Time To Face Things Head On

Chapter 1

It was January 19th 1946 soldiers, sailors, and flyboys were finally returning home from Germany. It had been a long seven months of waiting since it was announced everyone would be homebound. Many of our loved ones will be returning today. My brother Mickey, Lydia's boyfriend Paul, and even my ex fiancee Claude. Our normally quiet home was filled with frantic buzzing as we all were getting dressed for the day.

"What about this one" begged Lydia, my sister, as she scavenged through my wardrobe. Normally she and my youngest sister Judy shared clothes together. They had enough clothes to open their own department store, which was more clothes than most people had.

"One second", I replied as I leaned into the mirror more to put in my earrings. I turned and looked at Lydia as she held my blue polka dot dress up to her chest and swung around slightly to watch the skirt flow around.

"Please, Gerty? I promise I'll keep it clean! I'll even wash and iron it when I'm done!" Lydia pleaded with a desperate gleam in her eyes. The dress looked darling on my little sister.

"That's a lot of pleading for something that'll be covered by your dress coat" I teased

" what about when I'm working my shift tonight at the bar" Lydia exclaimed "I just want to be the most beautiful woman on the platform when I see Paul in his last letter he said he had something he wanted to tell me" she persisted

"Fine but only for today I explained, smiling back at her sister as she exploded into excitement running out of the room.

I looked back at my mirror wishing she was more frugal especially during hard times like now, however I was excited for my sister. her boyfriend survived the war and was coming home. Finally she would hopefully be telling us how he proposed to her instead of her telling us millions of ideas about how he might.

What a beautiful feeling love is, and I certainly missed that feeling. I gently wiped what little tears had threatened to run my mascara and stared at a picture of my parents wondering if I'd ever feel that crazy maddening feeling called love again.

"you know you look so much like your father especially with your blonde/red hair" exclaimed a soft voice I turned and saw my mother standing in the doorway

"I wish he could be here to see Mickey come home" I whispered looking back at the picture

My father was a Navy man joining the moment he turned 18 after graduating from military school he had rapidly worked his way to commodore with hopes of making front admiral. He was stationed in Pearl Harbor to observe training on the U.S.S Arizona and was due to return December 10th 1944. He never made it home.

"Maybe it's better he's not, we all know when you and Claude broke up he would've thrown him in the ocean" mom mentioned sharing my mirror to tuck in a piece of her hair

" We didn't fit well together. Dad would've noticed that. Spilled milk now since he and Winona seem to be well in love," I said

"Whatever you say but your lies do not fool me" mom remarked

I never was good at hiding things from her. Truth was Claude had been having an affair with Winona, while we all had agreed to keep things quiet and move on I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a tad resentful, I blindly loved Claude, ignored all the obvious signs we wasn't a loyal man... and Winona was my best friend despite her cruelness. She and I always got along until I caught her in bed, with Claude. She turned into a first class bitch after the horrible things I said to her and since then she looks for anything even if it's minuscule things to run around town with.

Mom walked closer to my vanity and tugged at my hair pulling a rag tie I had missed when styling my hair
"It definitely is suspicious that you haven't talked to Winona civilly since you and claude broke up two and you were roommates "she persisted grabbing my comb