Chapter 10: The Aftermath
Dayton Daily News - Tuesday June 6, 1944
ALLIES DRIVE INTO FRANCE; LOSSES BELOW EXPECTATION
SUPREME HEADQUARTERS, ALLIED EXPEDITIONARY FORCE, June 6.
The allies landed in the Normandy section of northwest France early today and by evening had smashed their way inland on a broad front, making good a gigantic air and sea invasion against unexpectedly slight German opposition. Prime Minister Churchill said part of the record-shattering number of parachute and glider troops were fighting in Caen, nine miles inland, and had seized a number of important bridges in the invasion area. Four thousand ships and thousands of smaller landing craft took the thousands of American, British and Canadian seaborne forces from England to France under protection of 11,000 allied bombers and fighters who wrought gigantic havoc with the whole elaborate coastal defense system that the Nazis had spent four years building. Naval gunfire completed the job, and bridgeheads were secured quickly.
Allied losses in every branch were declared to be far less than had been counted upon in advance. The Germans said the landings took place from Cherbourg to Le Havre a front of about 100 miles, and that a strong airborne force was fighting as far inland as Rouen, 41 miles east of Le Havre.
Churchill told commons: "All this, of course, although very valuable as a first and vitally essential step, gives no indication whatever of what may be the course of the battle in the next few days and weeks, because the enemy will now probably endeavor to area. About 10,000 American casualties are expected, with approximately 6,600 American soldiers dead.
—
July 1944 - Lima, Ohio
"All right, ladies! Quitting time!"
At those words, very woman in the Lima Munitions Factory immediately put down their work and began to chatter excitedly, relieved that their long shift in the dark factory was over for the day. Quinn cheerfully jumped up and grabbed her hat from the coat rack. Of course, it was July, so it was way too humid for coats, so the coat rack wasn't used as much as it was in the winter. As she put her hat on, Quinn bumped into Santana, who jokingly pretended to be angry. Brittany Pierce, a svelte blonde with big blue eyes, nudged Quinn.
"Quinn! Santana and I were wondering if you want to come have some coffee at my parents' house with us." Quinn's eyes widened in astonishment. Coffee! It was such a treat since it was strictly rationed all across America in order to further help the troops. The coffee would have to be black since milk and sugar were even more of luxuries, but it was a treat all the same. Oh, she was imagining the smell of the strong coffee and the taste of caffeine. But then Quinn remembered she had Beth.
"I think I have to pick Beth up from childcare," Quinn said. "Maybe another time, Britt?" Brittany's face fell and she stuck her lower lip out. "But Lord Tubbington really wants to see Beth! And I love her too" One thing you had to know about Brittany if you were close friends with her was that she loved cats more than anything, even more than she liked boys. Even Santana gave Quinn pleading eyes. You just couldn't say no to Brittany. She was just so kind and innocent. Besides, Quinn had used up all of her coffee stamps for the month, and she was really craving coffee.
Quinn sighed. "All right. I guess I can bring Beth." Brittany smiled widely and linked arms with her two closest girl friends. The trio stopped to pick up Beth at the daycare for the children of women who worked to support the war effort. "How's Quinn's mini copy?", Santana teasingly asked Beth, and the little girl giggled. Quinn couldn't believe Beth had just turned two! It seemed like yesterday when she'd found out she was pregnant with the little girl. Already, Beth looked so much like Quinn, had the same hair and eyes and delicate, pretty features.
The Pierces' house was painted gray with blue trim and was large, larger than Quinn and Finn's was. Beth attempted to chase Lord Tubbington around even though the cat clearly wasn't interested and preferred to nap on a chintz armchair instead. Quinn contentedly sipped her black coffee. God, it tasted amazing! It was so nice to just lounge around and talk with her friends. Everyone in Lima had been on edge since they'd seen the headline in the Dayton Daily News last week that announced that the Allies had broken into France after a bloody battle. Finn had to be all right, right? Quinn hadn't heard from him since before the battle.
Brittany was chattering away about her plans for her wedding to Mike Chang, which would take place after the war. "I wonder if Mike'll like Mama's dress, or if I should purchase a new one! Should I have beef served at the reception or should I serve duck? Quinn, won't you be a dear and help me decide? You are the one who's gotten married before, not Santana!"
"First of all, I got married to Finn seven years ago. Things have changed since then!", Quinn said. Brittany waved that away. "Just answer me!" Quinn shook her head and smiled. "Your mama's dress is so pretty, Brittany! Isn't that the lace dress? And I think you should serve beef, not duck. Mike likes that way better than he likes to eat duck."
