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What's happening out there?” He was that much closer to Hawaii.

“It's what somebody called discreet panic. No one wants to openly admit that they're terrified, but they are, and maybe with good reason. It's hard to know what the Japs will do now. They're talking about interning the Japanese in the Western states. I can't even imagine what that'll do to California.” They had businesses and lives and houses. They couldn't just walk away from them.

“What about you, Joe?” Kate asked, sounding worried. He had already been to England several times to advise the RAF in the past two years, it was easy now to figure out what was going to happen.

With America entering the war in Europe as well, he would more than likely be sent there. And if not, he would be involved in the war against Japan. But either way, he would be going somewhere to fly planes. He was exactly the kind of man they wanted, and he wasn't hard to find.

“I'm flying east tomorrow. I can't finish my work here. They want me in Washington as soon as possible.

They're going to give me my orders then.” He'd had a call from the War Office. And Kate was right, he would be shipping out shortly. “I don't know how long I'll be there. If I can, I'll try to come up to Boston to see you before I leave, if they give me enough time. If not…” His voice trailed off, everything was up in the air now. Not just for them, but for the entire country. A nation of men were about to be sent away to war.

“I could meet you in Washington to say goodbye,” she volunteered, realizing that she no longer cared what her parents would think.

If he was leaving, she wanted to see him. It was all she could think of as she listened to him, and tried to fight back panic. The thought of his being sent to war filled her with fear.

“Don't do anything till I call you. They may send me to New York for a few days. It depends if they want me to train here before I leave, or go straight from Washington to England and train there.

” He already suspected he would be going there. The only question was when. “I'd rather go to England than Japan.” They had spoken to him about it that morning on the phone, and he had said he would go wherever he was sent.

“I wish you didn't have to go anywhere,” she said sadly.

All she could think of now were all the young men she knew, the ones she had grown up with and gone to school with, and the girls who were their sisters and girlfriends and wives.