “It’s too bad you didn’t think to write first, instead of just showing up on the front doorstep.”
“I thought I’d be welcome.” Hildemara wiped her face. “I should’ve known better.” She looked around. “You’re living here? Where are Bernie and Elizabeth?”
Mama poured another glass of lemonade and plunked it in front of Hildie on the small kitchen table. “You look like you haven’t slept in a week.”
“Mama!”
Mama sat and folded her hands on the table. “Hitch and Donna Martin are sharecropping the place. They’ve got four children. I don’t need much room, so I gave them the big house. They’ll be more comfortable there, room to spread instead of living in a tent-house like we did.”
“And Bernie and Elizabeth?”
“The government came and took the Musashis away. Bernie and Elizabeth moved over to their place.”
“Took them away? Where?”
“To an assembly center in Pomona. We’ve heard rumors they’re going to be sent to some internment camp in Wyoming, of all places. We sent blankets and coats a week back. Hope they get them. The government seems to think every Jap is a spy these days. I’m surprised a bus hasn’t come after me and the rest of the Jerries and Wops around here, sending us all to some godforsaken camp in Death Valley.” She raised her hands and shook her head. “People go crazy when a war starts. They let fear run wild. Anyway, Hitch and Donna are good, hardworking people. Papa spoke highly of Hitch. They came out when Oklahoma turned to dust, and they’ve had a hard time ever since they arrived in California. I know how that feels. Hitch knows farming and ranching, so I hired him to run the place. That’s how Papa and I started when we came to California. Sharecroppers. Do you remember those days living by the irrigation ditch and in that tent-house Papa built? I’ll treat the Martins better than we were treated, I can promise you that.”
“So you’re living here.”
“Yes. It suits me. The Martins will have the place looking as neat and tended as Papa did when he was well.”
Hildie bristled. “Bernie did a good job.”
“Yes. Bernie did a good job; I’m not saying he didn’t. He’ll do a good job across the street, too.”
“I could help.”
“Not here, you can’t. What, now that you’ve come home you think I’ll put the Martins out so you can move in and play farmer? No. The cottage has only one bedroom, Hildemara, and I’m not sharing it. I don’t need you down here on the farm.”