Presentation Draft

          Lily and Graham had met at the soda shop on Kramer Street last year. On Saturday nights, the soda shop always brimmed with local teens packed onto the dance floor. Graham was a great dancer and he expertly guided Lily through the basic steps of the Lindy Hop and the Charleston. Soon, she was as good as he. They had been going together ever since the first sock hop of their junior year, and Lily hoped one day they would marry. She always knew she would marry a man like her father. 

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      December 1941 promised to be one of the coldest in recent memory for Chesterfield, Georgia. The winter brought with it the kind of cold that bit into the skin buried beneath mounds of wool clothing. Just behind sunrise on a frigid Sunday morning, Lily cracked two eggs on the side of an old iron skillet while Mother prepared buttermilk biscuits by cutting dough into circles with a drinking glass.  She placed two perfectly flattened dough circles on a pan as the two listened to Bing Crosby crooning Sierra Sue from the radio in the hallway.

          “Oh can’t you hear my sad heart calling.

           Calling for you, Sierra Sue.”  
In the middle of the chorus, Crosby was interrupted by a hurried male voice. “We apologize for the interruption of your regularly scheduled program. This is Arthur Godfrey with a very important news update. This morning, a surprise Japanese naval raid on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii has left countless casualties and the number of dead is still unknown…”  As the newsman continued his hurried update, Father put down his coffee cup and turned off the black Emerson radio. Without the rapid cadence of the newsman’s words, the silence was thick, like the fog that settles on a river after the early morning dew.  Father cleared his throat, obviously sobered, and stared down at his newspaper.

     The next day, Lily’s homeroom teacher announced that President Roosevelt had requested a declaration of war from Congress. Not many days later, the conversations turned to Italy and Germany, each declaring a war of their own on the United States. Plans were set in motion to mobilize troops throughout Europe as more and more countries elected to fight, some with and some against the United States.

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     One April Friday after dinner, Mother and Lily cleared the table and began soaking the dishes, when the doorbell rang. Father opened the large oak door to find Graham Anderson on the front porch with daffodils in his hand. Father greeted Graham and invited him inside. The two men stood exactly 6 feet tall. Graham, a senior at Peach Tree High School, was intelligent, athletic, and artistically gifted. He’d won the lead role in every play since grammar school, and he’d once told Lily he planned to go west after graduation and earn a degree in literature.
        “Good evening, Mr. Carter. My father sends his regards,” Graham said as he walked through the front door. “How is Henry these days? Why, it’s been the better part of a year since I’ve seen him on the golf course.” As Graham and Father engaged in small talk about golf, Lily helped her mother wash the last dish in the sink. “Good night dear. Please don’t be out too late,” Mother said as Lily wrapped her new cream shawl around her shoulders and kissed Mother on the cheek. “I won’t.”    

     Graham and Lily stepped out onto the Carter’s front porch. The wind picked up the scent of the freesias in Mother’s flower garden and carried it into the mild spring evening. Graham held the car door open for Lily and ran around to the driver’s seat. He thought how beautiful Lily looked in her knee-length navy-blue pencil skirt. Her light hair, parted to the side, with curly bangs that framed her face, always reminded Graham of Audrey Hepburn.

     They headed to their spot, Point’s Peak. A clearing in the woods just outside of town, Point’s Peak was the most popular Friday evening date spot. Couples went to hike the trails, share picnic dinners, or gaze at a full moon hand in hand. Lily and Graham had spent many evenings there, Graham with his arm around Lily, fingers interlocked with hers.       
     Graham drove up the familiar dirt road and turned into the clearing. Putting his car in park, he remarked “Not many folks out tonight.” With the car windows rolled down, the wind settled on the pair as they sat beneath the moon listening to the radio in Graham’s Packard. Dinah Shore’s voice carried throughout the still night. Lily snuggled closer to Graham, and sang softly with the radio. But instead of pulling Lily toward him, Graham took Lily’s hand in his, and kissed her gently on the forehead.
     “Lily, I received a draft letter in the mail this week. I’ve been called to serve in this war.” Lily’s lip began to tremble as she sat up to look Graham in the face, trying to understand what he had just said. After a few seconds, he continued. “I’ll be going to Fort Campbell, Kentucky in six weeks, right after graduation. I’ll be trained, and then I’ll receive my assignment. Lily, I’ll be going overseas.”

     Lily closed her eyes, trying to hear the words Graham had just said, but the only sound was a deep thud in her chest. Fear swept over her like an unstoppable wave in the ocean. She tried to speak, but there were no words that could possibly mean anything right then. With a flurry of questions, Lily tried to imagine a day without Graham.

      Suddenly, her sadness and confusion turned into anger. Fumbling for the door handle, Lily freed herself from the claustrophobic car seat and hurled herself outside into the chilly air. She ran to nowhere in particular, but she ran. Her pumps dug into the black dirt and she forced her way through the trees, leaving the car and the horrible impalpable words Graham had just said behind. The moon was barely enough light for Lily to see as she felt her way through pine trees and prickly bushes.
     “Lily, please don’t go. We need to talk about this.” Lily heard Graham’s voice calling out to her, but for Lily, he was already 1000 miles away. She couldn’t talk to him now. She felt hurt. How could he be so calm about leaving? What if Graham had to kill someone? She stopped running… what if he never came home again? The thought was too much for her. Blinded by tears of pain and rage, Lily felt for the nearest pine tree, clinging to it as it were her only salvation from a terrible nightmare.
     When Graham reached Lily, she was sitting on the grass next to the pine she’d clung to so tightly just a few minutes prior. Neither said a word, but Graham sat down next to Lily and pulled her head to his shoulder as she sobbed uncontrollably. He said nothing, but just held her as she cried, feeling a depth of his emotions. Half an hour, and a pool of tears later, Lily’ began to feel stiff. She straightened out her legs, and Graham helped her up from the grass. Right there under the largest pine tree in Point’s Peak, holding Lily close to him, Graham cried, too.