Cold War on Maplewood Street Read Free Page A

always be here for you.”
    â€œYou won’t ever go away like Daddy?” four-year-old Joanna had pressed. “Promise?”
    He had crossed his heart solemnly. “Promise.”
    Joanna remembered it all like it had happened yesterday. So she couldn’t help feeling shocked and betrayed when the very first thing Sam did after he graduated from high school was enlist in the navy. Even though he’d told her again and again it was what he wanted more than anything, she hadn’t believed he would really do it.
    He’d never broken a promise to her before. Never.
    Joanna scowled at the TV, where Kennedy was sitting behind a desk. The desk and his solemn expression reminded her of Mr. Egan when he gave a test. Ugh! She would have changed the channel except she knew he’d be on all four of them. Instead, she stuck out her tongue at the president and skimmed the weekly TV schedule between spoonfuls of soup. It wasn’t until she heard “Soviet military buildup on the island of Cuba” and “nuclear strike capability” that Joanna looked back at the TV screen and really listened.
    â€œThe cost of freedom is always high,” the president said, “but Americans have always paid it. And onepath we shall never choose is the path of surrender or submission.”
    Surrender?
What did he mean? What had she missed?
    The phone rang. With Dixie trotting at her heels, Joanna went to the kitchen to answer it, frowning uncertainly back at the TV. “Hello?”
    â€œHello, Joanna. Let me speak to your mother, please.”
    â€œShe’s not here, Grandma.” Joanna stretched the cord of the phone as far as it would go, to see if she could hear the TV with one ear. She couldn’t. At least not well enough to tell what was being said.
    â€œWouldn’t you know she’d be out gadding about somewhere when she should be home keeping up with what’s going on in the world!”
    â€œShe’s at night school, Gram. You know, so she can get her high school diploma and get a better job.” Joanna was surprised to hear herself defending Mom when really she agreed that Mom should be home right now, with her.
    Grandma’s long sigh whistled through the phone. “Yes, well, a diploma won’t do her much good if we go to war with the Russians!”

CHAPTER 3
    War?
    JOANNA GASPED. “IS THAT WHAT PRESIDENT KENNEDY IS saying—that we’re going to
war
?”
    â€œDepends on what those fool communists do,” Grandma replied in a grim voice. “The missiles they’re setting up in Cuba could blow us all to kingdom come.”
    Joanna’s grandmother was not a jokey-smiley, knit-and-bake kind of grandmother. In fact, she could be positively cranky sometimes. Joanna had no problem picturing her scowl on the other end of the phone. There would be a deep Y-shaped groove between her bristly eyebrows, and her lips would be puckered like she was sucking on a Charms sour ball.
    Grandma added, “We’re sending ships to Cuba,though, so poor Sam’s probably going to be right in the thick of things. I told Lynn not to let him sign up!”
    â€œSam’s in danger?” Joanna’s voice quivered.
    There was a silence. Then Grandma said in a much perkier voice, “No, honey, of course not. I’m just upset and talking crazy. Sammy will be fine. Don’t you worry.”
    Joanna gulped. She could tell Gram was just saying that to make her feel better, and it wasn’t working.
    â€œTell your mother to call me when she gets home, will you?”
    Joanna said she would and hung up. But her heart swelled with so much fear, she thought it might explode. Sam!
    She hurried back to the living room, but the president wasn’t on the screen anymore. There were just newscasters talking about the speech and what it might mean for Americans. They wore worried frowns and talked in serious voices. They spoke of possible