“Dad, are you proud of David, too?”
Robert took several seconds to answer. “That’s something I’m going to have to work on.”
“Let’s face it, dad. David lives in Japan and may even marry a Japanese girl. I hope you’ll accept her into the family as graciously as you did Gail.” Les put his hand on his father’s shoulder. “When you see David and his girlfriend, just turn on the old Robert Shilling charm. Gail thinks you’re the best and can do no wrong.”
Back in the other room, MacDonald had brought in cold beer for everyone.
Nevin Brown finished his first. “Quite the cans. Kinda flimsy. Light beer, huh? By the way, colonel, I picked up a Jap radio station. It was playing the strangest song I ever heard. A band called Haley’s Comet or something like that.
“You mean Bill Haley and the Comets,” Les said.
“Yeah, that’s them. Rock Around the Clock. A bouncy arrangement. Is that the kinda music they play now?”
Les grinned. “Not really. That song is a golden oldie, as we call them. It’s over thirty years old.”
“So what do people my age listen to in 1990?”
“Well…” Les wondered how he’d answer that. Where would he begin? Michael Jackson. Madonna. Phil Collins. MC Hammer. The Rolling Stones. “You’ll have some catching up to do in that department. Maybe you should start with Elvis Presley… then take it from there.”
Les, Cameron, Tiger, MacDonald, and Robert all laughed.
“Now, wait a damn minute here,” Mark Crosby cut in. “Maybe some of you guys can laugh off these changes and have a good time talking about… these movies and these fancy beer cans and those crazy songs… and Elvis whoever-he-is. But what about me? Hell, I’m a married man. I got a wife to go home to.”
“Not any more you don’t,” Cameron answered stiffly, stepping forward. “Dini remarried in 1947.”
Crosby shook his head. “1947? I don’t get this—”
“Our family has been exchanging Christmas cards with her and her husband for years.”
“I’m back now! I’m back! I’m going home to Omaha.”
“No you’re not. Sergeant Mark Crosby, radar operator, does not exist. To you, you’ve only been gone a year or so. But to your wife… well, it’s been forty-five years. What do you hope to accomplish? Dini’s almost seventy. You’re, let’s see—”
“Twenty-five,” Crosby fired away.
“You’d destroy her.”
Clayton approached Crosby. “Face the facts, Mark. We were all reported missing in action. Dini’s not your wife. Mary Jane isn’t my girl any longer, either, wherever she may be. We’re stuck. We’re all in the same boat, Mark. Let’s make the best of it.”
“I told you before, the navy will look after you, men,” MacDonald informed them. “Hang in there. We’ll get you back into society.”
Crosby fumbled in his front pocket. He lit a cigarette and puffed, his hands shaking. “This is ridiculous.”
Chapter twenty
KYOTO
David, Toshika, and Edna stood in the busy arrival area at the airport, waiting for the plane carrying Robert, Les, and his family to land.
On the screen above them, David saw their flight number flash ARR — arrival. In a few minutes, the entire Shilling family would be together again. Les, Gail, and the kids came into view first, waving as they came down the escalator to a glassed-in open area that separated them from the onlookers. The automatic door opened and Gail ran through first.
She hugged her brother-in-law. “David! You look great. A little heavier, but great.”
“Thanks.”
“You must be Toshika.” Gail shook her hand. “I hear you’re almost hitched. Congratulations. Oh hell, it’s wonderful!” She hugged her.
David introduced Toshika to Les and the kids, then asked, “Where’s pop?”
Les cleared his throat. “He’s stalling. He sat at the tail, all by himself. He hasn’t been talking much these last few days.”
Finally, after several minutes, the group saw Robert, his head down until he reached the automatic door at the bottom.
“Brace yourself,” Les whispered to David and Toshika.
“Hi, dad,” David said, once the door opened. He put his hand out. Robert ignored the gesture and instead hugged his son. The two embraced.
“Dad,” David said, pulling away, “I’d like you to meet my fiancée, Toshika Ushida.”
Robert’s eyes showed no emotion. He stood for a long time staring at her. Forty years of prejudice ran cold through his body. Looking into Toshika’s brown eyes, he could see the faces of his buddies who had never returned from the war that the Japanese started. He saw a panoramic view of North Field, Tinian, B-29 after B-29 on the tarmacs. He saw himself twisting and tugging with a wrench, laboring away in the heat on one of Mary Jane’s engines. Robert was at a crossroad now. He could continue to hate the Japanese for starting the war or he could accept Toshika as one of the family.
Robert sighed and opened his arms. Toshika, tears in her eyes, embraced her future father-in-law. Robert looked into her eyes and said, “You are very pretty, young lady.”
“Thank you.”
“I’ve been doing a lot of thinking the last few days. It’s going to take me some time to accept this arrangement, but I have to think of your futures. Times are different now. David has probably told you about me. I’m willing to change. I want us all to have a good time. I hope that in the next few days you’ll show me all you can of your city. That’s if you want to be caught with some crusty old goat.”
Toshika wiped her tears. “Of course… dad.”
Robert laughed out loud. “This may be tough for you, too.”
“Let’s get you all back to my place,” David said, clapping his hands. “Toshika and I are on holidays for two weeks, so we’re at your service. We’re going to paint the town red!”
“Oh, no,” Robert said. “Not another Tinian blowout. I’m not twenty anymore.”
Daniel Wyatt
Historical fiction author Daniel Wyatt is Canadian, born and raised on the prairies of Saskatchewan. He now resides with his wife and two children in Burlington, Ontario, thirty miles outside Toronto.
His first published work was a set of first-person stories from World War II allied air force veterans called Two Wings and a Prayer by Boston Mills Press, Erin, Ontario, Canada in 1984. This was followed up in 1986 by Maximum Effort with the same publisher. In 1990, Wyatt made the switch to historical fiction with The Last Flight of the Arrow, a techno-thriller set during the Cold War years of the late 1950s. Originally published by Random House of Canada, it sold 20,000 copies in paperback form. The Mary Jane Mission came out two years later, also by Random House. “The Falcon File” series, consisting of The Fuehrermaster, The Filberg Consortium and Foo Fighters was published as an ebook original by Mushroom eBooks, and in paperback as The Falcon File by Bladud Books in 2007. Wyatt's other published works include aviation magazine articles in Canada and the United States.
A big baseball fan, Wyatt enjoys collecting Detroit Tigers memorabilia.