Rumors of Peace Read Free Page B

crossed my arms over my chest, to hide its fluttering, and tried not to hear the voice.
    Presently I was aware of silence. The president had stopped speaking. When he began again, it was with emphatic pauses, deep finality.
    â€œI ask that the Congress declare that since this unprovoked and dastardly attack by Japan . . . a state of war has existed. . . .”
    I looked slowly around the room at the others. It had begun.

Chapter 3
    T HAT NIGHT the town was blacked out. I watched Karla and Peter clothespin blankets along the curtain rods. A few blankets were all that hung between us and the bombs. But by now I was too exhausted to care, I only wanted to sleep, and as soon as my head touched the pillow, I was gone.
    The next thing I knew Karla was shaking my shoulder. Wary and sober, with no heart for dawdling, I got up to prepare for school.

    I saw with surprise that everyone was running and playing as usual. I had expected something military, I don’t know what, each class standing in formation maybe. Puzzled, I advanced through the fog.
    Red-nosed, bundled up, Ezio came dashing over.
    â€œWe’re at war!”
    â€œI know,” I said, trying for enthusiasm.
    He was husky, dark, with a home-knit cap pulled vigorously over his ears. He yanked it lower with both hands. “Lemme get at them Japs! Just give me a bunch of grenades and lemme go!”
    â€œI guess they’ll be coming to bomb us,” I said casually.
    â€œLet ’em try!” he yelled, rushing off.
    I joined some girls from my class swinging on the bars.
    â€œMy cousin’s in the Coast Guard—”
    â€œSo what, my brother’s in the—”
    â€œWe had to eat in the dark—”
    â€œWe hung up this canvas stuff—”
    â€œWe hung blankets,” I contributed, elbowing in and grasping the bars.
    â€œJaps don’t have eyelids, they can’t close their eyes—”
    â€œWho said so?”
    â€œJaps are midgets—”
    â€œSo’s Miss Bonder—”
    A collective scream of laughter. Miss Bonder, our teacher, was so short that when she was on yard duty, you couldn’t tell her from the rest of us except for her tall pompadour. Sometimes, when we were swinging from our knees, and our coats and dresses had fallen down around our waists, exposing our white cotton underpants, she would walk over and say, “Really, girls, have some modesty,” and reprovingly point her pompadour at us. I saw her coming now, frowning at those who hung upside down, and it seemed to me that if we were going to be bombed, Miss Bonder would not be concerned with such a small thing as underpants.
    Having had her say, and pausing to give my early arrival a grim smile of surprise, Miss Bonder strolled on. A little hope began burning in me.
    When the first bell rang, everyone assembled before the flagpole as usual. If the enemy were on its way to destroy us, this would be the moment to announce it, now, as the flag went sliding up with a rattling sound. But only the Pledge of Allegiance followed, after which the usual blithe disorder took over. For the first time in two days, I felt the knot in my stomach loosen. I felt my old warm craving to climb and stood eyeing the foggy handwalkers.
    â€œSuse?” Miss Bonder said over her shoulder. My name, a variation of Susanna, was pronounced Seuseh by my family, and Sooza by everyone else, and now, for some reason, it had a beautifully familiar ring. Obedient, filled with the pleasure of temporary virtue, I followed Miss Bonder and the others into the building.
    Class proceeded as always, pointless and boring. But I enjoyed my tedium, wallowing in Miss Bonder’s monotonous voice as she went on about quotients and denominators.
    But when she ended the lesson, she adjusted her rimless spectacles, which were attached to her blouse by two silver chains, and said, “I have an announcement to make. I want you all to pay very close