Giant Steps Page 14

  Ben said, “I have something to say, Papa. You are not going to like it, but I have to tell you. And I don’t know of any other way than to say it straight out.”

  “Go ahead, son. Get on with it.”

  “I am going to quit college and join the army,” Ben continued. “A bunch of the fellows at school are signing up tomorrow. We want to go together so that we can be in the same company.”

  Bernie crept closer so that she could catch a glimpse of the two of them, sitting side by side on the end of Ben’s bed. Papa’s face drained of color for a moment, then it began to get very red. He stood and the first few words came out as a shout. “How could you do this? You foolish, foolish boy.” Then he lowered his voice to say, “It was bad enough when Nick ran off and enlisted. Are you trying to destroy our family? Didn’t you give one single thought about what this would do to your mother? She is already sick with worry over your brother.”

  Bernie held her breath, waiting for Ben to shout back at Papa—but that was not Ben’s way. He replied firmly, but quietly, “You know that I would not want to do anything to hurt Mother—or you. But, sometimes a man has to do what a man must do.”

  Bernie felt both frightened and proud as she looked at Ben, who had risen and stood ramrod straight with his shoulders thrust back defiantly as he faced his angry father. She thought he looked like a soldier already.

  “Papa, please try to understand.”

  “What I understand is that this war has nothing to do with us. It’s Europe’s business and President Wilson knows that full well. I voted for the man because he promised to keep us out of it. Now look at what has happened.” Papa’s voice broke with emotion.

  Ben continued calmly, “I don’t like this war any better than you do, but I feel that I have to go. The other fellows in my class are all going. My younger brother has gone already. How can I stay safely at home? Do you want me to feel unpatriotic or like a coward?”

  Papa opened his mouth. Bernie braced herself for another volcanic eruption. But Papa just stood there. Something stopped him from continuing the argument. Bernie thought Papa looked like a man who had just crashed into a brick wall.

  She watched in amazement as Papa stepped toward Ben and put his hand on Ben’s shoulder. “You take care of yourself, son. I’ll watch over your mother. We’ll get through this somehow.”

  Ben stepped forward and put his arms around Papa and hugged him close. For the first time she noticed how much taller Ben was than Papa. It was all Bernie could do to keep from dashing into the room and throwing her arms around the two of them. Papa quickly turned his face away from Ben. Bernie was certain she had seen a tear making its way down Papa’s cheek. She had rarely seen her father cry. Bernie hurried back to her room and closed the door quietly so they would not know she had witnessed this scene.

  * * *

  As it happened, Ben’s time in the army did not last long. It was only three months from the time he enlisted that the situation took a drastic turn.

  Early that summer, Bernie came home from the library one afternoon to find Aunt Lolly’s car parked in front of the house. Inside, Bernie saw Papa bounding down the stairs two at a time. That was strange. He never came home from work until six o’clock, just in time for supper. But here he was carrying a suitcase.

  He didn’t seem to notice Bernie as he stepped into the entryway and called out, “Hurry up. We’ve got to catch that four o’clock train.”

  “She’s coming,” Aunt Lolly said from where she stood by the railing at the top of the stair. “Come on, Martha. I’ve got your suitcase.”

  “I’m just checking to see if I have forgotten anything,” Mother said.

  “If you don’t have it, you’ll have to do without,” Papa shouted impatiently.

  “What’s happening?” Bernie asked. “Where are you going?”

  Papa thrust a yellow envelope into her hands. “Read this. We’re going to Kentucky.”

  Bernie removed the telegram. “Is this about Nick? Have they found him?”

  “No, it’s about Ben.”

  Aunt Lolly herded Mother and Papa out the front door and into her waiting car.

  “I’ll take your parents to the station and then come back to get you, Bernie. Pack your things,” Aunt Lolly shouted as she eased out of her parking spot. “You’re going to stay with us at the farm while your parents are gone.”

  Bernie read the telegram. The brevity of the words made her knees tremble with fear. She reached out to grasp the banister to keep from falling. She read the message again.

  “BEN VERY ILL. INFLUENZA. COME IMMEDIATELY.” The message was from somebody named Joey at Camp Zachary Taylor. Bernie knew that Camp Taylor was where Ben’s company was stationed in Kentucky.

  Up until now, Bernie had worried about what might happen to one of her brothers on the battlefield. The possibility of deathly illness had never entered her mind. Of course, she was aware, as was everyone, that there were many people sick with the dreaded disease. Some of her classes had been half empty toward the end of the school year, and there had been talk of closing her school until the illness had passed. Many people wore gauze surgical masks over their nose and mouth when they went out in public. She had read the headlines in the newspaper at Papa’s office about the large numbers of people dying. The disease wasn’t only in the United States. People all over the world were sick with influenza—it was being called a pandemic.

  During the 1918 influenza epidemic 20 million to 40 million people died globally. Approximately 43,000 American servicemen died of the flu. In Indiana the deadliest outbreak was from October 1918 through February 1919, killing around 10,000 people. (Indiana Historical Society Collections)

  When Aunt Lolly came back from the train station, she explained further. One of Ben’s friends had sent the telegram because he was so worried about Ben. It had arrived at the Emporium only a couple of hours earlier. Papa had made a telephone call to Kentucky to find out what the situation was and then rushed home. Mother had insisted they leave right away.

