Daniel Wyatt - The Mary Jane Mission

They continued eating until a Japanese man dressed in a dark suit appeared from below deck. “Sir, is everything to your satisfaction?”

“Yes, it is. I’d like more tea.”

“Certainly, sir.” The waiter poured into David’s cup.

Ten minutes later the table was cleared and the man, with the aid of another similarly-dressed man, cleaned up the food and trays and left the boat, leaving Toshika and David alone.

“Now, let’s go.”

“Yeah,” replied Toshika, taking off her outer garments to show off her new bright-red, one-piece swimsuit. “What do you think?” She turned around for him.

She was stunning. David was impressed. “Not bad. Not bad at all.”

In minutes, he started the boat’s motor from inside the cabin and pulled away from the dock into the open water. Soon, he too stripped down to his swimwear, a pair of dark-green trunks. He kept the boat within a mile of the shoreline, moving slowly along, with Otsu City on his left. A few other boats were on the water.

“Check the fridge out,” he said, nodding at the fridge in the corner, his hand on the wheel.

Toshika found a bottle of champagne inside. David urged her to open it, and she did. The loud “poof” startled her and the two laughed when some of the liquid sprayed the windshield and David.

“I didn’t think opening champagne could be so much fun,” she said.

“The glasses are in the cupboard, up above.”

They clinked glasses and drank, standing side by side. Toshika finished her drink first and left to go topside to tan. After thirty minutes, David cut the motor a half-mile offshore and went up to see Toshika on deck, sleeping on her stomach. The closest boat was more than a mile away. He quietly dropped to his knees, picked up the suntan lotion beside her, and started to pour it on her bare spine between her swimsuit straps. She didn’t wake until he rubbed the lotion into her skin.

“Hey,” she murmured, coming to. She turned on her side, facing David. “We stopped.”

“Yeah. Nothing to hit out here. I’ll just let it drift. Thought I’d come topside and enjoy the scenery. You and the lake.”

She chuckled. “Flattery will get you everywhere.”

“I was hoping it would.”

She glanced around at the water. “Nice, eh?”

“Yeah.”

“Did you know Lake Biwa has special significance for many American airmen?”

“Really? What kind of significance?”

“For a short time during the war, B-29 bomber pilots used it as a rendezvous point for attacking nearby cities. They would stream in over the coast near Osaka, fly on and circle over the lake, then head for their particular target.”

“I didn’t know that.” David was genuinely surprised and interested at the same time. “You learn something new every day.”

“A person should never stop learning.”

“Spoken like a true teacher. You’re not like a lot of Japanese people. You find it easier to talk about the war.”

“Maybe because my relatives were from Kyoto, one of the few cities unscathed by the B-29s. We were lucky that way. If I had come from Hiroshima or Nagasaki, I might not be so willing because the memories would be so close. Actually, when it comes right down to it, if my relatives had come from Hiroshima or Nagasaki, I probably wouldn’t be alive today.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right.”

“Your father was in the war, wasn’t he? Didn’t you say he was a mechanic in the Mariana Islands?”

David hesitated. “Yeah, he was.”

“Fighters? Bombers?”

He hesitated again. “Bombers.”

“B-29s?”

“Good guess. Not only that, but he was part of the 509th Composite, the bomber group on Tinian that dropped the atomic bombs.”

Toshika sat up. “Talk about learning something new every day. Why didn’t you tell me this before?”

He shrugged. “You didn’t ask.”

“You were hiding it from me. Did you think I’d be angry with you?”

“I don’t know.”

“The war’s been over for forty-five years. Neither of us were even involved. Besides, a man who used to fly B-29s — or he had some connection with them — is a very good friend of the family.” She thought for a moment. “We always address him as colonel. He doesn’t talk too much about the war.”

“Neither does my father. But he still carries it around with him.” He grunted and frowned. “What a guy. Geez, he doesn’t like Japanese. Nor their cars. I hope that when he and my mother come to visit he’ll change his mind once he meets you and my other friends.”

“I see. So we’re… well… goodwill ambassadors are we for Papa Shilling?”

“Not really. But it’ll help. Another thing, if my mother sees me with you, she might think we’re very serious about each other and she won’t bug me about getting hitched… ah, married. Like she always does.”

Toshika stood up, David with her.

“ Are we serious, David?” She placed her arms around his neck. Before he could answer, she kissed him. “You’re not trying to get me drunk, are you?” she asked, her eyes glassy.

“No.”

“Are you going to take advantage of me?”

“Of course not. But you do look fantastic today.”

“Thank you.”

Hand in hand, they strolled to the topside rail, stopped, and looked over the water.

“David?” she said, her eyes to the water.

“Yes?”

“Do you want to know why I broke off the last relationship?”

He shrugged, gently. “If you want to tell me, I’ll listen.”

“All he wanted to do was go to bed with me. I couldn’t do it. He was just too possessive. Not only that, but I made a vow to my father that I would stay pure until my wedding day. I’m a twenty-five-year-old virgin. In this day and age, you probably think that’s funny.”

David answered quickly. “Not at all. I think that’s very honorable and proper.”

“You do?” She turned to him.

“Yep. The man who marries you will be a lucky man. You must love your father very much to make such an important vow.”

“I do love him. What about you? Do you love your father?”

David took a long time to answer the biting question. “He’s a difficult man. We haven’t got along since I moved to Japan. I still don’t know about this visit. I wish my mother would come alone. She’s a lot more fun and… more accepting of others, regardless of, well, you know.”

She nodded. “I know. Race, creed, religion, and whatever.”

“Exactly.” He took her in his arms. “Look, can we talk about something else?”

PACIFIC OCEAN

The B-29 commander knew that darkness would surround the bomber for another two hours. They were approaching the half-way point of their mission.

He swung his attention to the transmitter control box on the fuselage to his left. He turned the transpower switch to ON and set the frequency selector switch to the desired low-frequency band. Then he set the TONE-CW-VOICE switch to TONE. All was in order to transmit an important message to Iwo Jima. He pushed the throat mike to his Adam’s apple with his left hand and with his right thumb pressed the PUSH-TO-TALK switch on the control wheel.

“HAWKEYE THREE-SIX TO BAKER TWO. FAT BABY GETTING SPANKED,” he said in a slow voice. The commander didn’t bother to wait for a reply. Due to previous orders, he knew that no one would answer. The receiving station’s instructions were only to absorb the message.

The commander nodded at the flight engineer, who left his chair and went into the next compartment. The engineer winked at the radio operator on his left. He stopped by the edge of the hatchway that led to the bomb bay. There he was met by an individual in glasses and flight gear, coming through the tunnel above him. His nickname was “Four Eyes.” The two opened the hatch towards them and crawled in. Now they were inside the dark and wind-whistling bomb bay, their backs to the open hatch. Attached to the top of the bomb rack was a long, six-ton, cylinder-shaped metal object. With the help of a strong flashlight, the man in glasses read silently from a piece of paper: