by Murray Pura
“My dear. My dear.” Ruth stretched out her arms. “Resistance will bring its own evils and fill its own graves.”
Becky was stiff. “I know that too. Terrible things happen all around. But the child will know it’s remembered. It will know that while you wait safe and warm in Pennsylvania for peace to come, others will defend its life. My husband and others will bless the child. They’ll bless the child, Aunt Ruth, by fighting to keep it alive.” She suddenly winced and covered her face with her hands. “I didn’t want to quarrel. I didn’t want to be harsh. You are going away forever and I’m saying such cruel things—”
“Hush, hush, you are as much a bundle of emotions as I am.” Ruth gathered her into her arms again. “I feel anger too. And if I let myself go there would be hatred. But I’ve been Amish all my life. The Spirit of God will not permit it. All the teaching and the prayers have become a forest of oaks inside me and the forest cannot be uprooted.”
“I don’t want to hate…but I see Manuku and Kalino and Wizard—sharp ends cut into me—black edges—it’s as if I had swallowed bits of broken glass—”
“So it may feel that way for some time. But pray for the peace to come. Not just all around you. Pray for what’s inside. Just as you prayed for it when you grieved over Moses. Seek it again.”
“I want you to stay. Until the war is done and Christian is safe. Until all that can be saved are safe.”
“I have to go for the sake of my own soul, Becky. If I remained with you I would eventually become a shell as the war dragged on—all wars last too long. But if I go to my people in Pennsylvania I will have something to give you. I will have heart if I live among them and their worship of God. My words will have strength. So I can bless you.”
They stayed on the beach long after the sun was gone. The stars burned in the sea and over their heads. There was no moon. Ruth’s dress dried, and they sat together on the sand, side by side, talking very little.
The next morning the family went down to the dock in Honolulu Harbor and Ruth boarded the liner for San Francisco. Nate lugged her suitcases up the gangway after her. She stood at the railing in her dark dress and prayer kapp. Along with hundreds of others she looked down at the upturned faces.
“God be with you!” called Lyyndaya.
“And also with you, sister!” Ruth responded.
“There will be a time we all meet again in Pennsylvania. There will be.”
Ruth smiled. “The sooner the better.”
The gangway was hauled up and secured. The mooring lines were cast off. The ship’s whistle blew, cutting its way through the warm Hawaiian air. The tall vessel moved away from the dock toward the open sea.
Ruth lifted her hand. “Lyyndaya, Jude, Nate, Rebecca—The Lord bless thee, and keep thee: The Lord make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee: The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.”
FORTY-ONE
Captain Whetstone?”
“Mm?”
“It’s quarter to twelve, sir,” said Skinny.
“All right. Thank you.”
Jude straightened his tie in the mirror a final time and walked into the dining room of his home in full dress uniform. The others quietly watched him come. He went to the head of the table, where there was an empty chair. To his left sat Lyyndaya, Billy Skipp and his wife, Nancy, Whistler, Skinny, and Harrison. To his right were his son, Nate, his daughter, Becky, and her husband, Christian, as well as Lockjaw and Batman. All the men, including Nate, were in Army Air Forces uniform. The exception was Harrison, who wore Coast Guard whites. Every uniform was immaculate.
“We gathered tonight to remember,” Jude said. “I know that for some it’s a time to let off steam. To celebrate being alive and being with friends and family. Believe me, I understand that. It’s been a black month for America and the world. Everything is falling to pieces in front of our eyes. The Nazis and the Japanese are conquering and destroying whatever they want and no one can stop them. For a lot of servicemen this will be their last New Year’s with their families for years.”
He didn’t speak the words or forever, but he felt them, and he knew everyone in the room felt them too. Lyyndaya dropped her head. Jude paused to place a hand gently on her shoulder.
“In the first war I put on this uniform because I was forced to. Now I put it on because I choose to. You all know my background and that of my wife. What you don’t know is that when we came to Hawaii to help Flapjack and Colonel Skipp we closed the door to our Amish community in Pennsylvania. To them we had joined ranks with the military and were continuing to fly aircraft in defiance of Amish beliefs and customs. We cannot return. Weeks ago my wife and I made up our minds that we would not even if we could. Our place is to train and to bless the young men who serve and their families. We feel that is our calling from God.
