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Date Posted: 21:26:52 12/04/03 Thu
Author: Lakota
Subject: Waiting for You - - Chapter 29

Waiting for You – Chapter 29


April 2nd, 1944 - - - Easter Sunday morning


“Carrie, what time is it?” Sami asked as she hurried into the living room.

“Just about six minutes later than the last time you asked,” Carrie answered sitting with her back to her sister reading the paper.

“Which is?” Sami asked with irritation.

“Nine seventeen.”

“He’s late. Lucas is late.”

“He’ll be here. We still have plenty of time to get to the ten o’clock services at St. Thomas’s.”

“It’s just so unlike him.”

“Yeah, he’s usually on time but it is Easter so there are more people out on the roads this morning. He’s also driving in from Langham Field. It’ll be a treat to have him chauffeur us. How did he get the car?”

Sami stood by the window that faced the street and intently watched the traffic.

“Sami…”

“Huh?”

“How did Lucas get the car?”

“Uhhhhh….one of the guys in his barracks was shipped out to England day before yesterday. He didn’t want it to just sit and he wasn’t ready to sell it so he loaned it to Lucas.”

“Very generous of him don’t you think?”

“What?” came Sami’s distracted reply.

Carrie looked over her shoulder and saw Sami scanning for Lucas.

“Sami….he’ll be here.”

Sami glanced in her direction with an uncertainty in her expression.

“I wish we hadn’t lost the use of the phone because of that to the windstorm yesterday. At least Lucas could call me or I could call him.”

“I know. Even Jennifer was wishing she could reach Jack. I think they want to plan a long weekend in May. She wanted to get her time off okayed but can’t until she knows if Jack can get a pass. Mrs. Plotkin said the repairman won’t be here until probably Thursday to restore service. The best thing about the storm was it warmed up the temperature. It’s going to be a beautiful Easter Sunday.”

“I hope so.”

“Stop fretting…..unless…..Sami, is Lucas all right?” Carrie asked with sudden concern.

“Yes, he’s fine…..mostly. He’s just been having a little trouble…some flashbacks about the bomber crew lately.”

“I didn’t know that,” Carrie said rising from the couch and walking toward her sister. She was dressed in a beige suit with a pink silk blouse beneath. Her hair was styled with gentle curls – a modified pageboy. Her hat was pink with a small veil that came down over her eyes and ended at her nose.

“He’s been talking to someone about it at the base. Lucas is handling it. Sometimes, though, he’s told he when he has bad dreams he’ll stay awake late into the night to keep from sleeping if they bother him too much. I’m just hoping he hasn’t over slept.”

Sami returned to her window vigil.

“Well, when he gets here, he’s in for a treat.”

“What do you mean?” Sami seemingly asked the window, never looking at Carrie.

“You are going to absolutely knock him dead in your Easter finery,” Carrie complimented.

Sami turned to look at her sister.

“Really? I look all right?”

“A lot more than all right. I am right in assuming that’s a new suit?”

Sami looked down at the lavender two-piece suit with the peplum jacket. Her shoes, purse and gloves were white. Wearing her hair in the usual pageboy, a white picture hat trimmed with an organza ribbon and two matching flowers in the same shade of lavender as the suit festooned the crown.

“I know I shouldn’t have spent the money but I just wanted to make Easter special.”

“It was well spent. By the way, just where did you get the money?”

“I….I took it from the wedding fund I’ve started for Lucas and me. I know I shouldn’t have because we want a nice wedding with everyone there….which will cost us, I know, but I’ve decided to tell Lucas that I’ll just wear this as my getaway outfit after the wedding.”

“That’s a good idea. Are you sure you won’t want another one by then?” Carrie teased.

“I probably will, but that’s what I’m telling Lucas because maybe that’s what will happen,” Sami said with a smile before looking back out the window.

“There he is! He’s just parking.”

“I told you he’d be here, didn’t I? I’ll go get my purse. Where did I put my shoes?”

Sami looked critically at her sister and shook her head.

“Sami…….just don’t say it.”

“What?”

“You know….about my shoes.”

“Seems I didn’t have to” Sami kidded. As Carrie walked to her bedroom, Sami looked to see Lucas jogging down the half block to their building. He had a serious expression on his face that alerted Sami something wasn’t right.

“Carrie….Carrie!!” she shouted.

“What is it?” came Carrie’s muffled voice from the bedroom.

“Come quickly!”

Carrie came from the bedroom with her beige pumps in hand and scurried to the window.

“What is it?”

“Look, Lucas is running.”

“You make me come back out here to watch Lucas do a sprint?” Carrie joked.

“No…no….look at his face. Something’s wrong.”

