I think this chapter is a little bit shorter than the others, but I love the ending of it so oh well.
Navy Girl
Chapter Six
The Hula House was like a bar on the beach. Navy sailors and pilots swarmed around the place on Saturday evenings.
"Miranda," Danny said, starting on his second beer, "this is the most fun I've had in a long time."
"Yeah," Miranda said contently, fingering her new necklace and sipping slowly on her glass of wine. Danny looked into the distance as he drank, looking as if he was remembering some fond memories of other fun times. He laughed.
"Once, me 'n Rafe flew the crop duster all the way down the runway. We got in so much trouble! But I think it was worth it," He said, draining the rest of his glass. "Say, Miranda, how about tomorrow we can go swimming? I've been meaning to ask Gooz to teach me to surf."
"Sure, that sounds like fun!" Miranda said. "I've been meaning to get a board ever since I came to Hawaii."
"Good. I'll ask him when we get back," Danny said, looking around the pub as if to see Gooz standing there. But, the bar remained Gooz-free, so Danny turned back to Miranda. "You know, Miranda," he began more seriously, "I want to thank you for helping me take my mind of Rafe. If it wasn't for you, I'd be digging myself into a hole and not functioning, but, you've helped me." Danny took her hands over the table, pushing his beer to the side.
"You know, Danny, I," Miranda said awkwardly, "I didn't really, well, do anything special, I didn't, um, really mean to take your mind off Rafe, even though you know it's good and all but I didn't do anything special, so you don't have to thank me for anything I didn't really do."
Danny grinned, but didn't say any more. He just looked into Miranda's eyes for a moment and smiled. Miranda smiled back.
The next day, Danny picked Miranda up after she came home from the 10 o clock Mass at the local church. Then they drove straight to the beach.
It was bright and warm. Miranda laid out her towel and laid under Gooz's umbrella, watching Danny's feeble attempts at surfing. Gooz wasn't that much better than Danny, though. He kept running into rocks and falling off, despite an invention that he called the "Gooz Cruise Fin". Finally the two boys came out of the water, defeated. Gooz started talking about those "damned submerged rocks", but Danny just collapsed on the towel beside Miranda. Gooz decided that he wanted to go try again, to "map out those pilings".
"Gooz is hopeless," Danny muttered drowsily. Miranda agreed.
"Do you know what the boys on my ship are doing right now?" she said jokingly.
"What?" Danny asked.
"Mopping. That's all they do. They mop all day long until the cows come home. Then they go to sleep and continue mopping."
Danny laughed and flipped over, onto his side. Miranda followed, so that she was facing him. She reached over and started playing with Danny's necklace. He reached over and looked at her cowrie. "Thank you for the shell, Danny," Miranda murmured, tilting her head so that it was brushing Danny's forehead. "Don't mention it, Miranda," he said, pulling her closer with the necklace. Then their lips met in a kiss. Miranda closed her eyes as she reached her arms around Danny's neck and he reached around her waist. The kiss lasted a long time, and it would have continued if Gooz had not come and ruined it.
Neither Danny or Miranda heard him walk up next to them, and since both of them had their eyes closed they didn't know that he was leaning down and…
"Ah!" Miranda sputtered, her head suddenly soaking wet. Gooz was standing over them with a now empty bucket full of seawater.
"Gooz you son of a-" Danny cried, shaking his head like a dog's. "You're gonna get yours!" Gooz just walked away, holding a stitch in his side because he was laughing so hard. Miranda put her head back on the towel and sighed. Every kiss they shared was ruined.
Danny shook his fist at Gooz's retreating back and then laid back down, wiping water off his hair and grumbling under his breath. Miranda laughed. "That Gooz," she said, laughing gently and reaching up to wipe some drops off Danny's face.
"I think we're jinxed," Danny said. Miranda gave him a raised-eyebrow look and propped her head up on her hand.
"Why do you think that?"
