“Who’re you, my mother?” Jack grinned and said, “She wants Mr. Turner. She wants her Jackson.”
“Would you stop already? You heard the doc. We better keep clear of her, especially if she is Colonel Roth’s daughter. We don’t even know who Roth is and what he wants with us. We better concentrate on what’s gonna happen at two o’clock.” Em felt like he was the only one with a voice of reason.
“Would you stop acting like my mother already? Really, Em. You’d think you were forty years old or something. We don’t know what’s going to happen this afternoon, and there’s nothing we could do about it if we did. Why can’t you just appreciate the fact that the most beautiful girl on God’s green earth has fallen for your best friend?”
“You’re full of yourself, you know it?” Em knew in his heart that the girl had come into that room to look at Jack again. It was obvious when she looked across the room. Her eyes focused on Jack. Em had seen the redness rising in her cheeks as she made eye contact with Jack. The funny thing was, Em really didn’t care. He loved Irene more than anything. He felt no jealousy whatsoever.
Jack kept smiling as they made their way to the chow hall. The entire time they were eating, they contemplated on what exactly Cannon and Colonel Roth wanted with them. Jack continued to talk about Meredith and wondered aloud if she could really be Colonel Roth’s daughter.
“C’mon in, boys.” Cannon looked them over as they entered his office. It was one fifty-five in the afternoon. Em and Jack were quite nervous. “Relax. Colonel Roth won’t be here for a few minutes.”
They remained at attention but did manage to feel a bit more at ease.
“I said relax, boys. I need to talk to you. Sit down.” Cannon pointed to two chairs. They looked at each other as they sat down. Finally, they were thinking they were going to get some answers. Cannon began by talking about the war. He explained about how horrible the conditions were across most of the globe. They had heard all this before repeatedly. They were anxious to find out what was going to happen to them.
Cannon ended his update on the condition of the planet and leaned back in his chair. He raised his arms over his head and stretched. He took a deep breath and began again. “Boys, Colonel Roth is a very special friend of mine, and when I recommended the two of you to him, I felt very confident that you were exactly what he was looking for. He needs a couple of sharp recruits for a special task. He came to me because he needed someone he could train in his own way. He also needs your complete trust and loyalty. I picked the two of you for many different reasons. Jack, you’re strong, smart, and a good leader. And, Emory, you have shown such potential that I wonder why you shouldn’t be sent to officer candidate school. I’ve seen the two of you adapt to whatever I have thrown at you. The mathematical skills that both of you have are especially important. Philip assures me that you will be extremely happy about what he has in mind. I’ll tell you once again, before Colonel Roth arrives.” Here he paused, and a look of respect and maybe even adoration came over his face. “Colonel Roth is a very important man. You cannot let me down. He’s too important to me! I have complete faith in my decision.” He looked as though he were going to keep talking; however, he remained silent. Em wondered if he was waiting on them to say something. He could not begin to imagine what this man wanted with him and Jack. They were too young and inexperienced for whatever he had in mind. There had to be men more qualified than him and Jack. He had so many questions inside his head they were making him dizzy. “Anything you want to ask?” Cannon asked as if on cue.
“No, sir, Sergeant,” he heard Jack say.
“No, sir, Sergeant,” he heard himself repeat.
Sergeant Cannon told them to relax again. Em wanted to ask question after question. But what would he ask first? The first question that kept coming to mind was “What is going to happen to Corby?” They could not look after each other if they went to different places. How could he bring Corby’s name into a conversation? He was about to blurt the first thing that came into his head when he heard the outer door. Then he heard footsteps in the hallway. Whoever it was, he was wasting no time. His footsteps were similar to a horse’s gait.
“This is it, boys. Let’s see you shine.”
Colonel Philip Roth entered the room as if he owned it. The first thing Em noticed was that he was not a big man. The second thing that came to his mind, almost simultaneously, was that he was not an old man. Em was expecting at the least gray hair. This man was much too young to be a full bird colonel. He walked straight toward Sergeant Cannon, and the two friends shook hands.
“How are you, Jeffrey?” Colonel Roth looked at his friend and continued to grip his hand.
Sergeant Cannon smiled—Em thought it looked like a sad smile—released his grip, and turned toward Jack and Em. He introduced them to the colonel.
Colonel Roth asked them where they were from. He asked about their families, their friends, and he asked why they were here, in the air corps. Before long, Em started to feel a little more relaxed. He looked at Jack and saw that he too had begun to loosen up. Colonel Roth was acting like he wanted to be their friend. Neither Em nor Jack had ever seen an officer behave in this manner.
Jack told Colonel Roth that he really wanted to be a pilot but had been considered too tall. Em heard Jack talk about this before, but this time, he seemed dead serious. Em saw the look in Jack’s eyes as he spoke of owning his own airplane. It was a look he had not seen in his friend’s eyes before now. Seriousness. That’s what it was. Jack always kept things light. His mood was always the same. No one knew when to take him seriously. Now, he spoke with sincerity. Em believed that Jack would own his own airplane someday.
“Yes, sir. I plan on owning my own airfield. I am going to give rides to tourists after the war. Back home in Florida, it’s always warm, sir, and when this war is over, people will come from all over the United States to vacation in Florida. I plan on getting rich from those people.” He stopped talking abruptly, and Sergeant Cannon and Colonel Roth just stared at him.
Colonel Roth leaned forward and said in a low voice, “What makes you think people will come all the way to Florida for vacation?”
Jack explained his theory the same way he had explained it to Em in the laundry room just two weeks ago. To him, it seemed logical that all the women who were the American workforce would not be content being just housewives when the war was over. He said that America would build cars. The women would continue to work. The factories that now produced war machines would begin to make automobiles. In just a few years, everyone would own a car. Patriotism would be strong, and people would want to see America. Jack said Florida would be the number 1 place to go. Sergeant Cannon and Colonel Roth were listening to every word. Em didn’t think they believed in Jack’s plan as much as Jack, but they listened and never interrupted.
Jack finished and, with a very satisfied demeanor, said, “So when I’m rich and you two are through being soldiers, you can come work for me.”
Em looked at his friend incredulously and then looked to Sergeant Cannon and Colonel Roth. To his amazement, both of them were grinning from ear to ear.
“That sounds like a mighty fine plan, son.” Colonel Roth stood up and walked toward the window. He stared out at the dreary flat landscape and spoke in a sincerest way, “Boys, I need a crew I can trust. I’ve found that a man can’t trust too many people.” He turned to look them in the eye and said, “The world has a way that can turn a man from right to wrong. Many of the men who work for me have been around for a long time. I trust them to a degree because I have to. For my next mission, I need complete trust and loyalty. I