The doorbell sounded and Quinn jumped to get it. A white-haired man in a Western Union company uniform stood there grimly. "Are you Miss Pierce?", he asked Quinn. "No, but I'm her good friend," Quinn replied. "May I take a message for her?" "I think you should just give this to her instead," the man told her, and handed her a telegram that was dated "July 7, 1944".
"Brittany!", Quinn called. "I have something for you!" Brittany came dashing to the front hall and snatched the telegram from Quinn; "It must be from Mike!", she exclaimed. Brittany pranced back to the kitchen and excitedly informed Santana that she had mail. "You read it, !Quinn!", Brittany said. "I can't remember how the alphabet goes. It goes A-B-C-D-E-S-P, right?"
Quinn rolled her eyes at Brittany and began to read the telegram out loud.
Dear Miss Pierce,
I regret to inform you that your fiancé, Sergeant Michael Chang, Jr., perished in battle yesterday.
The shriek Brittany let out was loud and cut through the kitchen's cozy atmosphere. It startled Quinn so much that she dropped the telegram. Quinn could hear Brittany's elderly mother begin to stir in the first-floor bedroom. From the living room, Beth began to cry out. "Mama! Mama!" How could Mike have died? Did God have no mercy for Brittany? Santana rose to comfort her friend while Quinn, who didn't know what to say, began to read the rest of the discarded telegram.
By the time he was brought to a field hospital, we could do nothing for him. I am truly sorry for your loss. He was a brave man.
We will send the body home when the war is over. As for financial matters, the army will send you some money bimonthly. I will communicate the amount you will be allotted at a later date.
My condolences,
Captain William Schuester, US Army
Quinn walked over to Brittany and Santana and placed her small hand on Brittany's thin shoulder. "I'm so sorry, Britt," she murmured. Brittany desperately threw her arms around Quinn's neck and Santana rested her chin on top of Brittany's head. Beth toddled over with Lord Tubbington and Quinn reached for Beth, wanting to shield her daughter from the heartache and the sorrow the three women were feeling.
And they stood there intertwined like that for some time, four women and a chubby cat. Four women, three grown up, one just beginning her life. Each girl thought that she knew pain - ranging from Beth cutting her finger to Santana growing up in a bad neighborhood to Quinn dealing with Russell's abuses to Brittany losing her fiancé - yet they all would suffer even more in the years to come. But the four - even the little child - had something in common: they were all strong. They could survive the sorrow and the pain. Even if they didn't know that yet.
—
Quinn scooped up the sleepy Beth and hurried home. She was anxious to see if she received a similar letter or telegram to the one Brittany had gotten about Mike. Finn had to be alive and well. She couldn't believe anything else! What about Puck? Oh Almighty God. Quinn did not know what she'd do with herself if he never made it home. Puck had always been the one she could count on and could turn to in times of distress, even more than she could do that with Santana.
The words of Brittany's telegram pounded in Quinn's head with every step she took, almost like the beat in a song. "I regret to inform you." That was the most dreaded phrase for an army wife to read. Quinn hoped she'd never read it again. Beth began to squirm in Quinn's arms and Quinn re-adjusted the toddler. "Your fiancé perished in battle." Finn was strong enough to survive a few Nazis, right? Quinn made a left turn onto Main Street. "We could do nothing for him." Weren't the nurses and doctors at the army hospitals supposed to be experts? How could they fail to save a soldier, unless God was trying to punish that soldier for some previous sin? Beth was getting heavier with each step. Soon she would be too big for Quinn to carry."I am truly sorry for your loss." Those were such empty words, a phrase that Quinn always felt obligated to say. I'm sorry was what people said when there was nothing else to say. People did not say "I'm sorry" if they were truly trying to console a grieving person. A right onto Peachtree Lane, and she was home.
Quinn checked the mailbox first thing. There were two letters inside the box, and with shaking hands, she opened one right there in the grass in her front yard. She made the sign of the cross, praying that it wasn't a letter from Finn's commanding officer announcing that he had died.
Dear Quinn,
Well, I'm alive. That's the good news, I suppose. On those French beaches, the Nazis shot me pretty bad in the leg. It hurts a lot, but luckily I won't have to get it amputated. Mike wasn't so lucky. According to one of the nurses, he died a few hours after we made it to the field hospital. Poor Brittany. I remember how excited she was for their wedding. I owe my life to Puck, though. He's a real hero, like my father. And unlike me.
It's making me tired just writing this letter. Give my love to Beth.
