A Woman's Place Read Online Free Page A

luck, I’m gonna wind up with the seven dwarves instead of the prince.”
    “Hey, Rosa, your customer needs more coffee,” one of the other waitresses told her as she and Lorraine emerged from the bathroom.
    “So what else is new?” Rosa sighed and picked up the coffeepot. Even when life threw curve balls, some things never changed. If only the carnival ride would end so she could go home with her handsome prince.
    *    Jean    *
    Jean Erickson sat in the Majestic Theater, holding her boyfriend’s hand, but her thoughts kept straying from the Sunday matinee movie to the essay that she needed to write for tomorrow’s history class. She silently composed her arguments as the film Sergeant York played across the screen.
    She’d told Russ that she couldn’t go to the movies after he’d driven out to her family’s farm to invite her. “I still have homework to finish, and then I have to study for a chemistry test, and—”
    “Why? So you can get an A instead of a B?” Russ asked. “Would the world come to an end if you only got a B?”
    “I need straight A’s so I can get a college scholarship for next fall. My parents don’t have any money to pay for college and—”
    “Come on, Jean. It’s only a two-hour movie. You’ve got all night to study.” Russ had turned to Jean’s twin brother, John, seated across the kitchen table from her. “Help me talk her into it, buddy. You should come, too. We’ll stop by Sue’s house and make it a foursome.”
    “Great idea.” John had closed his history book with a slap and stood up. “Let’s go, sis. We can finish studying later.” Jean might have been able to refuse Russ, but her twin could talk her into anything. That’s how she’d ended up in the Majestic Theater sharing a box of Jujubes with Russ, worrying about her essay.
    All of a sudden the movie screen flickered, then went dark. The soundtrack ground to a halt. The audience groaned. Someone in the balcony booed as the house lights blinked on. The theater manager blew into the microphone several times and asked, “Is this thing on?” He blew again. “Testing … testing … Can you hear me?” More people booed.
    “Ladies and gentlemen,” the manager finally said, “we apologize for interrupting the show, but we’ve just received an important news bulletin. Early this morning, the Japanese launched an air attack on the U.S. fleet in Pearl Harbor.”
    Jean caught her breath. The theater grew deathly still.
    “Early news reports say that more than three hundred Japanese aircraft were involved, including dive-bombers, fighter planes, and high-level bombers. Eight U.S. battleships have reportedly been damaged or sunk, along with three destroyers. As many as two hundred U.S. aircraft have been damaged or destroyed on the ground. Casualties are estimated at hundreds of lives.”
    Jean gasped. “Russ, my brother Danny is stationed in Pearl Harbor!”
    “I thought he was at Great Lakes.”
    “No, he finished there. He came home on furlough last month, then they shipped him to Pearl Harbor.” She hadn’t feared at all for Danny’s safety until today. America wasn’t involved in the war. She leaned forward to face her brother John at the same moment that he leaned toward her. “Is this for real?” she asked him.
    “I don’t know. We’d better go home and see.”
    All over the theater, people were standing and putting on their coats to leave. Jean hoped she was dreaming as she grabbed her jacket and hurried outside to Russ’s truck. Her legs felt weak and shaky.
    “Maybe this is another hoax,” she said as she climbed into the seat, “like that radio broadcast a few years ago, remember?”
    “You mean ‘War of the Worlds’?” John asked. “That caused an awful lot of panic. I don’t think they’d dare pull another stunt like that.”
    They took John’s girlfriend home first, then Russ drove his father’s pickup truck at breakneck speed down the country roads to Jean’s farm.