The Girls of Pearl Harbor

by Lane, Soraya M.

She thought she could recognize where they were, but then again it had been nighttime, and it could have been miles farther away. And there was a big part of her that didn’t want to see the wreckage or think about what had happened to those pilots; she’d rather have walked briskly past any carnage.

  ‘Oh my lord, there it is.’

  Eva stopped walking and followed Grace’s point, her mouth hanging open, but Grace wasn’t going to let them stand around.

  ‘Quickly, come on!’

  She half expected a German to leap out and shoot them, wild eyed and ready to kill, even though she knew no one could have survived such a crash. Their own soldiers would have stormed the area and secured it by now; any Germans that had lived through the ordeal would have been brought to their hospital or taken prisoner. This was as safe as anywhere. But it still sent goose bumps coursing across her skin just seeing the plane with the swastika and knowing it had been sent on a reconnaissance mission to see where they were all based and what they were doing. If they’d succeeded in their mission, they could all have been dead within days or hours.

  There was another plane farther away, and Eva hoped they weren’t going to have to inspect the remains of that one too. She breathed in fast, short pants just thinking about the pilots involved.

  ‘Can’t we just keep walking?’ she asked.

  ‘No!’ Grace insisted almost immediately. ‘Can you believe that we’re standing beside this? Isn’t it huge?’

  Eva caught April’s eye and gave her a quick smile, hoping to convince her that she was okay, but as her legs began to shake, she quickly bent down before they buckled and gave way.

  Was this what Charlie’s plane had looked like? Had the front been smashed like this and the wing broken? She shuddered as she saw the dark-red splatter across the glass. That was the pilot’s blood. They might be enemies, but he was another human being, and weren’t they all just doing what they were being told to do by their own country? Would his wife or sweetheart—his mother, for that matter—hate Americans as much as she hated the Japanese and Germans?

  ‘Eva?’ April asked, her hand hovering over her shoulder as she bent low beside her.

  ‘I’m fine,’ she managed. ‘It’s just . . .’

  ‘Come on, Grace. We only have a few hours, and didn’t you want to explore the town?’

  Grace suddenly turned from the plane and waved them on. ‘You’re right. Let’s go.’

  Eva clasped April’s hand as they walked away, and she held on tight, needing the contact to keep her going. Some days she felt like she was about to collapse, like she couldn’t keep going no matter how hard she tried, but somehow April was always there. It was as if April knew just when she was about to give up. Eva looked over her shoulder one last time, the pain hitting her in the chest, imagining Charlie’s final moments, hoping he’d died instantly and hadn’t suffered or even known what was happening. It didn’t matter what anyone said to her; she doubted she’d ever stop feeling guilty for holding him back instead of letting him go.

  ‘Are you thinking about him?’ April whispered as they followed a few steps behind Grace.

  She nodded. ‘Yeah. I just keep wondering about those final moments, if he knew what was about to happen.’

  April gave her a small smile. ‘I think about Poppy a lot too. It’s almost impossible to block it out sometimes, especially at night.’

  ‘Well, would you look at that,’ Grace said, laughing as she nudged them.

  Eva smiled as she watched two very young boys walking nearby, wearing only T-shirt-type tops with no underpants on. They stopped to relieve themselves, peeing on the grass in full view.

  ‘I don’t think modesty is a concern here,’ April said with a giggle. ‘I only hope we don’t encounter any full-grown men with the same attire!’

  They all three linked arms and kept walking, and Eva agreed.

  ‘For sure!’ Grace said. ‘I wouldn’t know where to look!’

  ‘At their eyes, Grace,’ April teased. ‘You’d be like a man not being able to take his eyes off a woman’s chest.’

  ‘Like you wouldn’t look!’ Grace laughed.

  Eva giggled then, too, and the laughter was contagious. When Eva finally straightened and they started to walk again, she felt lighter somehow. It felt good to let it all out, and suddenly the sun was warmer on her shoulders, the air easier to breathe.

  ‘Come on—I want to see what Casbah is all about,’ Grace said.