  “I’m not at all certain what we can do for him,” Papa had said reasonably.

  “At least we will be near him and can see him,” Mother said. “He will know we are there.”

  Papa relented and told her to pack in a hurry.

  In the meantime, all Bernie could do was try to be brave and wait. She sat silently beside Aunt Lolly as they drove to the farm. Dear Aunt Lolly, who was always there when someone needed her. She had even insisted that Sheppie come along with them. He did nothing these days but lie on the front porch, waiting for the boys to come home.

  “Maybe he’ll perk up a bit if he has a good run with the dogs at the farm,” Aunt Lolly said.

  Bernie felt that she and Sheppie were now two more of Aunt Lolly’s strays to be taken in and cared for. She would share a bed in Lizzie’s room. Lizzie had cleared out a dresser drawer for her to put her things.

  Bernie knew that her cousins were doing their best to keep her spirits high. However, she could not help feeling a bit sad as she listened to their happy give-and-take around the Mifflin supper table. It was a stark contrast with the silence that had settled over her own family’s table now that the boys were gone. She wondered if things would ever be the same again. She knew that she must not think about that right now.

  Susie was telling the family about the paper she had written for school the previous year. “I had to report on a famous person. I chose Susan B. Anthony since I am named for her. She traveled around speaking out against slavery and getting women the vote. Sometimes people tried to stop her from speaking because she was a woman.”

  Her older sister, Peggy, not to be outdone, said, “I was named for Margaret Sanger, and she was famous, too. She tried to help women get the vote.”

  “We are all named for someone famous,” Lizzie said, keeping the peace as always. “I was named for Eliz
abeth Cady Stanton. She worked to put an end to slavery and then helped start the women’s suffrage movement.”

  Bernie looked directly at her cousin, Alice. “Now it’s your turn to tell us who you were named for. Let’s put an end to this mystery.”

  “What mystery?” Susie wanted to know.

  “I want to know who Alice was named for,” Bernie said. “Was it Alice Paul the famous suffragette?”

  “Sorry, I wish I had been named for such an illustrious person,” Alice said. “Sadly, I was born before Alice Paul came on the scene.” That was all she said.

  “Aunt Lolly, do tell us,” Bernie begged.

  Aunt Lolly laughed. “Well, it is a bit embarrassing. Embarrassing for me that is. You see I was very young when I married your Uncle Leroy. I was still reading books such as Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. I loved those stories, and I thought Alice was a pretty name.”

  Bernie said, “Is that all there is to it? That is a bit of a let-down.”

  “Why do you think I haven’t told anyone?” Alice said. “I have three sisters who have been given the names of important women, but I was named for a fictional girl whose claim to fame was that she fell down a rabbit hole.”

  Bernie couldn’t help but chuckle as Alice’s little sisters burst into giggles.

  By the end of 1914, the year fighting started, more than 6,000 miles of trenches had been dug on either side of the Western Front; the miles of trenches would nearly double by the end of the war. Between the opposing trench lines was “no man’s land,” where vegetation soon died out with all the shelling and gunfire. No man’s land was also filled with sharp barbed wire to slow the advance of attacks. (Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, LC-USZ62-41940)

  That night, and every night for the next two weeks, Bernie went to sleep thanking God for the Mifflins and praying, “Please take care of Ben and Nick and Mother and Papa.”

  They were the longest two weeks of her life. She felt as though some of her prayers were answered when Mother and Papa sent a letter saying that Ben had passed the crisis. He was getting better. He was being discharged from the army. They would be bringing him home with them soon.

  The evening she received that good news, she sat on the front porch of the Mifflin farm, petting Sheppie. “Now, all we have to worry about is Nick.” Then she added, “And Jack.”

  17

  July 1918

  An Unexpected Challenge

  When Bernie walked up the hill to her home one warm July afternoon, she saw someone sitting in the porch swing with Mother. She was glad to see that it was Aunt Rose. The two women were drinking lemonade.

  Bernie hurried across the grass, waving as she walked. She came up the three steps and perched herself on the railing. Mother went back inside to refill their glasses and get one for Bernie.

  “What brings you here?” Bernie asked her aunt.

  “I’m on a special mission.”

  “That sounds very mysterious.”

  “Not really. I’m recruiting volunteers.”

  “Does it have to do with Mother?”

  “I had hoped your mother would want to join us. Perhaps she will decide she can do it at a later date.”

  “What kind of volunteers?”

  “Several women from the Lafayette Franchise League have been going to the Indiana State Soldiers’ Home. I thought you might like to go with me and help.”

  “What could I possibly do to be of help out there?” Bernie asked. “I don’t know anything about nursing.”

  Aunt Rose laughed. “Neither do I, but there are lots of things for volunteers to do. It is mostly visiting with the soldiers. We help keep their spirits up. Their days stretch into a lot of lonely hours when they are away from family. Some of them get very discouraged at how slowly they are healing. It’s mostly to show them that someone cares.”

