Dan Wakefield - Under the Apple Tree - A Novel

“WACs!”

Artie was dumbfounded.

“ You want to join?” he asked Shirley.

“You see?” Mrs. Colby said smugly. “Even the child is shocked.”

“I am not,” Artie lied. “I was just surprised.”

Shirley burst out crying.

“Everyone thinks I’m a useless little fluff,” she wailed.

“I think you’re great!” Artie said.

Mrs. Colby went over and tried to stroke Shirley’s head but she jerked away.

“You should go to your room and lie down,” Mrs. Colby said.

“I want to go to Fort Des Moines!” Shirley sobbed.

That was where you went to become a WAC.

“The only place you’re going if you leave this house is Sweetlawn Manor,” Mrs. Colby said.

Shirley got an old hanky out of her pocket and blew her nose.

“When the War is over I’m going to a real college,” she said.

Mrs. Colby shook her head, like Shirley had given a wrong answer.

“That comes after finishing school.”

“I don’t want to get ‘finished’—I want to get educated!”

“If that’s what you want you know very well you could have talked your father into Urbana this fall.”

“I told you I’m waiting till Roy comes home.”

“You have no obligation to that boy; you’re not even engaged to him.”

“I’m in love with him.”

“You’re in love with his uniform.”

“You act like I’m stupid.”

“You are if you’re so in love with uniforms you want to wear one yourself .”

“Why shouldn’t I, if the man I love is wearing one? Why shouldn’t I do a job that will free a boy to go fight?”

“Because you’re a girl, and you will someday, hopefully, be a lady .”

Shirley stood up.

“Come on, Artie,” she said. “Let’s get out of here.”

“Where do you think you’re going?”

“For a walk. To get some fresh air so I can breathe.”

“If you’re going out, you’d better get dressed.”

Shirley looked down at her sweat shirt and dungarees.

“I am dressed.”

“You look a sight.”

“I’m not going to a tea party. We’ll probably go for a walk in the woods.”

“You’ll have to cross Route One. Passing motorists will think you’re some kind of a tramp.”

Shirley took a deep breath.

“I’ll just be a second, Artie. I have to go put on my hoopskirt, I guess.”

Artie stood up and Mrs. Colby sat down as Shirley minced out of the room, imitating a prissy society lady.

“What am I going to do with her?” Mrs. Colby sighed.

“Maybe you should let her join the WACs,” Artie said, trying to be helpful.

Mrs. Colby looked daggers at him.

“I didn’t ask your advice, young man.”

“You asked what you should do with Shirley.”

“The question was rhetorical.”

“Pardon me.”

Artie sat down again and Mrs. Colby stood up and started pacing around the room.

“Who do you like best,” Artie asked, trying to make conversation, “General Eisenhower or General MacArthur?”

Mrs. Colby closed her eyes. There were tears running down her cheeks. Suddenly Artie felt sorry for the old bat.

“Don’t feel bad,” he said.

“I allowed her to work at that horrible movie house. Taking tickets. Isn’t that bad enough? What more does she want?”

“I guess she wants to join the WACs.”

“My only child. My own daughter.”

Shirley came down the stairs then, wearing a dark blue skirt and a yellow cashmere.

“Let’s go,” she said. “’Bye, Mother.”

“Nice talking to you, Mrs. Colby,” Artie said.

Mrs. Colby turned her back, and Artie took off with Shirley.

They didn’t say a word all the way out to Skinner Creek. When they got there, Shirley sat down on the rock and pulled her legs up to her chin, smoothing her skirt down over her legs. Artie decided to build a fire. It wasn’t real cold yet, but there was an early October zip in the air, and anyway, Artie thought fires were good for helping people talk.

When Artie got the fire going, Shirley reached in her purse and took out a pack of Luckies.

Shirley was sure full of surprises today, but Artie knew enough to keep his trap shut. He watched as she lit the cigarette with a trembling hand, and blew a long stream of smoke. She started talking then without even looking at Artie, just staring off into the trees, the distance.

“I’m taking you into my trust. I hope you won’t tell your folks about this.”

“That you want to join the WACs?”

“That I smoke .”

“Scout’s Honor I won’t.”

“Artie? You don’t mean to say you think your folks would have a conniption because I want to join the WACs?”

“Huh? Well, no. Shoot , no. I mean, they’d just be sad you were leaving Town is all, probably.”

“Don’t you think Roy would be proud of me?”

“Roy? Well, sure. But I mean, he already is . Proud of you.”

“For what? Sitting around and twiddling my thumbs while the world is on fire?”

“But you’re keeping the home fires burning for him.”

“If I joined the WACs, I’d be freeing a man to go help him fight and get the job done sooner.”

“Yeah, but maybe he fights better because he knows you’re at home, so he has someone to come home to.”

Shirley blew some smoke through her nose and looked Artie right in the eyes for the first time since they’d left her house.

“That’s how you’d feel too, isn’t it? You’d want your girl to stay home when you went off to War. You’d think she was weird if she joined the WACs.”

“Heck, no! I’d think it was neat!”

Artie could feel his cheeks getting red, not because he had lied, but because he would never have thought it was neat for a nice girl to join the WACs until he found out Shirley wanted to do it. He figured the girls who joined the WACs must be kind of mannish and homely or they wouldn’t want to dress up like men and march around in uniforms. But then when he found out that Shirley wanted to do it, he saw how a pretty girl might want to sacrifice her looks and even her reputation (lots of people thought girls joined the WACs just to find a man) in order to serve her country and get the War over faster so her man could come marching home.

He wasn’t sure Roy would see it that way, but you never could tell. Maybe now he’d been fighting so long he’d be glad about anything that freed another man to help him get the job done.

Shirley was still staring at him, and he worried that he hadn’t been enthusiastic enough.

“If you join the WACs,” he said, “I’ll come over to Fort Des Moines and visit you.”

Shirley smiled for the first time all day.

“You would, wouldn’t you.”

“Darn tootin’ I would!”

“Well, it’s a nice pipe dream, anyway. But I guess that’s all it is.”

“How come?”

“I couldn’t hurt Mother that way. She’d think the world had come to an end if I really joined the WACs.”

“What do you care what the old battle-ax thinks?”

“Artie Garber!”

“Huh?”

“How dare you call my mother a terrible name!”

“But that’s how she was acting like to you!”

“She’s only doing what she thinks is best for me.”

“But you don’t think it’s best for you.”

“I don’t agree with her, but I still love her. She’s my mother .”

Artie’s head was spinning, but then he realized the old saying was right: Blood is thicker than water .

It was okay for someone to criticize their own folks and even yell at them, but catch an outsider doing it and they would come to their own folks’, rescue every time. Shoot, that was how Artie felt when people said anything bad about Roy, or Mom and Dad either.