“Will you stop looking for something to worry about? You worried about Lucas getting here. Well, he’s here…in plenty of time I might add. Now, you’re worried because of the way he’s running.”

They watched him jog up the stairs skipping one in between each stride. Sami couldn’t let go of the thought all was not right. Considering the pace Lucas had run the block it would only be moments before he’d ring the doorbell. Sami decided not to wait and went to open the front door. Lucas didn’t appear. She ventured into the hall to find it empty.

“Where IS he?” she fretted returning to the apartment interior.

“He probably stopped at Jennifer’s with a message from Jack since he can’t get through to us either from the phone at the base. Maybe Lucas is driving us to meet Jack at the church. Give him a few minutes with his sister. You’re going to have him for the rest of today.”

“And, tomorrow. I forgot to tell you…Lucas and I are going into Manhattan over night….take in some sights. We’ll just stay in a hotel….separate rooms…..of course,” she quickly added.

“Of course,” Carrie said with a small grin.

“Even if he is talking to Jennifer, it’s still getting late if we want to get to Mass at St. Thomas’,” Sami said looking at her watch. As she decided to go back into the hall, she heard quickened footsteps on the staircase. Peering around the doorway she saw Lucas loping down the hall.

“Sami, I’m sorry to be late. I stopped to see Jennifer to tell her the news before I came to see you.”

Finishing his explanation he kissed and hugged her – the hug a lingering one as though he didn’t want to let go of her. When Sami could step back and look into his eyes, she saw he was troubled.

“What news, Lucas? What’s going on?”

“Sami….don’t,” Carrie tried to intercede her sister’s interrogation.

“No, it’s all right, Carrie. She’s right. There is something going on.”

Sami held his hand and led him into the apartment - her eyes never leaving his serious face.

“I tried to call both your apartment and Jenn’s but I guess the lines are still out. I only found out this morning or I would have tried to get over here sooner so there’d be more time.”

“More time….more time for what?!” Sami asked, her anxiety rising with the pitch of her voice.

“It’s Jack….he’s being shipped out today….to England.”

“WHAT? Are you absolutely sure?” Sami reacted.

“Positive. He called me just as they were getting ready to load his unit onto trucks. They were being taken to the ferry boats. The boats will unload them at the Navy Yard docks for processing onto ships for the crossing.”

“My God, Jennifer’s got to be in a panic,” Carrie surmised. “I’ll get my shoes on and we’ll go. I assume we are going to go find him before he leaves.”

“Yeah, that’s why I brought the car. Jenn’s getting her coat on while I came up to tell you two.”

Sami watched Lucas from the side and knew he wasn’t telling everything.

“What else is going on, Lucas?” she quietly asked.

Lucas let out a long breath and looked at Carrie as he answered Sami’s question.

“Mike’s going, too. The entire medical unit has been given their orders.”

Sami looked from his face to her sister’s. Carrie, who had put on one shoe stopped what she was doing and looked at Lucas.

Afraid to ask but needing the answer, Sami questioned Lucas.

“And you? Are……you…..going?” Her heart, she was certain, stopped waiting for Lucas’s reply.

“No.”

Sami lowered her head. The wide brim of the hat hid her face as she closed her eyes and mouthed a silent “thank you” unseen by her sister.

“You better get going if you want to have enough time to find Jack and talk with him for awhile before he has to board,” Carrie calmly responded.

“You’re going with us, aren’t you?” Sami asked.

Carrie shook her head.

“You can’t be serious!” Sami shouted.

“Sami….Sweetheart…” Lucas stepped in front of her to calm her outburst.

“Lucas, don’t you think this stupid mess between Carrie and Mike has gone on long enough?”

“We promised we’d stay out of this,” he quietly said looking into her angry eyes as he held her shoulders.

“I understand that, Lucas….really, I do, but I want a word with my sister…..in private,” she requested in a barely audible voice.

Lucas gave her a shake of his head.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea, Sami.”

“Please?”

Lucas stared into Sami’s face before releasing her shoulders. He nodded, kissed her cheek and whispered, “Five minutes….at most, Sami. I’ll come and get you if you aren’t downstairs by the car by then.”

Sami nodded and gave him a tiny smile as an understanding. Lucas left the apartment and closed the door behind him. Sami looked at Carrie unsure suddenly of what the next few minutes would mean for their sibling relationship long term.

“What…….are you doing…..or thinking, Carrie?”

“Sami…..don’t start.”

“I don’t want to start this…..I want to finish it.”

“Leave it alone or it may just finish us.”

“Are you threatening me?” Sami asked with surprise.

“No, I’m warning you.”

“I don’t see much of a difference, quiet frankly.”

