1942

Jake looked where the sergeant pointed and gagged. Simpkins had been cut in half by the Jap fighter’s guns, and the two parts of his body were about twenty feet apart, connected only by a bloody trail.

Jake wrenched his eyes away from the awful sight and looked skyward. Far up, he saw a couple of planes. Japs, he thought, checking on the damage they’d done.

“Fuck you,” he screamed at them. “Fuck you!”

Alexa Sanderson had awakened well before seven. It gave her plenty of time to put on the coffee and awaken her husband, Tim. He grumped when she tickled him, and that made her laugh. It was a shame Tim had duty this wonderful Sunday morning, but that was the life of a naval officer. At least they’d had a marvelous Saturday night, attending a concert consisting of a battle among several of the battleships’ bands. The consensus was that the Arizona’s band was the best.

After that, they’d gone home, made marvelously noisy and athletic love, and then fallen asleep.

Tim left with plenty of time to make it from their small but expensive rented house on the outskirts of Honolulu to duty on the battleship Oklahoma. While she hated his leaving her, she was thankful that they were able to spend so much time together. So many other wives simply couldn’t afford to follow their husbands to their duty stations. Alexa didn’t consider having money a curse, although she took great pains not to flaunt it.

Alexa was also thankful that she and Tim had married. She didn’t think of herself as terribly pretty, and at twenty-eight, she was five foot nine and nearly one hundred and forty pounds. By contemporary standards, she was too tall, too athletic, too muscular, and, to compound problems, too intelligent, articulate, and outspoken for most men’s tastes. She had light brown hair, brown eyes, even features, and she thanked God that Tim had been attracted enough by the package to marry her three years earlier.

At least she knew he hadn’t married her for her money. He had even more than she did. There were those who thought Tim was dull, but she knew otherwise. He was quiet and sincere, and, better, would be out of the navy in a few months. Then they could go back home to Virginia and start the family they’d talked about so much.

She turned at the sound of a pounding on her kitchen door.

Melissa Wilson burst in, with her infant son in her arms and concern on her face. “Do you hear it?”

Melissa was Alexa’s neighbor. Short and pretty, she was the type of buxom princess other men always seemed to lust after. Melissa, Missy to her friends, was also very excitable.

“Hear what?” Alexa asked.

“The explosions.”

Alexa strained and realized there were rumblings off in the distance. She’d been so wrapped up in her thoughts that she hadn’t heard a thing. She grabbed her friend, and they ran outside. Located near the hills that overlooked Honolulu, her little bungalow was on higher ground than most of the area, but she still couldn’t quite see the harbor or where the sounds were coming from.

What she could see was smoke starting to rise from the area where the ships were anchored. Planes circled the smoke like bees, and she wondered if they were somehow trying to put out the fire. There were tiny puffs of black smoke in the air that looked like antiaircraft fire, but that just couldn’t be. Evidently it was a bad accident, but nothing that would involve antiaircraft fire.

Whatever it was, Alexa hoped it didn’t involve the Oklahoma. Tim had told her that a battleship was the safest place in the world to be, but she didn’t want that theory tested. She didn’t worry about Melissa’s husband, who was at sea on the carrier Lexington.

People had begun to gather on the dirt road that led to the city.

Everyone was puzzled and concerned. Whatever the accident was, it was beginning to look serious. Then another neighbor burst out of his house.

“Japs! I just heard it on the radio. Japs have attacked the battleships!”

Alexa was first incredulous, then stunned. She grabbed Melissa. “I have to get down there. Tim’s on his ship.”

Tim had taken their car, so Melissa said she’d drive and gave the baby to a neighbor to watch. Then Melissa got behind the wheel of her Chevrolet and drove toward the base. It was slow going as people filled the streets and stared at the growing conflagration. The closer they got, the more damage they saw, including homes and buildings burning fiercely. The Japs weren’t attacking just the base.

They looked in horror at a car that was up on a lawn. A line of bullets had stitched holes in its top, and at least two people were slumped over inside, dead.

At the base, a grim-faced guard stopped them. “Sorry but you can’t go in.”

“My husband’s on the Oklahoma,” Alexa pleaded.

The guard’s expression softened, but he didn’t relent. “Look, ma’am, I’d like to help, but I can’t. There’s just too much happening and you’d be in danger. Go back home and wait. I’m sure everything’ll be okay.”