The Girls of Pearl Harbor - Soraya M. Lane Page 0,1
all invited!’ Poppy told them. ‘The people here love all the nurses and soldiers, so the social life is amazing! We’re going to have so much fun here.’
‘Definitely paradise,’ Grace repeated with a smile, shaking her head. ‘Didn’t I tell you both this would be the perfect place to be posted?’
The three of them walked, laughing, down the beach, in a row with their arms linked. She had no idea how they’d been fortunate enough to have all been sent to Hawaii, but here they were, and she was in heaven. They’d been thick as thieves since childhood, both claiming best-friend status with Poppy, who’d been like the third sister they’d never had. She’d always been the one to smooth things over between her and April, like the middle child stopping the other two from arguing. And now they were all stationed in Pearl Harbor for the foreseeable future, with their gas masks the only hint that things weren’t expected to remain peaceful forever.
‘How many summer dresses did you pack?’ April asked Poppy.
‘As many as I could fit in my case!’ Poppy replied with a laugh. ‘Although the gas mask took up so much space. Honestly, as if we’re ever going to need it.’
They walked across the sand as the sun beat down on their bare arms, and Grace turned her face up to the sun. ‘What would we be doing if we were still at home?’
‘If we weren’t on duty and giving soldiers injections in their bottoms to stop them from getting yellow fever?’ April said.
‘Ohhh, stop!’ Grace moaned. ‘You know, I never knew men’s bottoms could look so . . .’
‘Hairy?’ Poppy teased.
‘Ugh.’ Grace flapped her hands and laughed. ‘There have definitely been more unattractive ones than I expected.’
They all burst out laughing, before Poppy took off running, shoes in her hand, head tipped back as she splashed through the water. Grace ran after her, leaving April behind as she ran as fast as she could, arms pumping to help her catch up to Poppy. Her toes dug into the sand as she caught her, grabbing hold of Poppy’s slender wrist as they both collapsed onto the warm sand.
‘How did this happen?’ Poppy asked. ‘How did we get so lucky?’
Grace stretched out, her blonde hair fanning out around her as she watched the clear bright-blue sky above. ‘No idea, but I’m so glad we did.’
‘Do you think we’ll ever see war? My grandfather said no one wants to see our boys sent off,’ Poppy said as they all lay, three in a row, arms outstretched. ‘He doesn’t think it’ll ever happen.’
‘Let’s just hope we get to stay here for at least a year,’ April said with a yawn. ‘This is the life. Nothing’s going to happen to us here—it’s the safest place in the world for us to be.’
Grace couldn’t imagine war ever coming to Hawaii; from the moment they’d stepped off the boat, it had seemed impossible for anything terrible to ever happen on the picturesque island of Oahu. Until now, home was all she’d known, but this? This was something else.
‘Daddy told me that America was pretending the world wasn’t at war but that they couldn’t stay out of it for much longer,’ Grace said, remembering what their father had said the night before they’d shipped out. But when April turned, clearly poised to contradict her, she wished she’d lied and pretended she’d thought it all on her own.
‘There’s no reason for us to join the war—not yet—whatever Daddy says,’ April said, her voice full of authority, as always. ‘Besides, we’re definitely safe as a church here. I heard it’s far too shallow for an aerial torpedo attack, and there’s too much fighting in Europe for them to ever bother with this little island.’
‘How about we just have fun,’ Poppy said, rolling her eyes as if they’d already bored her to tears. ‘We can let our leaders in Washington take care of the threat of war while we’re here sunning ourselves and enjoying the beach. And how on earth do you know about aerial torpedo attacks anyway?’
‘Hello, ladies,’ said a deep male voice, distracting them all.
Grace tipped back, hand raised to block out the sun, and quickly tugged down her skirt with the other hand when she locked eyes with not one but two navy boys in their starched white uniforms. They looked good, but she still preferred the green uniform with golden wings pinned to the lapel that Teddy and the other flyboys wore.