  They wandered until they finally reached their destination, finding narrow streets that were so different from where they were based. Lining up single file, they followed Grace, with Eva at the rear, walking down the overcrowded street that seemed to be teeming with people. Sweat clung to the stale air between the buildings, and Eva found herself scanning the dark faces they passed, amazed at how different the people looked, dressed, and even smelled.

  ‘Up there,’ Grace called out, looking back over her shoulder as she spoke. ‘That’s the palace I want to visit!’

  Eva was happy to follow along and take in the sights, so if Grace was so determined to visit the palace, then she wasn’t going to complain. She wanted to keep busy instead of living in her own thoughts.

  She noticed armed guards were posted outside most of the larger buildings, and she wondered who they were protecting or what they were stationed there for.

  ‘Are we supposed to be this far away from our camp?’ Eva asked April, shuffling closer to her.

  ‘We weren’t told about anywhere being off limits, were we?’ April asked.

  ‘No, but I just . . .’ She sighed. Maybe she was being overcautious. ‘I just wondered about those armed guards, if we’re actually safe here or not.’

  April’s brows pulled close together, and she nodded. ‘Hmm, maybe you’re right. Grace,’ she called.

  Grace spun around, wide eyed with excitement. ‘It’s here. Come on—there aren’t even guards. Quickly!’

  Eva hesitated, but Grace skipped straight up the steps to the palace, and the last thing she wanted was to be left behind, alone, on the streets. Her red hair and her friends’ blonde locks made them stand out among the sea of women in head scarves, and there were far more men than women filling the town.

  ‘Are you certain we can just walk in?’ she asked.

  ‘Well, if we couldn’t, wouldn’t there be guards stopping us?’ Grace asked. ‘Come on—I don’t want to miss out. I heard some of the soldiers talking about this place and how amazing it is. This is where the bey lives—he’s like the mayor of Casbah—and I heard that the bathroom faucets are made of gold.’

  ‘Sounds extravagant.’

  Parts of where they were seemed so poor, the homes so basic and the people dressed as if they had no possessions to their names, but this palace was pure opulence. They walked quietly, jaws dropping at the sights: the stuffed animals that looked so real they might spring into life and pounce at any moment, the unusual lights and furniture so unlike anything she’d seen before. Upstairs they silently pushed open the door to the bathroom, and they all stood, stunned.

  ‘This is insane!’ Grace whispered.

  ‘Is that fur on the toilet seat?’ April asked.

  Eva stepped past them, laughing to herself as she confirmed that it most definitely was fur lined. ‘It must be awfully unhygienic,’ she whispered. ‘And look.’

  The bathtub was lined with fur too. It was the oddest bathroom she’d ever seen in her life.

  ‘Do you think they actually bathe in there, or is it just for show?’

  April laughed and shook her head. ‘Maybe they just lie in there?’

  They all pulled faces, the entire room seeming too weird to understand, and quietly went back down the stairs and out the front door the same way they’d come in.

  ‘I have a feeling like we’ve just walked uninvited through someone’s home and we’re about to be arrested for it,’ April muttered.

  ‘Don’t be silly. It wasn’t like we forced our way in.’

&nb
sp; Outside and back in the narrow street, almost too narrow for them to walk even two abreast, Eva tried to breathe through her mouth so she didn’t have to smell the air. It was so hot and humid, so full of people and things, she felt like she was choking.

  ‘Come on—let’s go back,’ she said, hoping Grace wasn’t about to take them anywhere else. ‘My stomach is growling.’

  April took the lead this time, and Eva happily followed her, smiling back at the curious locals, wondering what they must think of them, scanning their faces as they did hers with open interest. It had been an unusual day, but for the first time she could remember, she didn’t have to force her smile, and it felt good.

  ‘Seriously, if they do use that bath, how would they dry it to keep the fur all fluffy?’ Grace asked as they crossed back toward the wreckage on their way home.

  Eva laughed as she imagined some poor housemaid forced to dry out the fur each day. ‘It’s ridiculous. I mean, line the floor with fur maybe, but the bath?’

  ‘Oh, and imagine all the pee on the toilet seat! How would you clean it? And imagine how stinky it would get!’

