Song recommendation for this chapter: "Neuer Wind" by van Canto (it's a German song about renewal)
Chapter Nine
Hawaii
Gooz had been true to his word and when Allie had changed into a light dress a few minutes later, the other pilots – also dressed more or less casually – had gathered outside the quarters.
The sun had begun to sink, but it still would take hours until sunset. It was as warm as before, and if they hadn't been driving around in a car with convertible hood from the Navy fleet of cars, they could have been tourists. Red, Billy and Anthony squabbled with one another in the back, like little boys who'd been promised ice cream for dinner.
Allie too felt like on vacation, sunglasses on her nose, wind in her hair sitting at the front between Gooz, who was driving, and Danny, who seemed equally overwhelmed. If they hadn't been relocated with a certain purpose, it could have been paradise.
After Gooz had shown them a few places close by, that not every tourist knew, Allie decided it was like paradise, war on the other side of the world or not.
"Rafe would've loved it here" she sighed when she buried her naked toes in the warm sand. Danny sitting next to her on the ground only nodded.
Yes, the blue sky, the balmy breeze, the rush of the surf, he'd take great delight in being here. For a moment she closed her eyes, to better appreciate the lapping of the waves. Paradise on earth.
Just a few seconds later she felt wet from head to toe. Anthony had taken advantage of her being distracted and had splashed her with saltwater. To his bad luck, he had also splashed Danny, who took this as challenge to shove Anthony into the waves. Immediately a fight between the young men started, Danny and Red on one side, Billy and Anthony on the other.
After the first refreshment, Allie had seen to get to a safe distance from the sea. At second glance, she hadn't gotten as wet as she first had thought.
"I can show you how to surf, if you want to." Gooz pointed to a few men a little apart from the childishly behaving pilots. They let the waves wash them up to shore on their boards.
"You make it sound like it's hard" Allie stated. What the men were doing didn't look too complicated.
Gooz grinned broadly. "It's not really, but you need to know some tricks, else you can get hurt."
"So that happened to your face?" she inquired. She had noted the scratches and wondered how he had gotten them.
Now Gooz didn't seem as smug as before. "Hey, I'm working on my invention that will revolutionize surfing" he replied with conviction.
Allie laughed. "Well, then I hope you fly better than you surf" she pestered him.
He just shrugged it off. "And I hope you have the same guts when it comes to flying" he started his counterpunch, "else I don't see how you might be the biggest terror in the skies." He raised an eyebrow mockingly.
Allie just adjusted her sunglasses. He would witness her flying skills soon enough. Before that, she wanted to enjoy the evening.
The boys had become tired of playing in the water and headed back to the car slowly, one after another, more or less wet and breaded with sand. Shirts got shaken out and shoes were put on again and a quarter of an hour later they were on their way to the bar, of which Gooz had told the guys that they served the most authentic Hawaiian drinks to be found on the whole archipelago – not that he had been to any of the other islands. Besides, it was the flight's hangout.
The "Hula-La Bar" held on the inside, what it promised on the outside. Everything was decorated with orchids and Allie wouldn't been surprised, if the barkeeper had worn a hula skirt – what he did not. But he did wear a Hawaiian shirt and hung a flower garland around her neck, also made from orchids, when she went to order the first round for the group. Later Gooz explained to her, that the flower garland was called Lei and was traditionally meant for notability or guests as a sign of honor. Around the same time the nurses joined their group.
They seemed equally stunned by the first few impressions they got, only Sandra reminded her colleagues that they weren't tourists – what was all the same to them – and Evelyn seemed to be in low spirits.
Allie waved at the young woman to come closer and indicated to the barkeeper to bring them another round of drinks. The nurse sat down hesitantly on the chair next to the airwoman. For some time, they both kept silent until the barkeeper brought them their drinks, that didn't look at all like what Allie had expected. Well, she hadn't specified what exactly she'd wanted, and to her irritated look the barkeeper stated, that he was convinced it would suit the ladies. He also put a flower garland around Evelyn's neck, who wasn't pleased about that.
With the same hesitance she inspected the drink, but before she could try it, Allie clinked her glass against the nurse's.
"It brings ill luck not to touch glasses" declared the younger woman and took a sip from the tropical seeming drink.
When she looked up again, she noticed the gleam of tears in Evelyn's eyes. Dismayed, she leaned over. "Did I say something wrong?" she asked confused.
Evelyn shook her head silently and blinked away her tears. "It's just" she started and had to swallow. "It's just so… so wonderful and perfect here and everyone's having fun and happy, but I can only think of Rafe, how he is in England."
She dropped her glance to her hands and fumbled around with the flower garland.
"All the time I wonder, if he is well, I haven't gotten any responses to my letters yet" the nurse explained herself further and had to fight emerging tears once more.
Allie took her hand squeezed it. "He's fine I bet. I'm sure I'd feel it if something had happened." She gave the other woman a reassuring smile. "And how many letters have you written already, we just arrived today."
Evelyn had to smile involuntarily. "Well, one letter every day, maybe five pages per letter. You think that's too much?" she asked when she saw Allies surprised look.
The pilot had to fight laughing out loud. She herself had written only one letter to her brother and was first waiting for an answer, before she would pick up pen and paper again. "Not too much exactly" she calmed her counterpart, "but don't expect to get back that many letters also. As you know, the letters don't like him. But seriously, don't you think Rafe wants you to be in a funk while being at the most beautiful place in the world until he comes back? Very unlikely."
That seemed to finally convince and comfort Evelyn enough, and at last she took a large sip from her tropical cocktail.