“And now, all of us here have agreed to come together tonight, at the end of 1941 and the beginning of 1942, to remember those we have lost as well as brace ourselves for what lies ahead. Wars may be won without hate, but not without sacrifice.” He paused. “We have empty chairs among us.”
“Manuku,” said Becky. One of the empty chairs was beside her and Christian.
“Dave.” Harrison kept his eyes straight ahead.
“Juggler,” said Batman.
Whistler put a hand on the back of a chair on his right. “Shooter.”
Lockjaw’s voice was quieter than it had ever been. There was an empty chair on either side of him. “Wizard. Kalino.”
Billy Skipp stood up. “Flapjack Peterson. A good friend and fellow pilot who flew with Jude and me in the first war. I’m not an expert at offering prayers to the Almighty, but I would like to do that now regardless.”
Everyone pushed back their chairs and got to their feet to join Skipp and Jude.
“Eternal Father, strong to save,” Skipp began. “Have mercy on those we’ve lost as only you can have mercy. Give strength to those of us who remain as only you can give strength. Bind our hearts to your purpose—when it’s a time for war, help us to wage it swiftly and justly—when it’s a time for peace, help us to seek that peace and embrace it with all our might. In the air, on land, at sea, when in harm’s way, be with us, Lord, and do not forsake us. In Christ’s name. Amen.”
“Amen,” said Jude. “Your prayers sound okay to me, Billy.” He checked his watch. “We have only a couple of minutes. Let’s stay on our feet.” He smiled. “Most of you have never seen me in a uniform before. When I enlisted they gave me my rank of captain back. I hope to be qualified on the P-40 in January. I won’t be a frontline pilot. But I hope to help the young men who are sent our way become ones.”
He put his hands in his pockets. “My Amish friends would turn their backs on me if they saw me dressed like this. I could argue I was in a position to make a difference, to train young men in such a way that most of them could be assured of returning home. But the Amish know that our planes shoot down other planes. Thou shalt not kill. I am breaking the commandment.” Jude shook his head. “What I do is not an easy thing to do. What Lyyndaya does at my side is not an easy thing either. What all of you will be asked to do over the next few years will never be easy. But at least one of our Amish friends understands this. Some are called to lay down their arms, he says. Some are called to pick them up. You have to decide what your calling is. At this table we have made up our minds. We defend until peace comes.”
He looked at his wife. “The trick is to do it without hate. Our friends have been killed. Somehow I must defend others against the Japanese and still be prepared to embrace the Japanese when the end has come. How is that done? Lyyndaya helped me do it twenty years ago with the Germans. Now she’ll have to help me do it all over again.” He glanced at his watch a second time. “It’s midnight. God bless Manuku, Kalino, Shooter, and Wizard. God bless Flapjack, Juggler, and Dave. God bless you all.”
Jude kissed his wife and then turned and shook his son’s hand and gave him a hug. Pe
ople laughed and began hugging and kissing right around the table. Becky, Nancy, and Lyyndaya went to the kitchen and came back with platters of food and pitchers of fruit punch and a pot of coffee. Christian grabbed a handful of grapes before Becky took his arm and drew him outside.
He smiled. “Wow.” The darkness gleamed with silver as a moon that was almost full moved over the ocean and the jungle. “The whole island’s under a blackout, your mom has the blackout curtains drawn, you can’t see a thing at Pearl, yet Hawaii is lit up like it’s Christmas.”
Becky smiled at the shining night. “It’s like the full moon at the beach. Before everything changed.”
“Some things for the worse, Beck.” He tilted up her chin with his hand. “But some things for the better.”
She tugged on his dog-tag chain as she looked up at him. “Your wife hasn’t had her first kiss of 1942 yet.”
“I can’t yet.”
“What do you mean you can’t yet?”
“Looking at you in this light is just amazing. I don’t want to close my eyes. Not even for a Becky Raven kiss.”
She laced her arms around his neck. “Perhaps I can encourage you to change your mind.”
“Your eyes are incredible. And your hair is like some kind of white gold. And your skin—”
“Shh. Enough.”
