After lunch, walking along the canals, the Chapmans made their case, trying to persuade Victor to let them use the family influence to get him into an all-American flying corps. And when he flatly refused, the Chapmans both looked to me in desperation.
“I’m beginning to suspect some plan is afoot to leave us alone together,” my nephew said, joining me on a sunny park bench where we watched his parents drift in a gondola amongst floating gardens that blossomed with crimson flowers and succulent vegetables. “Am I due for some manner of scolding? If so, I’m going to need a cigarette.”
“Nothing like that.”
He lit up anyway. “French tobacco is so bitter. Uncle Willie sent me this American variety, so now I’m happy as a chimney.”
“You seem to hear from him often . . .”
Victor nodded. “More than anyone else, actually. I hope you’ll thank him for me when you see him.”
I was so sore at Willie that I could hope never to see him again, so I merely smiled, which unfortunately didn’t seem to fool my nephew. Victor pointed to where his parents floated beneath the weeping willows. “They’re so different, you know. My father has hard edges, she has soft ebbs, but they fit like a jigsaw puzzle. Whereas you and Uncle Willie . . .”
“We’re both hard edges.”
He chuckled. “You’re alike. Maybe that’s bad in a marriage.”
Amused by his newfound worldliness, I felt entitled to pry. “Why is the subject of marriage on your mind—have you met some special girl?”
“No,” he murmured, red as a beet.
Ah, there was the boy I knew. “Well, I’m sure it’s just a matter of time. Girls love a hero.”
“I don’t feel like much of a hero. I’ve thrown away ten months of my life, neither helping the French nor injuring the Germans, as far as I can see.”
“Surely the stalemate at the front line cannot last.”
Victor puffed his cigarette. “What people don’t want to understand is that the front is like a chain, pulled tight, nailed at two ends. As long as the nails hold, nothing can change.”
“America could change everything.”
He snorted. “But what’s the betting on America joining the war?”
“Public opinion was already teetering before the sinking of the Lusitania . . . now I have to believe President Wilson won’t let the murder of innocent Americans go unavenged. But if he can’t make up his mind . . .” In spite of my resolution not to interfere, I sensed an opening I couldn’t resist. “You might tip the balance a little.”
My nephew laughed. “Me?”
“People like a good story. They want heroes. What you’re doing here matters, but what if you could do more somewhere else?”
Victor’s smile was wry. “You want me to join the aviators when it is perfectly obvious that I’ve been foisted on them by Uncle Willie.” He sighed. “Aunt Bea, when I ask myself whether I can do more than vegetate in a mudhole, I think of my comrades. What right have I to take advantage of my connections when they can’t?”
“The same right any man has to try to win the war. Piloting can’t be characterized as a cushy assignment . . .”
Victor waved this away. “Oh, it’s not as dangerous as they say. I’ve seen aeroplanes nearly every bright day when fifty shells leave white balls in the sky, and not yet have I seen one disabled.”
I wished to disagree, but supposed he knew better. “Victor, an all-American flying corps would send a message that our country stands with her allies. A message our president might finally hear.”
“I’ll think on it. On one condition . . .”
“Name it.”
I expected he might ask for a flask of rum, a package of chocolates, or a crate of oranges for his friends, but he said, “Don’t give up on Uncle Willie just yet. He has regrets.”
“If so, this is the first I’m hearing of it.” I knew how a man behaved when he wanted a woman. More particularly, I knew how Willie had behaved when he’d wanted me. In our courtship, he’d been relentless; thus, his neglect now told me everything. “Your uncle never regrets.”
My nephew stubbed out his cigarette. “He’s too proud to admit it.”
“Well, I have my pride too.”
Victor chuckled. “As I said, you’re just alike . . .”
Except one of us gadded off to Switzerland and one of us is here with the family, I thought. “Is there anything else I can do for you?”