  They roared with laughter as they stumbled across the grass, still full of talk about what they’d seen. Grace might have had to drag them out today, but it had been worth every minute.

  ‘Did you hear that?’ Eva stopped walking, straining to listen.

  ‘What?’ April whispered back.

  She waited, ears pricked. ‘I don’t know—it was like a groan or something.’

  There it went again.

  ‘I heard it too,’ Grace said, her eyes wide as she took a step sideways and pressed into Eva.

  The moan was low and guttural, and fear sliced through Eva as she slowly spun to see where it might be coming from. They were close to the downed planes again, and she had this feeling like they shouldn’t be there, like it was a sacred or dangerous place that they should have avoided instead of walking straight into it.

  ‘I think we should go,’ she said.

  ‘Are there wild animals around here?’ April asked. ‘Was there a warning about anything dangerous?’

  Grace shook her head as Eva watched her. ‘Nothing I heard about. But I still think we should run,’ she whispered.

  Eva looked at April, but April just stared straight back at her as the low noise met their ears again. This time they all heard it at the same time.

  ‘Run!’ Grace yelped.

  They bolted, running in the direction of the hospital, but Eva glanced over her shoulder, half expecting a big cat to leap out of the long dry grass to try to catch them, but there was nothing there. Terror gripped her like a hand to her throat, made her think of her father, made fear pulse through every part of her body as she remembered what it was like to fight for her life, to try to stay safe.

  Oh lord. ‘Stop!’ she screamed, tripping as she fell over her own feet in her desperation to halt, wishing her eyes were playing tricks on her.

  It wasn’t a cat. It wasn’t a predator.

  Oh hell. Oh lord.

  ‘It’s a man,’ she gasped, stumbling sideways and dropping to her knees in the dirt, her legs buckling as she struggled not to sob.

  A soldier, one of theirs, was dragging his legs behind him, bloodied hands fighting to thump down, one after the other, his face etched with pain as he used only his upper body to move.

  He let out a guttural moan before collapsing face-first into the dirt.

  ‘Quickly, help me lift him!’ April cried, the first to reach him, her hands under his arms as Eva looked on, frozen.

  Grace was there then, too, on his other side.

  ‘Eva! Help us!’ April yelled.

  She clawed at the dirt to push herself up, forcing one foot in front of the other as she scrambled toward the soldier and then hefted his mangled legs with all her might.

  ‘We need to turn him,’ April instructed. ‘So he’s on his back. Maybe we’ll need to drag him if we can’t hold his weight.’

  Eva nodded, following orders.

  ‘Come on; on the count of three we roll him over,’ April said. ‘One, two, three!’

  They flipped him over and then collapsed beside him, all panting as he howled out in pain, regaining consciousness.

  ‘Soldier, what’s your name?’ she heard April ask as she stared at his face, watching as his cracked, dry lips parted. April bent low to listen, but in the end even Eva heard his whisper.

  ‘Arrr,’ he finally croaked. ‘Ar-thur.’

  ‘Well, Arthur, we’re going to get you to the hospital—aren’t we, ladies?’ April said.

  Eva nodded, over and over again, unable to stop. She anchored her feet and pushed up, taking strength from April as she motioned to both her and Grace.

  ‘Let’s try to carry him as best we can. Come on.’

  They all groaned as they lifted him up, his weight almost impossible to bear even with three of them trying as hard as they could.

  ‘One foot in front of the other,’ she whispered. ‘Just one step at a time.’

  They all stared at one another, not needing to say anything, determined in silent solidarity to get this broken soldier to safety. How long had he been out there? Had he been part of the battle in the sky they’d watched as if it were a fireworks display? Guilt plagued Eva as they walked, her teeth gritted as she struggled to hold him, her fingers gripping tight into his pants as she fought not to let go. Only hours earlier they’d passed through, and she’d wanted to keep going instead of looking over the wreckage, and while they’d giggled and explored the palace, he’d been moaning in pain, trying to drag himself to safety.

  ‘We’re going to save you, Arthur,’ she whispered. ‘I promise.’

