38

1942

Hildie left her trunk and suitcase at the train station and walked home. Thinking to surprise Mama, she knocked at the front door. She didn’t know the woman who opened it.

She stood gaping. “Who are you?”

“I’d be asking you the same question.”

“I’m Hildemara Arundel.”

“I don’t know no Arundels.”

“Waltert. My mother is Marta Waltert.”

“Oh.” Her face cleared and she pushed the screen door open. “Come in, please. Your mama don’t live here no more. She lives out back in the cottage.” She put her hand under Hildie’s arm. “Here. You set yourself down. You look a little peaked.”

“Who are you?”

“Donna Martin.” She patted Hildie’s shoulder, poured her a glass of lemonade, and said she’d go get her mother.

A moment later, Mama raced in the back door. “What are you doing here, Hildemara?”

“Trip’s gone to OCS. He said I couldn’t go with him. I wanted to come home!” She burst into tears.

“Come on.” Mama hauled her up, apologized to Donna Martin for the intrusion, and pushed Hildie out the back door, down the steps, and along the path to the cottage. She opened the side door into the kitchen. “It’s too bad you didn’t think to write first, instead of just showing up on the front doorstep.”

“I thought I’d be welcome.” Hildemara wiped her face. “I should’ve known better.” She looked around. “You’re living here? Where are Bernie and Elizabeth?”

Mama poured another glass of lemonade and plunked it in front of Hildie on the small kitchen table. “You look like you haven’t slept in a week.”

“Mama!”

Mama sat and folded her hands on the table. “Hitch and Donna Martin are sharecropping the place. They’ve got four children. I don’t need much room, so I gave them the big house. They’ll be more comfortable there, room to spread instead of living in a tent-house like we did.”

“And Bernie and Elizabeth?”

“The government came and took the Musashis away. Bernie and Elizabeth moved over to their place.”

“Took them away? Where?”

“To an assembly center in Pomona. We’ve heard rumors they’re going to be sent to some internment camp in Wyoming, of all places. We sent blankets and coats a week back. Hope they get them. The government seems to think every Jap is a spy these days. I’m surprised a bus hasn’t come after me and the rest of the Jerries and Wops around here, sending us all to some godforsaken camp in Death Valley.” She raised her hands and shook her head. “People go crazy when a war starts. They let fear run wild. Anyway, Hitch and Donna are good, hardworking people. Papa spoke highly of Hitch. They came out when Oklahoma turned to dust, and they’ve had a hard time ever since they arrived in California. I know how that feels. Hitch knows farming and ranching, so I hired him to run the place. That’s how Papa and I started when we came to California. Sharecroppers. Do you remember those days living by the irrigation ditch and in that tent-house Papa built? I’ll treat the Martins better than we were treated, I can promise you that.”

“So you’re living here.”

“Yes. It suits me. The Martins will have the place looking as neat and tended as Papa did when he was well.”

Hildie bristled. “Bernie did a good job.”

“Yes. Bernie did a good job; I’m not saying he didn’t. He’ll do a good job across the street, too.”

“I could help.”

“Not here, you can’t. What, now that you’ve come home you think I’ll put the Martins out so you can move in and play farmer? No. The cottage has only one bedroom, Hildemara, and I’m not sharing it. I don’t need you down here on the farm.”

Hildemara’s mouth trembled. “Did you ever think I might need you?”

Mama put her hands over Hildie’s and held them tightly. “No, you don’t. You’ve been standing on your own two feet for a while now.” She took her hands away. “Go on back to Merritt, back to work, back to your friends! Time will pass faster that way.”

So much for being welcomed home. “I can’t go back to work.”

“Why not?”

“I’m pregnant.”

Mama sat back in her chair. “Oh. Well, that changes things.” She smiled, her eyes glowing softly. “You and Elizabeth will have a lot to talk about. Go on over. They’ll be glad to see you. And there’s plenty of room at the Musashis’. He built a dormitory for the girls, remember?”

Mama went with her. “Look what the cat dragged in!”

How like Mama to say it that way.

Bernie strode across the yard, grabbed Hildie, and flung her around, her feet swinging. She laughed for the first time in weeks. “Put me down, Bernie!”

“Careful, Bernhard. Your sister’s expecting a baby.”

Bernie set Hildie down. “Holy cow! How far along?”

“Three months.” She watched Mama head back across the street. Hildie could almost imagine her brushing off her hands, having settled things so quickly.

“Elizabeth’s six months along. She’s still sick as a dog every morning. I thought she wrote to you. Letter probably got lost with all your moving hither and yon, following that man of yours.” He put his arm around her and steered her toward the Musashis’ house. “She’s going to be over the moon when she sees you. She’s been lonely.”

Bernie stopped, looking grim. “I’d better warn you now, in case you might want to change your mind about staying here. We’ve had rocks thrown through the windows. Old Man Hutchinson called me a Jap lover yesterday. I can understand, I guess. His son was killed at Pearl Harbor, but try telling him the Musashis had nothing to do with it. People see Jap spies behind every bush, and a few German ones, too. Do you understand what I’m saying, Hildie?”

“Yes.” Fear made fools of some people.

Elizabeth turned from the kitchen sink as Bernie and Hildie came in the door. Hildemara gave her a long, considering look. Miracles do happen, she told herself. Hildie hoped this pregnancy was one of them.

“Hildie.” Elizabeth spoke softly. “I’m so glad you’re home.” They embraced.

