Far from Home: Memories of World War II and Afterward

10. Terrible News

10 Terrible News 132 I trod the earth and knew it was my tomb, And now I die, and now I am but made. My glass is full, and now my glass is run, And now I live, and now my life is done. Chidiock Tichborne, “My Prime of Youth Is But a Frost of Cares” LIFE was pretty much back to normal now. Spring was rapidly passing, and we were into early summer. The nights were warm, and we still didn’t have central air conditioning on the fourth floor of the Annex, so we now had permission to go down to the ground floor and sit on the steps for our snack break. That was fun. Some of the girls would smoke a cigarette with their sodas. I enjoyed just sitting and looking at the Washington skyline across the river and at the Pentagon building with all those lights. Awesome! Life was peaceful again, if you could forget about the ongoing war for just a little while. However, for me this spring wasn’t meant to be a peaceful one. There was yet another phone call and another sad message, this one informing me that Sis Gert had just passed away—Lionel’s “mother dear,” as he always called her. Sis Gert had been another person I loved dearly. I had missed my uncle’s funeral, but I decided that I was not going to miss Sis Gert’s also. Eunice and I took the next train home. We left D.C. on a Saturday night, because the funeral was scheduled to be held on Sunday. We would return to Virginia on Sunday night. This way I would be back home by 4:00 p.m. Monday and would not need to request any time off from work. Our train would reach Warsaw in time for us to catch a bus for home, or so we thought. But, as the saying goes, “The best-laid plans of mice and men . . .” The bus that we had planned to catch had just pulled out for Wallace just as our train was pulling in. Another bus was due in an hour or so, but that would put us behind schedule. We fumed and fretted. There was a guy at the train station with a big logging truck. He heard us talking and said that he was going to Wallace and that we could ride with him. We accepted his offer, although I had doubts about the wisdom of doing so. The truck was dirty and ratty–looking, and he didn’t look much better himself. Also, his eyes didn’t look just right to me. I wondered if he had been sipping moonshine. However, I wanted to make it to Sis Gert’s funeral, so Eunice and I climbed into his gritty and raggedy seat, hoping that our clothes would stay clean enough in case we didn’t make it to the house before the funeral began. I didn’t have long to wait before having my fears confirmed about the fact that the guy had indeed been sipping spirits. As soon as the truck pulled out on the highway, it started weaving from one side to the other. “Oh dear Lord,” I prayed to myself, “Help us.” He not only weaved, he started talking junk. I couldn’t hear him, but I could tell by the way he looked. I sat by the door and told Eunice I was scared. I think she was scared also but didn’t want to make him mad while he was driving. We were now quite a ways out of Warsaw, with only trees beside the road. Terrible News 133 134 FAR FROM HOME I kept quiet for a while, hoping that the man would get his head together and drive better. But when the truck gave a lurch toward the center of the road, I leaned forward to look at him. He wasn’t even looking at the road. Instead he was looking at my sister, with his eyes all red and bleary. I glared at him, but he paid me no mind. He was too busy taking his hand off the wheel and putting it on Eunice’s knee. I could stand it no longer. I had on a small hat with a long thin hat pin. Snatching the pin out of the hat, I jabbed the pin into the...