It came to be a jolly, but not to late first evening on Hawaii and they agreed to meet again soon.
Soon, the "Terrors of the Skies" grew accustomed to life on Hawaii and Allie was able to dispel the initial skepticism with skills and results. Besides, she gained lots of new experiences flying in this different terrain.
New experiences of the nasty kind Rafe had had, he had written her actually fairly regularly. In fact, more often than he had, when he had been stationed at Long Island. Allie attributed this to Evelyn's positive influence, who still wrote several pages a letter on a daily basis and got mail back from Rafe around twice or three times as much as his sister.
The women often shared the news from the letters, what Allie – among other things – took as excuse to visit the nurses during her time off and sometimes even on duty; the nurses, as herself, had little to do. At least, the planes had to be serviced on a regular basis, what was meaningful work in contrast to the weekly stocktaking at the dispensary; Evelyn nearly always volunteered to do that so she could have some time to herself.
Furthermore, Allie used her time off to pursue her new hobby. After all, she had allowed Gooz to show her how to surf.
Initially, she had wanted to stay resolute and to reject his every offer, but his arguments got more and more objective and she couldn't rebut them any longer, so he had worn her down with time. She had planned to drop surfing again after the first tries, but she had to admit, she liked it. Also, it had brought up her ambition to master surfing, since it did in fact look way easier than it was.
Her yielding on that matter, Gooz had interpreted as invitation to continue to court her, but on this topic, she stood firm. Besides, he did so quite subtle, so neither her fellow pilots nor the Sergeant saw what was going on – and even if it had gotten to Earl's attention, he didn't seem to care. Things were done differently on Hawaii.
And tattling was out of the question, she would solve her problems herself.
So, she only complained to the nurses sometimes, who were somewhat unsympathetic to her lamentation, wishing somebody was after them in this way. And yes, it actually was nice to get this much attention, she hadn't felt this much cared for since her mother died.
The girls had the habit of going to church on Sundays, so sometimes Allie choose to go too, just to have the opportunity to dress up a little and catch more of the local gossip and tittle-tattle.
But this Sunday, she opted out, since there would be a boxing match on one of the ships and Gooz had insisted that this was the happening, she mustn't miss. Originally Allie had wanted to decline the invitation, but at right that moment Danny had joined them.
"What mustn't one miss under any circumstances?" the tall pilot asked, interestedly.
Allie had the feeling, that life on Hawaii did him good, he seemed less introverted. Maybe it was him no longer being in Rafe's shadow. Now, that he wasn't omnipresent anymore, Allie noticed how much of an effect he had had on his best friend's and sister's lives.
Although they never talked about it, Allie had the impression that Rafe's absence had formed a stronger bond between Danny and her, than her brother's presence ever had.
"The boxing match" Gooz professed and extended the invitation to Danny, who agreed immediately. "So?" he turned to Allie who had ducked giving an answer yet.
"All right then, why not" she gave in finally. If Danny was there, Gooz wouldn't dare to make a play for her.
That was why they turned up on the ship around noon, where the match was well underway already.
"Alright, Walker, who you got? Come on, fight's almost over" Gooz urged Danny to place his bet, because this was – according to Gooz – the underlying reason for the boxing matches.
Allie just snorted. "You wanna bet too?" he asked with irritation. "That's normally outta place for girls."
Allie cocked her head. "Yeah, but to come to blows normally outta place too for girls, and I done it anyway" she answered in an undertone of sassiness. Gooz just raised an eyebrow in mild amusement. "That you did? Oh yeah, I remember Billy warning me about that, you little terror of the skies."
"I'll take the cook" Danny quickly tossed in, before Allie had the next comeback ready and she turned her attention to the fight again.
"You don't like money?" Gooz wanted to know, evidently unconvinced of the young man's prospect of a victory. She observed the match for a few seconds and decided Danny had placed his bet on the right man. The mechanic seemed to be the more promising choice on first glance, but the cook was spurred by something not to be underestimated.
"I'll put five on it" Danny put a number on his bet.
After a short break it came to crunch time und it was looking good for the cook. It didn't take long, and he indeed defeated his opponent.
"Where's my money?" Danny turned to Gooz triumphantly, but the other man wasn't convinced there hadn't been something fishy about the match. He claimed the fight had been rigged.
Danny and Gooz still squabbled with one another when they returned to the airbase. And despite it being Sunday they met Earl, who asked Allie and Danny to come to his office in an severe tone.
This was quite concerning since it was generally known on the base that Earl spent as little time as possible in his office and with formalities of all kind.
Immediately, Allies stomach cramped into a knot. Surely, it had to do with Rafe, why else would Earl want to talk to her and Danny. Why else would he be so serious?
When was the last time she had heard something from Rafe? It had been a while, but Evelyn had gotten mail just yesterday, but that letter had been two weeks old.
In trance she followed Danny to the office and sat down on the offered chair slowly and awkwardly. It probably wasn't that severe after all. Without fail she was getting herself worked up over nothing.
"Earl, what happened?" she burst out her question without listening what the man had tried to say. "Is it Rafe? Is he hurt?"
Obviously, the Sergeant was having difficulties to tell them what he had to.
Nervously Allie turned to Danny, who stood behind her chair and starred at the wall behind Earl indefinably.
"Lieutenants Alice McCawley and Daniel Walker" Earl started oddly formal, "I received message that Lieutenant Rafe McCawley's plane has not returned from a mission above the English Channel." He paused shortly and Allie blinked unbelievingly. That couldn't be true. "No body was found but there are no signs of survival."