Jacqueline Druga - Under the Gray Skies

The next batch I grabbed was green. After all, Callie told me to think green. Maybe that was a sign. I needed a sign.

I asked June if she knew where they were sending the soldiers. She told me some of them were staying stateside, others were going on ships according to areas.

In short, there was no way to know where Callie was headed.

Three quarters of the way through the green logs, three days in, my mood went from hopeful to bitter, and June knew.

I slammed the book shut. “All the names are looking the same. Now, I’m probably screwing up.”

“You’re looking for a needle in a haystack. They will look the same. Not to discourage you, but are you sure this is what you’re supposed to do?”

“I believe so. I really do.”

“Then keep looking. You have one more log to go, and two more ships, right? You got to be close. Which one were you going to do last?”

“Other than yellow? Blue.”

“Then do that next.”

“Why?” I asked.

“Always the last place you look, right? So bump it up.” She then turned her attention to a man who approached the table.

That made me smile. I swept up the finished log, set it aside and bent over to grab a new one from the box on the floor.

“Any preference?” June asked.

“No,” he answered. “How about… green.”

“Sure. Name?”

“Herron. James Herron.”

I heard that name and my head sprang up smacking into the table.

“You okay?” June asked with concern.

“Yes.” I rubbed my head, thinking “No, no way. It has to be a coincidence.”I sat up and looked at the college age young man. “James Herron?”

“Yes,” he replied.

I lifted a finger. Lacey’s backpack never left my side, I reached into it, grabbed the notebook and opened it, pulling out the car registration. “Do you know this man?” I handed the card to him.

The second he looked down to the vehicle registration, his body swayed. “This is my father. How did you…?”

“Here.” I handed him the greeting card. “He didn’t get a chance to mail that. I believe it’s for you.”

His fingers trembled as he held the envelope and his eyes glazed over. “You knew my father?”

“No. I didn’t. I’m sorry. He passed away, but my friend ran into him and he helped her get out of Oakland. She wanted to find you, give that to you and thank you for the help he gave.”

Although, Lacey never spoke to James Herron and he was already deceased when she found him, he did help her and that was what his son needed to hear.

He rushed around to my side of the table and embraced me. “Oh my God, thank you. Thank you so much. I needed this closure. Thank you.”

He spoke with me a few moments, then I told him I had to get back to the logs, I needed to find Lacey’s family.

James said after he was assigned a bunk, he’d be right back and would help me look. It was the least he could do.

Knowing how many logs were left, I accepted his help.

After he walked away, June looked at me. “That was real? That really just happened?”

“It did.” I lifted the notebook. “I told you about all this stuff in here.” I was filled with enthusiasm and hope again.

“You realize meeting him was less likely than finding her family. Did you ever think maybe you’re supposed to do more than just find her family? I mean… that… just happened.”

“Could be,” I grabbed a pen. I wanted to make a note in Lacey’s notebook that I ran into James. When I opened the cover I immediately saw Amber’s photograph. After the crash, after everything it was still in there. Staring down at it, I thought June maybe had a point.

James returned within an hour and immediately dove into the logs with me. He suggested that he start on blue, kill two birds with one stone. I gave him the names and details to look for.

First blue log, second page in, James called out. “What was her weird maiden name?”

“Some long polish name,” I said.

“Would her mother have registered alone?”

“I doubt it.” I said. “What’s the name?”

He couldn’t pronounce it, so he spelled out the name, ‘Budziszewisky’.

“Shit,” I said.

“One person. Martha?” he asked.

“Oh my God.” I stood up.

“That’s her. That’s them,” James said excitedly. “Three lines down. Kale, Davis. Three people. Jana and Evan.”

I screamed like I won the lottery. June shrieked as well and so did James.

“They’re on blue,” I said. “Do you know where Blue is going?”

Suddenly June went from happy to serious. “I’ll find out the details for you.”

“Can you get me on a blue?”

June nodded.

“What is it?” I asked.

“I just know, with all the ports, there are one point three million people slated for blue.”

“Well, it’s better than one point four, right?” I asked.

“You are optimistic.”

“I happened upon him,” I pointed. “He found their names. I’ll find them.”

“I believe you will,” June said. “I believe you will.”

After discovering the ship, James offered to change his pass and go with me. I thanked him, but told him I felt it was something I had to do on my own. However, I asked June if it was possible for James to go with Del. She said one family member was permitted. It meant more to me that James stayed with Del and helped him recover. I also asked him to keep his eye open for a feisty ninety-two year old woman named Ruth.

He promised he would.

My mood was better and I really turned an optimistic page. It was short lived. Suddenly I found myself doing the math.

One point three million people, if I spent ten seconds on each person that was thirteen million seconds.

Two hundred and seventeen thousand hours.

Nine thousand days.

Three years.

That was speed searching and frankly, ten seconds per person wasn’t a reality.

As they days grew closer to my boarding a blue ship, I found out more information. Blue ships were going to Argentina. There were over seven hundred refugee centers planned through the twenty-three provinces.

My undertaking was larger than my optimistic view.

“You want to not do this?” Del asked, as I visited him.

“No, that’s not it. I just don’t know how I’m going to do this.”

“Maybe when you get there, they’ve registered people. It might be a piece of cake.” He reached over to me, gripping my hand. “You have to look at the big picture. Whenever you get discouraged you look at that. This was something that was placed in your hands long before you knew it. This is your task now. God made sure of it. Lacey wrote names of dead strangers, collected souvenirs from them and you ran into the family member of one of them. You’re not a drinker, yet you were drunk the day of the accident, making your body relaxed when we crashed. You moved seats right before. And the biggest thing… after that crash, the job literally landed in your lap in the form of that journal. You don’t get any bigger signs than that.”

“It’s just… seven hundred camps,” I said.

“Some might be big, some might be small.”

“This is all easy for you to say, you’re going to a rehab place. This is going to take years.”

“Oh, yeah?” Del raised his eyebrow. “Got something else, or better to do?”

Del drove home the point. Not only did I have nothing else to do, there was absolutely nothing better to do than to find Lacey’s family.

I had a direction. That was more than I had when I arrived in Norfolk.

The closest I was, in my entire life, to a foreign country was Niagara Falls, Canada and I viewed it from the New York side. Yet, here I was on a ship heading to a foreign land. I was on board for three weeks. It only took a few days to get there, but we waited miles off shore until they moved the first wave of refugees to camps.