Your Finn
Quinn joyfully shrieked and danced around in the yard. She noticed that several of the neighbors had opened their windows to see what the ruckus was, but she only cared a tiny bit. "Finn's alive!", she exuberantly shouted. "My husband survived another day!"
Adding to her joy, Puck had made it too! And it sounded like Puck had saved Finn from almost certain death. Quinn quickly opened the next letter, hoping it was from him.
Quinn,
I just wanted to write and to tell you that I'm okay. I knew that if I didn't, you'd get worried, and I don't want you to ever worry about anything, especially not me. Finn might not write this in his letter, but I know that he's in a great deal of pain and is struggling to fully recover. He might not be the same when we finally get home from fighting in this goddamn war.
Now that I've seen real battle, I no longer want to be here. Battle isn't glorious - it's bloody and horrific. At first, I thought being in the military would make me seem more manly and strong. It has (I think), but it's also shown me how a lot of people in the military are scaredy-cats, especially the Nazis.
At this point, I'm sure you've heard about Mike. I just hope that won't be Finn next time. I promise you, I'll protect him for you. He'll make it home, no matter what. There is no way he'll die, not on Puckzilla's watch.
I just wanted to let you know that I care about you so much. I miss you even more than I miss Mama and Miriam.
Puck
He cared about her so much. It wasn't love, but Quinn could settle for that! Anyway, she was a married woman. He just happened to be her husband's best friend and her closest confidante. That was the extent of their relationship - it was simple, uncomplicated. That was all it would ever be.
—
Coupon book in hand, Quinn was in town shopping for ingredients for a pot roast a few days after the death notices had arrived in Lima. The town had changed so much overnight. Gold stars had gone up in the homes of mothers who had lost their beloved sons in the invasion of Normandy. Quinn would see some of those women walking around dejected, decked from head to toe in black to properly mourn their sons, brothers, and sweethearts.
Quinn worked with so many of them, too. Brittany had not shown up to work since Mike's death notice had been delivered, and Quinn had dropped off a couple of casseroles to her home to try to make life easier for Brittany. Arleen O'Donnell helped Quinn melt the lead to make bullets at the Lima Munitions Factory. She was a pretty red-headed Irish girl. Arleen was fresh out of high school and already working to support her parents and her seven younger siblings. Quinn talked to Arleen a lot. Russell looked down on the Irish; he thought they were drunkards and rowdy, no-good womanizers who would ruin America. He would have disapproved of Arleen the same way he disapproved of Latinas like Santana. But Arleen was a cheerful girl who never drank a drop in her life and who spoke of books like A Tale of Two Cities and Gone With the Wind. Just a few days ago, Arleen had found out that both her older brother and her sweetheart had perished on the sandy French beaches, fighting for the Allied cause until their last breath. Arleen had come back to work and had kept her head down, tears perpetually engraved on her cheeks. She spoke only when directly spoken to, which was such a change from the cheerful girl she'd been days before.
And Arleen and Brittany weren't the only ones. There were dozens more women who lost their loved ones that day, or worse, who discovered that they were missing. Missing meant that the unlucky boy was captured by the Germans as a prisoner-of-war and was rumored to be mistreated in German prison camps, where they were apparently mistreated, overworked, and starved. No, Quinn definitely did not envy her friends who found out that their sweethearts or brothers or cousins were missing. A missing Finn would be much more tragic than an injured Finn.
And yet she still worried so much about him. Finn was strong and brave, but she knew he'd be doubting himself after being injured. And injuries could get infected, which could lead to death. Quinn had visited church to pray for Finn so many times since the battle even on days that weren't Sundays.
A few more battles like the invasion of Normandy, and all of the young boys in Lima would be dead, including Finn and Puck. But there were rumors that the Allies were winning and that the tide of the war had turned against the Nazis. Maybe the war would be over and life could go back to normal, where there were more young men besides Kurt in Lima, where Quinn could buy more meat and sugar for her family, where there were no gold stars in people's front windows. But Quinn knew in her heart that nothing would really be normal again.
A/N: Hi guys, I'm back after a long vacation. Hope you liked this chapter. I decided to try a new format - instead of beginnning this chapter with the letters, I decided to begin it with a real clipping from the Dayton Daily News the day that D-Day occurred. I have tried to make this story as historically accurate as possible. I'm afraid I've made this story a bit dark, but I promise there will be a happy ending.
In the next chapter, Finn and Rachel will meet each other! The war will end. Soon, Rachel will also meet Quinn and Puck. If I had to guess, I'm about halfway done with this story. I should have another update up in about 2 weeks. Please read, review, follow, and favorite! Reviews help me to become a better writer.