  “I care, but what would I do? What would I say?”

  “Sometimes you don’t have to do or say a thing. Often it’s a matter of listening. Or you could offer to read aloud or write a letter home for them.”

  Bernie thought about that for a moment, trying to imagine what it would be like. “Do they have injuries that are horrible to look at?”

  Aunt Rose opened her mouth and then shut it again. She sighed and said, “Truthfully, there are some things that will break your heart to see or hear about.”

  “I don’t know if I could do that,” Bernie said.

  “That’s what your mother said. I understand, but don’t say no until you have had a chance to think about it a while.”

  Later that afternoon as Bernie sat alone in her room, she thought about Ben who had nearly died from influenza. Mother and Papa had been by his bedside day and night, until they were able to bring him home. They were fortunate to be able to do that. But what about the soldier boys who didn’t have parents nearby or who didn’t have any family at all? Then, an even more horrible thought occurred to her—what if Nick was in a hospital somewhere and no one came to visit him?

  Bernie got up from her desk and walked to the end of the long hallway and paused before the closed door of Nick’s room. She turned the knob and let it swing open slowly. She inhaled sharply as she stood on the threshold and looked inside. It was just as she had seen it on the terrible day she found his note—unusually spick-and-span for happy-go-lucky Nick. She entered slowly, feeling a bit guilty at coming into his room when he was not there, but she had to be in touch with him somehow.

  “Oh Nick, what shall I do?” she whispered to the silence. “Will it help if I go out to the hospital to visit with a veteran? I want to do it, but I am so scared. It might make me think of all the terrible things that could be happening to you.” She suspected that was why Mother had refused Aunt Rose’s request to go out to the Soldiers’ Home.

  Bernie went to Nick’s desk and sat down in his chair. “Maybe if I had something of yours to carry with me, it would give me courage,” she thought. Methodically she opened the drawers, one by one, hoping to find some way to be closer to him. What was she looking for? Perhaps some little memento that had meant something to him. The top drawer had pencils. The next drawer had paper. Nothing that she did not have in her own desk.

  The large bottom drawer, however, held a large tin box. She remembered the long ago Christmas when it had been full of cookies from Aunt Lolly. It had a brightly colored picture of Santa’s sleigh and reindeer on the top. “When it’s empty can I have it?” she had asked. Immediately, each of the boys had said they wanted it, too. Papa had finally settled the argument by having them draw straws. Bernie remembered that she had stomped off angrily to her room when Nick won. “The boys always get everything they want,” she had cried unreasonably as she climbed the stairs.

  She had just crawled into her bed that evening when Nick knocked on her door and said, “You can have the box.”

  “No,” she said. “I don’t want it now.” She remembered that she had not even bothered to say thank you for his generous offer.

  Now Bernie pulled the box out of the drawer and removed the lid. It was his treasure box. Inside she found a tangled collection of string, a leather pouch containing his pocket knife, a pack of baseball cards, and two arrowheads. She recoiled when she also discovered the shriveled carcass of a dead frog. Carefully she laid each item out on the desktop in front of her. On the very bottom she saw an envelope. She hesitated before opening it. It might be something private for his eyes only. She noticed that the flap was not sealed, so she convinced herself that it couldn’t be that private. Gingerly she looked inside. There was a newspaper clipping. It was carefully folded, although it gave evidence of having been crumpled up at one time. She unfolded it and smoothed it out. The headline read: “WINNING ESSAY. A Fourteen-year-old Girl Wins Contest with Her Essay, ‘Who Speaks for the Women?’”

  Bernie shook her head in disbelief. It
was her essay—her Lafayette Franchise League essay! Nick had saved it in his treasure box. He had not told her at the time, but he must have been proud of her to have kept it.

  She had come up to his room for an answer about whether or not she should go to the Soldiers’ Home. She had needed something to give her courage and now she knew what she must do.

  People on the American home front helped with the war effort in many capacities. The American Red Cross worked at home and abroad during the war, providing healthcare to wounded and sick soldiers as well as providing recreation for veteran patients. Many adults and children volunteered for the American Red Cross. By the end of the war 20 million adults and 11 million children were members of the American Red Cross. (Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, LC-USZC4-10229)

  She sat with tears running down her cheeks as she put everything back the way it had been. As Bernie stood and turned to leave the room, she saw Ben standing in the doorway.

  “How long have you been there?” Bernie asked.

  “Long enough,” he said as he held out his arms. She walked toward him. He folded his arms around her and wiped away her tears and his own with his sleeve.

  “I miss him, too,” Ben said.

  A few minutes later, Bernie went downstairs to the telephone and asked the operator to connect her to Aunt Rose. “Please let me know what day you are going out to the veterans’ hospital. I will go with you,” Bernie promised.

  That evening at the supper table, she waited for an opportune time to get her parents’ permission. She asked just as Papa was taking a large bite of Mother’s homemade cherry pie. He almost choked on it. Mother dashed into the kitchen to get a drink of water for him.

  “What in the world will you think of doing next?” Papa sputtered.

  “As a matter of fact,” Bernie said calmly. “It was Aunt Rose’s idea. She goes out there once a week. She asked me to come with her.”