“My mother isn’t well,” Audrey said in a choked voice, but Audrey knew she couldn’t protect her from this, and her mother wouldn’t want her to. She had a right to be there. “She’s bedridden. I’ll bring her in.” They sat down on the edge of the couch, and Audrey felt as though the longer she could keep them from telling them the news, the longer Will would be alive. She walked into her mother’s downstairs bedroom and told her that there were two officers waiting to speak to her. They both knew what it meant, or could mean. That he was wounded or dead. Ellen looked panicked and her hands were shaking violently, but she asked Audrey and Mrs. Beavis to get her into her wheelchair and wheel her into the living room to see them. She was wearing a navy housedress with pink flowers on it, which Audrey knew she would remember for the rest of her life. She had blue velvet slippers on her feet.
Audrey wheeled her into the living room, and turned her to face the officers as they stood to greet her. She introduced Audrey to them, which Audrey hadn’t thought to do herself. Their speech was brief and formal and as compassionate as they could make it. The Navy Air Force officer delivered the news they were both dreading. Will had been killed in the second wave of the attack, at the airfield. He had been working on his plane, and had used an antiaircraft gun from the plane to try and bring one of the Japanese planes down, but they got him first. They had an eyewitness report from a pilot who had been there and been injured. He had survived it and Will hadn’t.
“He died honorably in battle, Mrs. Parker, and will be awarded a medal posthumously to show his country’s gratitude,” the captain said. “He was one of our finest pilots. I met him myself last year. He was a fine young man. We extend the navy’s sympathy, and the president’s. We are very sorry. His body will be flown home when we can get the aircraft over there to do it. There isn’t a functioning plane on the ground there right now. We lost two thousand, four hundred men yesterday, and there are over a thousand wounded. Ships and planes destroyed, sunken ships. It may take awhile to bring him home, but we’ll bring him back as soon as we can.”
Both men wanted to shake her hand, but saw that it wasn’t possible, so they shook Audrey’s and left a few minutes later. She wondered how many homes they were going to that day, how many hearts they would have to break, as the bearers of the worst possible tidings anyone could hear. She put her arms around her mother, and they cried together. Audrey still couldn’t believe her brother was gone. She had last seen him only three weeks ago to the day, and was even more grateful to her mother for making the trip to Honolulu possible. As she thought it, she realized she would have to tell Lizzie, and she couldn’t even put her arms around her. But she had to know in case his name appeared in a newspaper on a list of those killed.
She and Mrs. Beavis got Ellen into bed, and Audrey brought her a cup of tea. Ellen didn’t want it. She just lay there with her eyes closed, shaking from head to foot, with tears running down her cheeks, sobbing, as Audrey gently stroked her arm.
Mrs. Beavis got her to take her medicine, and she finally fell asleep. Audrey went out to the kitchen then, and dialed Lizzie’s number in Boston. She answered immediately. She’d known instinctively that Audrey would call her. Lizzie wasn’t working that day, and her father had canceled his patients for the day. The whole country was holding its breath, waiting to hear what would happen next. All anyone knew was what had happened at Pearl Harbor and that the country was at war with Japan. It had been twenty-four years since America had entered a war. They had gotten into the last one before Audrey and Lizzie were born, so they had never lived it firsthand. The United States had only been in it briefly, but had suffered tremendous losses. This was all new to them.
Lizzie didn’t ask her any questions and waited for Audrey to speak.
“The navy came to see us,” she said in a dead voice. “He died trying to defend the airfield. He was killed by the Japanese. They’re sending his body home when they can.” Audrey’s voice sounded hollow to her own ears, as Lizzie sank into a chair and cried quietly. Her parents saw what was happening and could guess she had just had terrible news. “I’m sorry, Lizzie,” Audrey said, crying. “He loved you. I know that for sure. You’re the only girl he ever loved. He would have married you. He told me so. I love you. I’m so sorry, for all of us,” she said, and then broke into sobs and had to hang up. Lizzie’s father walked over and put a hand on her shoulder, as her mother stared at her in dismay. Lizzie was dissolving in front of them.