Radio Mirror: The Magazine of Radio Romances (Jan-June 1943)

Lisa. Don't try to talk now, darling." Only when we reached a hotel room, when Eric had laid me on the bed and had bathed my face and hands and had sent for warm milk for me to drink, would he let me talk. . "How did you know?" I burst out. "How did you know what I was doing?" IN the midst of his happiness and re■■■ lief at having found me in time, he looked suddenly grave. He sat down on the edge of the bed and was silent for a moment. At last he caught one of my hands and held it tightly, as if he would never again let me go — and he began to tell me how he must let me go, so soon, so terribly soon. "We learned something at camp this afternoon," he said, "just a few minutes before you came out. It — it knocked me off my feet. Not for myself— for you, honey. I didn't see how I was going to tell you — " I felt safe, secure. I could even laugh at him. "Darling, darling," I cried. "You aren't making sense — what are you trying to tell me?" It came out then, in one short, sharp sentence. "We're going overseas." What could I say in answer to that? There was nothing to say. I just lay there, holding tightly to his hand. In a moment he began to talk again, as if he must fill the silence. "I ran after the bus this afternoon, honey, but you were too quick for me. So I went back and called the boardinghouse a little later, but you hadn't come in." I nodded. "Mrs. Nelson told me APRIL, 1943 All the World to Me Continued from page 54 you'd called, but I — but I couldn't talk to you right then." He went on as if he hadn't heard me. "You see, dearest, when you came out unexpectedly that way, I thought you must have heard about our being ordered to a point of embarkation. But then, when you told me about the baby, I — I didn't know what to say." "You didn't say anything," I told him. "You — you looked. You looked frightened and desperate and almost angry. I thought you meant that — that you didn't want our baby." He caught me to him and held me close. There was no security in our world, but I felt, strangely, that I had reached a final, unshakable security. His voice, close to my ear now, went on with his explanation. "When you didn't telephone me, I called back. Mrs. Nelson said you'd left, so I asked to speak to Stella. I managed to get out of her that you had gone to Butte to see a doctor, but she wouldn't tell me the doctor's name. What he does is criminal, you know, and she didn't want to be involved. I got into town as fast as I could — I was going to get it out of her if I had to beat it out — but by the time I got to the boardinghouse, she was gone. I didn't waste time looking for her. I got to Butte as quickly as I could. If I couldn't reach you through the program, I was going to call on every doctor in Butte. Thank God, I did find you." "Thank God you did," I echoed him. There was silence iri the room again, the silence of time stopped, of sudden complete understanding, of old things dying, of new things being born. Two weeks — two days — ago I would have been heartbroken at the thought of Eric's going away. Tonight I could say simply, "I'm doubly glad of the baby now, Eric." His arms tightened around me; for a while we were content to be still. "Eric," I said finally, "Eric, I was thinking while I was in that — that doctor's office — I was thinking of all of the things I could have done instead of what I was about to do. I was thinking that I could go back to Allensport. I've a little of Aunt May's money left, and you can send me a little, and if that isn't enough, in Allensport we — I could borrow from someone. I could take a business course, or learn a trade, and by the time the baby was born, I'd be ready to work. Do you think that would be all right, Eric?" He pressed his face against my breast, my throat. I felt that his eyes were wet, and I knew that it would be all right. V"ES, I knew it would be all right. I * still know. Eric has left me. He had to go. He had to fight — as millions of men are fighting for their loved ones — for me. No, for us. I am not alone. Eric has left part of himself behind. Even if he — yes, I'm not afraid to say it, for I'm not afraid of anything any more — even if he should die, he would not be dead, for our baby is Eric's immortality. But he will come back. Somehow I know that. He'll come back home to us. 57