  And as Eva stared at his pale skin, dark hair clinging to his forehead, his full lips swollen and burnt, he opened his eyes, and she found herself gazing into the most piercing blue irises she’d ever seen in her life.

  ‘You’re safe now,’ she whispered, stumbling but never letting go and never looking away. ‘You’re safe.’

  She might not have been able to keep her Charlie safe, but nothing was going to stop her from getting this man to the hospital. Nothing.

  ‘Arthur,’ she whispered, shaking his shoulder as gently as she could. There was no response. Eva bent low and stroked his forehead, biting hard on her bottom lip to stop from crying out. ‘Please, Arthur. Wake up.’

  Eva held his hand and stared at him as if she could will him awake as she waited for April to get help inside the hospital. They’d carried him so far, and he was a big man; her shoulders ached, and the muscles in her arms were burning, but she didn’t care. She just needed him to live.

  ‘I don’t think he’s going to make it,’ Grace murmured beside her, on her knees as they both watched him. ‘Look at his legs.’

  They were mangled—that was for sure—and as Eva looked down at them, her eyes traveling over the peculiar angle of both his lower limbs, all she cared about was whether he’d survive. They had great doctors, surgeons who could surely fix his legs; she just wanted him to breathe. To know that they’d found him in time and given him a chance at life.

  ‘It’s my fault,’ she whispered. Charlie’s death had been her fault, for not letting him go, and now this man was going to die because of her too.

  Grace’s arm went around her, holding her tight. ‘How is this your fault? He was injured in a plane crash!’

  ‘If I hadn’t been so desperate to get going instead of looking around, we would have found him earlier. Those couple of hours might have made a difference; he might have lived . . .’

  ‘Stop it! We saved him, Eva. The three of us managed to carry this man all the way back here, so don’t you even think like that,’ she said as if she were reprimanding a child. Eva had never seen Grace angry before, but she looked furious now. ‘It’s not your fault this man was injured, and it wasn’t your fault that Charlie was either.’

  Eva stared back at Grace. ‘What?’

  Grace’s face suddenly col
lapsed. ‘I’m sorry. I should never have said that. I’m just so tired of seeing you with the weight of Charlie’s death on your shoulders as if it was your fault he was killed. Because it wasn’t.’

  Eva opened her mouth and shut it again just as fast. It was easy for Grace to say that.

  ‘Out of the way!’

  She looked up and saw Dr. Grey running toward them along with two corpsmen carrying a stretcher. Within seconds they’d hauled him up as the doctor bent over him, stethoscope in hand as he listened to his heart. The frown dragging his mouth down told her it wasn’t good, and she clung to Grace as Arthur was hurried away into the hospital. Dr. Grey ran beside the stretcher with April trailing behind. And then they were gone.

  ‘He’s going to die,’ Eva whispered. ‘I just know he’s not going to make it.’

  Grace kept hold of her hand and dragged her into the hospital alongside her.

  ‘They’ll take him straight into surgery, and we can wait for news together,’ Grace said, still leading her.

  Eva nodded, collapsing to the floor the moment they got close to the operating theater, her back sliding against the cool concrete wall. Her body had started to shake—she knew she was in shock—but it almost felt better than the numbness, the lack of any feeling, that she’d had up until today.

  Three hours later, Eva’s eyes flew open. She gasped as Grace tugged her to her feet, watching as Dr. Grey walked out behind a stretcher that was heading for recovery. His face was impossible to read, but April was like an open book, her smile telling her the man had made it but the tears glistening in her eyes telling her there was more to the story than simply saving his life, that something had made her friend’s heart break despite him surviving. How had she fallen asleep while he was in surgery? She rubbed at her eyes and forced herself up.

  ‘Any word on who he is?’ Grey asked. He stopped by them, yawning and pulling his surgical cap off. He looked weary as he stared down at them.

  ‘We haven’t heard anything,’ Grace said for them both.

  Suddenly there was a commotion as two air force pilots strode into the hospital, the medals on the jacket of the older man making it clear he was someone distinguished within their military.