Juana stood stiffly as if holding in her emotions, still carrying her Arisaka rifle slung over one shoulder. Deke had the Springfield slung over his own shoulder.
“Take care,
He put a stray tendril of hair over her ear. “You do the same,
Then Deke turned and started up the temporary quay toward the waiting ship. He didn’t look back, because that was bad luck.
Once they were aboard, Deke stood at the ship’s rail and finally looked back toward the spot where he had left Juana, but she was gone. He felt a sudden emptiness, as if a piece of him had been removed. It was an unexpected feeling, and he took a moment to try to understand it.
After all, Deke had always reckoned that he was destined to live a lonely life, that he didn’t need anyone in it. He recalled the softness of Juana beside him, her warm body, even the smell of her skin and hair. Just maybe, he realized, he’d been wrong about never needing anyone.
“I guess that girl finally got through your shell,” said Philly, who was standing next to him. “Maybe Deacon Cole isn’t as tough as he lets on.”
“Just keep it up and you’ll find out,” Deke said, some of the old steel back in his voice. But after a moment he wondered, “Do you think I’ll ever see her again?”
“We’re still in the middle of a war, Corn Pone. None of us know if we’ll live to see the next sunrise. Right now we’ve got to cross an ocean that’s crawling with Japanese submarines and a sky that could fill up with Zeros any minute. I wouldn’t go buying any green bananas.”
Deke nodded. He supposed that Philly was right and he was better off not counting on seeing Juana again. Hell, they hadn’t even agreed to write to each other, although it seemed unlikely that their letters would find one another in the chaos of war. If nothing else, he had his memories.
Having boarded the ship that was crossing Manila Bay bound for the vast South China Sea, Patrol Easy was leaving another chapter of the war behind. The fight had left them battered and bruised, having lost three men over the months of bitter battles, including Danilo. It was all a bitter pill to swallow. And yet it was satisfying to know that the Philippines was finally being restored to American hands.
“Hey, Honcho, where are we headed?” Philly asked. He had spotted the lieutenant on deck, coming away from a powwow with a handful of other officers. They all looked dead tired, maybe Lieutenant Steele most of all, considering that he was clearly the oldest of the bunch.
“We’re going to the Ryukyu Islands to handle some trouble there,” the lieutenant replied. “It’s a place called Ie Shima. Among other things, rumor has it that the Japanese Navy has a base there with suicide speedboats that they are sending out against our navy.”
“I guess when they need a job done right, they know who to call. No rest for the weary.”
The lieutenant clapped him on the shoulder. “Gee, Philly, you’re finally catching on.”
There were a few bright spots now that they were leaving Manila behind. Aboard the ship, they were reunited with Private Egan and his war dog, Thor. Deke realized that Patrol Easy had suffered even more losses, if you included Egan’s first war dog, Whoa Nelly, killed in the fighting. While the rest of Patrol Easy had been engaged in Manila, Egan and Thor had been doing guard duty at the port, alert against Japanese saboteurs as American vessels began to fill the waterfront.
Deke reached down and scratched Thor’s ears. “Nice to see you again, boy,” he said.
Egan had been watching with some concern, ready to pull back on Thor’s leash. “Thor doesn’t let just anybody do that, you know.”
“I reckon he’s a good judge of character,” Deke said, who continued scratching Thor’s ears. He always had liked dogs and had mixed emotions about them getting dragged into the war.
“There’s something to be said about that,” Egan agreed. “He knows he can trust you.”
Deke gave Thor a final pat and then looked out to sea, where diamonds of sunlight tipped the waves. Overhead, a formation of fighters buzzed low, serving as their eyes and ears as the small flotilla steamed forward. There was nothing out there but water, but he knew that on the other side of that vast ocean lay another island, and more islands beyond that, stretching all the way to Japan.