“—is like stardust.”
“Stardust.”
“And it’s all over you.”
She smiled and smoothed back his hair. “Ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. Do you remember that?”
“Sure. It was in that letter you read me from your bishop in Pennsylvania. The one he wrote to Nate just before the attack.”
“So do you remember the rest of it?”
“I remember that it’s from Isaiah.”
“Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree: and it shall be to the Lord for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off. Nate thinks it’s about America now. America and the world coming back to life after years of blight and destruction and war. But I think it’s about us—you and me.”
He kissed each of her eyes. “How do you figure that?”
“We both lost people we cared for. When we met we started rough. It took a lot for us to admit we loved each other. It took a war to make me want marriage. It may be hell on earth tonight. But for us the love is unstoppable no matter what gets thrown at us. We’ve come too far and we’ve fought through too much to toss away what we feel for each other and say it’s too hard. The Japanese won’t make me do it. Or the Germans. Fear won’t. Not even death. It’s this everlasting thing—you know?”
“Yeah. You make it all pretty clear.”
“You’re shipping out in the morning. But it’s not over between us. It never will be. Do you believe that, Christian?”
He put his lips gently to hers, the moon turning both of them into fire. “Yeah, Becky. I do.”
About the Author
ABOUT MURRAY PURA…
Murray Pura earned his Master of Divinity degree from Acadia University in Wolfville, Nova Scotia, and his ThM degree in theology and interdisciplinary studies from Regent College in Vancouver, British Columbia. For more than 25 years, in addition to his writing, he has pastored churches in Nova Scotia, British Columbia, and Alberta. Murray’s writings have been shortlisted for the Dartmouth Book Award, the John Spencer Hill Literary Award, the Paraclete Fiction Award, and Toronto’s Kobzar Literary Award. Murray pastors and writes in southern Alberta near the Rocky Mountains. He and his wife, Linda, have a son and a daughter.
Visit Murray’s website at www.MurrayPura.com.
Also, for more information about Harvest House books, please visit our website at www.HarvestHousePublishers.com and our Amish reader page at www.AmishReader.com.
Other Books by Murray Pura
If you loved WHISPERS OF A NEW DAWN, you’ll want to read about Jude and Lyyndy’s earlier adventure in Murray Pura’s
THE WINGS OF MORNING…
Jude Whetstone and Lyyndaya Kurtz, whose families are converts to the Amish faith, are slowly falling in love. Jude has also fallen in love with flying that newfangled invention, the aeroplane.
The Amish communities have rejected the telephone and have forbidden motorcar ownership but not yet electricity or aeroplanes.
Though exempt from military service on religious grounds, Jude is manipulated by unscrupulous army officers into enlisting in order to protect several other young Amish men. No one in the community understands his sudden enlistment and so he is shunned. Lyyndaya’s despair deepens at the reports that Jude has been shot down in France. In her grief, she turns to nursing Spanish flu victims in Philadelphia.
After many months of caring for stricken soldiers, Lyyndaya is stunned when an emaciated Jude turns up in her ward. Her joy at receiving Jude back from the dead is quickly diminished when the Amish leadership insists the shunning remain in force. How then can they marry without the blessing of their families? Will happiness elude them forever?
Book two in the Snapshots in History series…
THE FACE OF HEAVEN
In April 1861, Lyndel Keim discovers two runaway slaves in her family’s barn. When the men are captured and returned to their plantation, Lyndel and her young Amish beau, Nathaniel King, find themselves at odds with their pacifist Amish colony.
Nathaniel enlists in what will become the famous Iron Brigade of the Union Army. Lyndel enters the fray as a Brigade nurse on the battlefield, sticking close to Nathaniel as they both witness the horrors of war—including the battles at Chancellorsville, Fredericksburg, and Antietam. Despite the pair’s heroic sacrifices, the Amish only see that Lyndel and Nathaniel have become part of the war effort, and both are banished.
And a severe battle wound at Gettysburg threatens Nathaniel’s life. Lyndel must call upon her faith in God to endure the savage conflict and to face its painful aftermath, not knowing if Nathaniel is alive or dead. Will the momentous battle change her life forever, just as it will change the course of the war and the history of her country?