The news was terrifying. The attacks continued and the USS Arizona was sinking. Its fully loaded fuel tanks were feeding the explosions, according to the news commentator. And worst of all for Audrey, the airfields had been bombed too. It had been a vicious attack, which would have far-reaching effects. But all Audrey could think of was her brother, praying that somehow he had been far enough from the attack to be spared. She sat in the kitchen for an hour, listening to the news. The attack lasted less than two hours, the report on the radio was confusing as to whether nineteen or twenty ships had been destroyed. The early estimate was that thousands had been killed, and maybe as many as a thousand people injured. As she listened, they said that several hundred planes had been destroyed and the airfield decimated. They confirmed that the USS Arizona had sunk after being attacked four times by Japanese bombers, and the ship had taken many men, who had been unable to escape, down with it.
It was after three when Audrey called Lizzie. Her voice was shaking, and Lizzie was crying.
“We just have to wait and see what we hear now,” Audrey said, trying to sound stronger than she felt. “He probably won’t be able to get in touch with us for a while. It must be chaos there. The navy will contact us if he’s injured, or worse. Lizzie, we just have to believe that he’s okay.”
“What if he isn’t?” Lizzie sobbed.
“He has to be. We all love him too much to lose him.” But so did thousands of other parents, children, and men and women who had loved ones in Hawaii and would be waiting for news now. Audrey felt guilty keeping it from her mother. She would find out sooner or later. She listened to the radio at times, she read the newspapers, and she had a right to know that her son might be in danger. Audrey told her as calmly as she could, but the news was shocking. Audrey told her that the American naval base in Hawaii had been attacked. Ellen looked stunned, and asked Audrey to bring the radio in so they could listen together. Everything they heard on the radio was terrifying, and everyone in the country was wondering if the Japanese would bomb other American cities next.
Ellen and Audrey were awake until late that night, and the next day President Roosevelt asked Congress to declare war on the Japanese. Shortly after they heard his speech to the American people, the doorbell rang, and Audrey opened it with a pounding heart. They weren’t expecting anyone, and Mrs. Beavis was with her mother. Two naval officers stood at the door when she opened it. Audrey felt faint for a minute.
“Is Mrs. Parker home, Mrs. Ellen Parker?” they asked politely. Audrey had grown up with naval officers around her all her life, and she recognized immediately that one of them was a captain, the same rank as her father, and the other one was an officer of the Navy Air Force. She was sure that they knew who her father was, and that her grandfather had been a vice admiral, which was why they had sent such high-ranking officers. She was terrified of what they were going to tell her, and she was afraid to ask. She didn’t want to know. She wanted him to be alive, even if he was injured. He was only twenty-five years old and such a bright shining star, they couldn’t lose him. He was turning twenty-six in a few weeks.
“My mother isn’t well,” Audrey said in a choked voice, but Audrey knew she couldn’t protect her from this, and her mother wouldn’t want her to. She had a right to be there. “She’s bedridden. I’ll bring her in.” They sat down on the edge of the couch, and Audrey felt as though the longer she could keep them from telling them the news, the longer Will would be alive. She walked into her mother’s downstairs bedroom and told her that there were two officers waiting to speak to her. They both knew what it meant, or could mean. That he was wounded or dead. Ellen looked panicked and her hands were shaking violently, but she asked Audrey and Mrs. Beavis to get her into her wheelchair and wheel her into the living room to see them. She was wearing a navy housedress with pink flowers on it, which Audrey knew she would remember for the rest of her life. She had blue velvet slippers on her feet.
Audrey wheeled her into the living room, and turned her to face the officers as they stood to greet her. She introduced Audrey to them, which Audrey hadn’t thought to do herself. Their speech was brief and formal and as compassionate as they could make it. The Navy Air Force officer delivered the news they were both dreading. Will had been killed in the second wave of the attack, at the airfield. He had been working on his plane, and had used an antiaircraft gun from the plane to try and bring one of the Japanese planes down, but they got him first. They had an eyewitness report from a pilot who had been there and been injured. He had survived it and Will hadn’t.
“He died honorably in battle, Mrs. Parker, and will be awarded a medal posthumously to show his country’s gratitude,” the captain said. “He was one of our finest pilots. I met him myself last year. He was a fine young man. We extend the navy’s sympathy, and the president’s. We are very sorry. His body will be flown home when we can get the aircraft over there to do it. There isn’t a functioning plane on the ground there right now. We lost two thousand, four hundred men yesterday, and there are over a thousand wounded. Ships and planes destroyed, sunken ships. It may take awhile to bring him home, but we’ll bring him back as soon as we can.”
Both men wanted to shake her hand, but saw that it wasn’t possible, so they shook Audrey’s and left a few minutes later. She wondered how many homes they were going to that day, how many hearts they would have to break, as the bearers of the worst possible tidings anyone could hear. She put her arms around her mother, and they cried together. Audrey still couldn’t believe her brother was gone. She had last seen him only three weeks ago to the day, and was even more grateful to her mother for making the trip to Honolulu possible. As she thought it, she realized she would have to tell Lizzie, and she couldn’t even put her arms around her. But she had to know in case his name appeared in a newspaper on a list of those killed.
She and Mrs. Beavis got Ellen into bed, and Audrey brought her a cup of tea. Ellen didn’t want it. She just lay there with her eyes closed, shaking from head to foot, with tears running down her cheeks, sobbing, as Audrey gently stroked her arm.
Mrs. Beavis got her to take her medicine, and she finally fell asleep. Audrey went out to the kitchen then, and dialed Lizzie’s number in Boston. She answered immediately. She’d known instinctively that Audrey would call her. Lizzie wasn’t working that day, and her father had canceled his patients for the day. The whole country was holding its breath, waiting to hear what would happen next. All anyone knew was what had happened at Pearl Harbor and that the country was at war with Japan. It had been twenty-four years since America had entered a war. They had gotten into the last one before Audrey and Lizzie were born, so they had never lived it firsthand. The United States had only been in it briefly, but had suffered tremendous losses. This was all new to them.
Lizzie didn’t ask her any questions and waited for Audrey to speak.
“The navy came to see us,” she said in a dead voice. “He died trying to defend the airfield. He was killed by the Japanese. They’re sending his body home when they can.” Audrey’s voice sounded hollow to her own ears, as Lizzie sank into a chair and cried quietly. Her parents saw what was happening and could guess she had just had terrible news. “I’m sorry, Lizzie,” Audrey said, crying. “He loved you. I know that for sure. You’re the only girl he ever loved. He would have married you. He told me so. I love you. I’m so sorry, for all of us,” she said, and then broke into sobs and had to hang up. Lizzie’s father walked over and put a hand on her shoulder, as her mother stared at her in dismay. Lizzie was dissolving in front of them.