“Let me clarify it for you then. Drop the subject before you even start because if you don’t I have no idea if we’ll be able to talk to each other or live together in this apartment afterward.”

“What subject do you think I want to bring up?”

“Don’t be coy with me, Samantha Gene. You know perfectly well you’re going to bring up Mike Horton and my relationship with him.”

“See? I didn’t bring it up, you did,” Sami said with a slight air of having scored the first point.

“This isn’t funny, Sami. It isn’t some game.”

“You’re right, it’s deadly serious and I emphasize DEADLY.”

“Don’t say things like that.”

“Why, because if I don’t say he could die nothing bad will happen to Mike? If that were true there wouldn’t be any deaths in this war on either side, would there? Austin would be alive as much as Kate prayed for him to make it through the war.”

“Sami…..”

“Look….I used to have my own form of denial. I believed if I didn’t think about Lucas….if I just pushed him out of my mind….got rid of everything that he’d ever given me…ripped up photographs, didn’t listen to songs we’d danced to and forbade people to ever use his name around me……eventually, he’d fade away and I could forget him. It didn’t work, Carrie….it doesn’t…not when you’ve loved someone with everything you have because………because, it’s your heart they won’t leave.”

“Sami – I know you mean well…I’m just…I’m just so glad you and Lucas found each other again.”

“I know you are…..I want that for you…but, you have to want it----to fight for it, too. You can’t let Mike go away like this thinking that you don’t love him any more…you just can’t, Carrie” Sami pleaded as the tears began. “I swear, if you do and he does die….”

“Sami….stop!”

“…it will destroy you,” Sami continued ignoring her sister’s plea. “It will…I swear it….I know that it’s true. When I heard Lucas was missing and maybe dead…I could feel myself starting to die inside, too, because I let him think for some long that I didn’t love him. I was soooo stupid. Like a spoiled child, I just wanted to hurt him the way, I thought, he had me and that’s the way I did it.”

“Wait….that’s not completely true. Kate let you to believe Lucas wanted to be free of you.”

“Carrie, I still should have gone to Lucas, told him how I felt and let him tell me to my face, if he had wanted, that he didn’t love me. I didn’t do it. I let my pride get in the way…just like you are.”

“It’s different, Sami. Mike and I just see things so differently.”

“Talk to him……just…….talk to him. That’s where you start. You have to give it a try…please? Don’t, for God’s sake, let Mike think you don’t love him.”

Carrie walked to the window and saw Jennifer walking toward Lucas as he stood by the car.

“You better go. You need to get to the navy yard.”

Sami stood in shock at her sister’s even toned voice, devoid of any emotion. Sami picked up her purse from the desk and headed toward the door where she bent down to pick up her small, overnight bag. She looked back at her sister.

“I don’t understand you, Carrie. I don’t understand you……………………..at all.”

Sami opened the door and left the apartment quietly not looking at her sister again. Lucas saw Sami come out onto the stairs in front of the apartment building and went to meet her.

“Where’s Carrie?” he asked as he took the bag from her.

“She’s not going.”

“Why?”

“Ask her if you want to know…because I don’t.”

They walked back to the car where Jennifer waited.

“Carrie’s not coming, is she?” Jennifer surmised.

Sami shook her head.

“Oh, God, I hope she doesn’t regret it,” Jennifer said as she hugged Sami.

“Come on….Jenn….Sami…..we need to get going,” Lucas said opening the car door. Jennifer began to push the front seat back so she could sit in back. Sami sat in front as Lucas went around toopen the driver’s door. He started the engine and prepared to work his way out of the parallel parking spot when he saw Carrie waving a gloved hand at him.

“Wait……Wait…..Lucas!” she shouted.

Sami opened the door as Lucas shut off the engine. Carrie stood before her sister and began to smile.

“You’re right….I can’t let Mike go without knowing I still love him.”

Sami smiled and threw her arms around her sister.

“You won’t regret it, Carrie…..I promise.”

“You’d better be,” Carrie said. “Move over Jennifer, I’ll sit beside you so the two lovebirds can have the front seat.”

Jennifer laughed and sidled behind the driver’s seat as Carrie climbed in back beside her.

They drove through heavy traffic - a combination of the holiday traffic and prelude to spring-like day. Lucas found a place to park near the New York dockyard. Soon, the quartet found a foot bridge that overlooked the major scene going on below.

“Oh, my God,” Jennifer said as she looked down.

“I was afraid of this,” Lucas said. “Jack said with each ship capable of holding four thousand men, with four ships leaving…we’re looking at approximately sixteen thousand soldiers down there.”

“We’ll never find them,” Carrie said in a disheartened voice as Sami put her arm about her.

TBC

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