"Because, every time I try to really kiss you, or want to kiss you, something comes and…well, drops a bucket of water on our heads." Miranda laughed at this, looking fondly down into Danny's eyes.
"Do you want to go back in, Danny?" she said, looking at Gooz toppling over in the waves.
"Yeah, maybe I can get back at Gooz some way."
"Ooh! Danny, I have an idea!" Miranda said excitedly. "When he's sleeping, we'll sneak into the barracks and pour a bucket of water on his head!"
"Miranda, you're brilliant!" Danny said, flinging his arms around her neck. Then they went down to the water, holding hands and trying to avoid stepping on crabs or starfish. Miranda dived into an incoming wave while Danny turned over and floated on his back.
"I've never seen water that was so clear," said Miranda, surfacing and making her way towards where Danny was floating. She dipped her hand in and then tipped it over again. "Where I come from, the water is gray, like iron. It's cold too, not like this warm water. You're freezing in ten minutes, and the waves are small," she said as a particularly big one came towards them. Danny stopped floating and the two dived in, letting it crash above their heads. Gooz surfaced beside them, his surfboard bobbing like a cork out of the water. It trailed behind him on a string, like a dog. Gooz had a particularly glum look on his face, and the cause was apparent when he held up a rounded piece of wood.
"So much for the Gooz Cruise Fin!" he said angrily. "It fell off!"
Danny and Miranda laughed, making Gooz look even madder, which made the other two laugh harder. Finally, throwing the piece of wood out to sea, Gooz laughed too. "Hey look, it's Joe! Joe, over here!" Gooz called to a blonde boy walking on the beach, carrying a surfboard. Joe waved and stuck his surfboard in the sand, swimming over to them. As Gooz and Joe began to talk about surfing and submerged pilings, Danny drew Miranda aside.
"How bout we go somewhere more private?" he said. Miranda shouted to the other boys that they were leaving, and Gooz and Joe waved goodbye. Danny started the car and drove to a vacant, small beach, surrounded by palm trees and big boulders. The water was clear and deep. Miranda and Danny did cannonballs off a rock, shouting with laughter. Miranda dove to the bottom and took a brief look around, combing the sand with her fingers for shells. A school of silvery fish swam by as Miranda swam upwards. Danny was floating on his back again as Miranda resurfaced. "Find anything?" he asked Miranda, righting himself in the water. Miranda shook her head and looped her arms around Danny's neck, touching noses. She smiled and turned over, floating on her back and looking up at the azure sky.
"It's beautiful," she murmured.
"What is?" he asked, twirling a lock of her hair around his finger.
"The sky. It's so blue. It gets like this sometimes back in New Jersey, but lots of times its gray. It rains a lot up there, although the beaches are beautiful."
"I'd like to go to New Jersey." Danny said. "Maybe we can go and meet your parents." Miranda turned her head and gave him a scrutinizing look, not knowing if he was being sarcastic or not, but he was just smiling regular. He climbed out of the water and spread out the towel on the sand. Then he walked over to a palm tree and shook it. "Rafe taught me how to do this," he said.
"Just make sure it doesn't fall on your head," Miranda cautioned. But, soon enough, a coconut fell onto the sand. Danny picked it up and split it over his knee, handing one half to Miranda. He started eating it like a melon.
"Mmm, it's good," Miranda murmured, letting the sweet taste spread over her tongue.
"Yeah, it is good," Danny agreed, throwing the empty coconut shell back onto the sand. A gull came down and started pecking at it. Miranda threw hers next to Danny's, and the gull, finding them both empty, flew away.
Danny and Miranda stayed at the beach all day, until neither of them could deny that they would get in trouble with their commanding officer if they stayed out much later. Danny pushed his car out of the sand and drove back to the harbor, letting Miranda off with a, "we'll get Gooz next Sunday!" and a kiss.
Miranda walked back to her room, laughing. Poor Gooz didn't know what was coming to him. But, Miranda thought, neither did we.