When Hildie searched Elizabeth’s eyes, her friend blushed and looked away. Hildie wanted to weep.

Bernie took Hildie back to the train station in Mama’s Model T to collect her luggage. He had to muscle the trunk into the backseat. “You have more stuff than the last time you came home!”

“Mrs. Henderson, my landlady, had a sale before I left Tacoma. She’s putting the house up for sale and moving in with her daughter. I helped her bring boxes down from her attic and price everything. You wouldn’t believe how much stuff she’d accumulated over the years. She had things left behind by boarders, and her husband had a store. He sold all kinds of things, including china. Her attic was packed! She gave me twelve different place settings from his store displays: Royal Doulton, Wedgwood, Spode, and Villeroy and Boch. She gave me some linen tablecloths, too. We can use everything if you and Elizabeth would like.”

“We’ll store your trunk in the barn. Keep all those nice things for when you and Trip set up housekeeping. Elizabeth packed all of the Musashis’ dishes and kitchenwares. We’re using our own.”

Bernie seemed to have less security than she did. “What are you going to do when the Musashis come back?”

“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”

With the Martins living in the big house and sharecropping the farm, it seemed Bernie had been done out of a home and a job. “Whose idea was it to move over to the Musashis’?”

“Mama and I both had a brainstorm at the same time. It hit me the day I saw the Musashis walking to town with one suitcase apiece. Didn’t seem right.”

“Thanks for taking me in, Bernie.”

Bernie gave her a droll look. “You think I’d leave my pregnant sister without a roof over her head?”

“Mama would.”

He gave her an irritated glance. “What a thing to say.”

She felt ashamed and defensive. “I didn’t know anything about the Martins. Last I heard, you were running the place.”

“Things change.” He gave a mirthless laugh. “I cried when I saw the Musashis leave. Mama got mad as all get-out. She said it wasn’t right. She wrote letters and called anyone who’d listen. She drove all the way to Sacramento to talk to someone in government. They wanted to know where she came from. We decided to keep the Musashi farm running. If the taxes don’t get paid, they’ll lose the place. Me and Mama and Elizabeth decided this was the best way to handle things right now. The Martins are good people, Hildie. They’ll take care of the place like it’s their own, and Mama’s comfortable in the cottage.”

While Bernie carried her trunk into the barn, Hildemara took her suitcase inside the house. Elizabeth had set the table. She glanced over her shoulder at Hildie and turned back to the stove.

“Something smells wonderful.”

“Stew.” Elizabeth’s voice sounded choked.

Elizabeth hardly said anything through dinner. Bernie talked about the work that needed doing. Hildie talked about moving from place to place, following Trip. “No place at the inn for OCS.” She shrugged, trying not to think about how many months it might be before she saw Trip again.

“I tried to enlist.” Bernie tossed his napkin on the table. “I’m strong as a horse, but they wouldn’t take me. I had two strikes against me before I walked in the door. I’m an only son and a farmer. Then again, maybe there’s another reason they don’t want me. Bernhard Waltert isn’t exactly an American name, is it?” He got up. “I’ve got work to do.”

Hildie looked from the closing door to Elizabeth with her hangdog expression. “Are things really that bad?”

“Someone called him a coward the last time he went to town.”

Hildie stacked Bernie’s dish on top of hers and began to clear the table. “Idiots!”

“I can do the dishes, Hildie.”

“I want to do my part while I’m living here. You cooked. I’ll do the dishes.”

Elizabeth sat with her head down. “You know, don’t you?”

Hildie stood at the sink and closed her eyes. She wanted to pretend she didn’t understand. Drying her hands, she came back and sat at the table. Elizabeth couldn’t look her in the face. “Who’s the father?”

Elizabeth’s shoulders jerked as though she’d been struck. “I love him, you know.”

Hildie’s heart sank. She wanted to grab Elizabeth and shake her. “Who?”

Elizabeth looked up, eyes wide, mouth trembling. “Bernie. I love Bernie!” Her voice broke. She covered her face.

“Does he know?”

“How did you?”

Hildie lied. “The look on your face when I came in the door, the way you couldn’t look me in the eyes. Does Bernie know?”

Elizabeth shook her head. “He knows something’s wrong.” She wiped tears away. “He doesn’t understand why I cry all the time. The doctor told him it had to do with hormones.” She looked up, afraid. “Are you going to tell him?”

“I’m not going to be the one to tell my brother something that will rip the heart right out of him. It’s your secret, Elizabeth, not mine.” Still, she had to know. “You didn’t say who the father is.”

“Eddie Rinckel.”

Bernie’s best friend? “Oh, Elizabeth.” Hildie stood up and moved away from her. “How could you?” She felt sick. She wanted to slap Elizabeth, scream at her.

“Do you hate me?”

Hildie closed her eyes. “Yes. I think I do.” Trembling, she went back to the sink to do the dishes. Elizabeth got up quietly and went into the bedroom she shared with Bernie.

Later, lying in bed, listening to the night sounds, Hildemara cried.

Suddenly Bernie threw open her door. “Fire! Come on. I need help!”

Hildie grabbed her robe and ran. Elizabeth worked beside Bernie. The Martins, all six of them, and Mama in her nightgown, came with shovels. It took an hour, but they managed to beat out and smother the blaze that had started in the alfalfa field.

Mama tossed her long braid back over her shoulder and wiped soot on the front of her nightgown. “We need another dog.” Dash had died while Hildemara was in nursing school.

Bernie gave a cynical laugh. “Make that two, Mama.”