The year is now 1960. Danny is home alone and decides to go up into the barn's loft. It had always been forbidden to him and today was the day that he was going to find out why.
" Wow! It is dark up here. There must be a lamp around here somewhere." Danny strains his eyes in the dark to find a lamp to light the dark room " Ahh, here's one."
As Danny turns on the lamp, he sees a single box in the far corner of the room. He goes over and opens it. On the top are newspapers about the bombing at Pearl Harbor and Doolittle's Raid.
" Nothing shocking here. Mom and Dad were at Pearl Harbor and Dad was one of the raiders. Come to think of it so was his buddy, Danny Walker. I guess that is how I got my name Daniel Walker McCawley. What's this?"
Danny has found a leather jacket with a captain insignia on the shoulder. As he opens it up letters fall out. Danny then reads them.
" To the love of my life,
Training is hard and long but I look forward to the day that I can come home to you… With all my love Danny"
He jumps to the next letter not wanting to believe his eyes
" ' Sweetest Evelyn,
Tomorrow we fly out for the cruiser that will take Rafe and I to the aircraft carrier. I think that he is still angry with me, and that is causing him to hide something from me… Forever loving you, Danny' Whoa, whoa, whoa! This is messed up. Let's check another one.
' My dearest Evelyn,
I can't let my eyes close without seeing you. I know that you would rather have me do this in person but I need to so this now and in this moment. Will you marry me? I've loved you since the first day we met. Do you remember? At the health clinic… Your waiting love, Danny' Mom was engaged to another man? The date, it's the day before the raid. Danny walker died in the raid! No wonder why they never wanted me to find this stuff!"
As soon as he said this, he heard footsteps going up the stairs to the loft. That could only mean one thing; his parents were home.
" Do you think that we should tell him, Rafe?"
" Yes, he is old enough to understand, he's almost 18"
" So what do we tell him?"
" The whole thing without the fights and how… well we'll just see."
" I'll help you with the box then."
Just then Rafe and Evelyn see Danny
" Did you look in that box?" asked Evelyn
" Yes, I'm sorry, really I am" responded Danny
" So you know then?" interjected Rafe
" Mom was going to marry you friend Danny but he got killed in the raid."
" I was going to marry… your father"
" Time out! Rafe McCawley is my father!"
" Yes, I am but not your natural father," added Rafe who was tearing up
" Did my father ever know about me?"
" When he was dying I told him about you. With his last breath he told me to raise you"
" Ummm… Danny and I thought that Rafe had died over the English Channel. We fell in love. The day that I found out I has having you was the day that Rafe showed up alive."
" You see son, myself and your mother had been in love. I volunteered to go to England in January of '41. After I had been over there for a half of a year or so I was shot down and thought to be dead. I came to Hawaii a night or two before the attack. It was then that I knew something was wrong. Your mom was quiet and stiff. Danny came over to us but my back was to him. Then your mom changed she looked over her shoulder and then back to be so I turned around. Danny was there. It was then that I knew they had fallen in love. I was so angry with Danny but I let it go when Evelyn came to me the day before we both left for the raid and told me that she was going to have you."
"I found out that I was having you minutes before Rafe came back into my life I mean he saw me when I looked at the lab reports.
" Well, after graduation I'm going to Hawaii to see everything that you three saw. I mean the hospital, the base, and the downtown absolutely everything. Mom will you come with me?"
" Of course I will. I think your father would want to go too."
" I'd be honored to go. In fact then I can get some answers to my questions."
" Hawaii, here we come!" yelled Danny