A Kiss on the Wind Read online

  A Kiss on the Wind

  Bryeton Books

  M.K. Chester

  Published by LBD Media Co, 2021.

  This is a work of fiction. Similarities to real people, places, or events are entirely coincidental.

  A KISS ON THE WIND

  First edition. November 1, 2021.

  Copyright © 2021 M.K. Chester.

  ISBN: 979-8201111724

  Written by M.K. Chester.

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Dedication

  December 1941 | Bryeton, North Carolina

  Also by M.K. Chester

  Sign up for M.K. Chester's Mailing List

  About the Author

  For Vicki, my second set of eyes, mentor, friend, and occasional spirit animal.

  December 1941

  Bryeton, North Carolina

  CHARLES COLVERT SAT beside the Army recruiter and listened while the exhausted man went over the details of the path he’d chosen to follow. Several young men had chosen the same, if seeing was believing. The room was full.

  Unlike some here, he had his family’s full consent and blessing to join up. They’d all listened to the president’s address following the bombing of Pearl Harbor and with war imminent, what able bodied man could excuse himself from service to his country?

  Not him. Aside from his family, he hadn’t spoken to another soul about his intent to enlist. Not even his steady girlfriend, who he fully intended to marry one day.

  Maybe even one day soon, if she’d have him.

  “If you understand what I’ve just told you,” the recruiter tapped on the table, then pointed at the paper, “sign and date here.”

  As he signed his name, he pictured Emily McGee in his mind’s eye. A beautiful blonde, with sparkling blue eyes, she would understand his choice, as no other choice seemed reasonable to him, and they usually were of the same mind.

  “If you’ll follow me,” the recruiter stood, “I’ll take you for the AGCT, the test we discussed to see where you can best lend a hand.”

  Charles followed him to another sterile room, where he was situated and given the timed test to complete. He tried to clear his mind to do the best he could while all he could think was, I just want to fight!

  They all wanted to fight, everyone in Bryeton was horrified by the attack on Pearl Harbor. The whole town, to a person, wanted to fight. How was he supposed to focus on this silly test? He didn’t care where they placed him. Just put a rifle in his hand and point him at the enemy.

  He tried in vain to clear his mind and, truth be told, he checked off the first appropriate-sounding answer and returned the test in record time.

  He only hoped they knew he was of sound mind, even if he scored poorly. Even a bad test-taker could stop a bullet.

  “Infantry.” The recruiter scribbled on top of the form, then filed the information away for the next set of eyes. “Off for your physical.”

  Today? They had this process down pat, like one of Henry Ford’s assembly lines. He followed his recruiter down the hall and out the door to the next building, where a string of seemingly able-bodied men snaked out the front door.

  Left there with paperwork in hand, he flipped the collar of his jacket up against the cutting wind. Exchanging terse greetings with the men just ahead, he wondered how many had come from the county, in sum. He multiplied the number by how many counties in North Carolina. And then by the number of states in the United States.

  “Where’re you from?” one of the recruits asked.

  “Bryeton,” he answered, aware almost no one knew where Bryeton sat on the map. “Graduated last year, been working at the McAfee Mill, saving up money to marry my girl.”

  “Aren’t we all?” The man extended his hand. “George Hocker, nice to meet ‘ya. I married my sweetheart last summer.”

  He shook George’s hand and the line crept forward. “Whereabouts are you from?”

  “Over near Bryson City. My family owns a grocery there off the state route. I guess I don’t want to go into the family business.”

  The pair made small talk until they finally moved inside the structure. Then, after a short wait, George went one way and Charles went the other.

  “Good luck!” George shouted in parting.

  Charles waved and followed a white-clad nurse into an exam room. She took his height, weight, and followed up with a quick eye and hearing exam.

  “The doctor will be in soon.”

  She exited, leaving Charles alone with his thoughts for the first time since he’d reached Asheville. While he knew things needed to happen fast, his mind spun. He’d committed. If the physical found no fault or defect, he’d be given orders.

  Orders he would follow into war, whatever they might be.

  “Emily,” he murmured. How would he be able to break this news to her? She probably expected him to sign up, and now he worried he’d made a huge misstep by not talking about his decision with her first.

  After all, if they meant to marry, they would have to make hundreds of decisions together. She wouldn’t appreciate him not including her.

  When he finished his business here, he’d beeline straight to her and have the overdue conversation, coupled with an apology. He hoped she could forgive him.

  EMILY MCGEE STEPPED back from the family Christmas tree and squinted. Getting all the decorations just so took hours of happy work. With only the finishing touch missing, she turned to the shoebox perched on the arm of the sofa.

  Mom’s tree-top ceramic angel. She sighed as she lifted the heirloom from a bed of tissue paper. Glancing at the clock on the mantle, she smiled. Her younger sister, Susan, would be home from school soon. The angel could wait until then.

  She loved the holidays and decorating the tall fir her father had brought home provided a much-needed distraction from the stunning attack on Pearl Harbor. The news headlines created a persistent tightness in her chest.

  Lots of Bryeton boys went to Asheville to sign up for the war, and she hadn’t heard from her steady all day. She feared he’d gone to town as well, and what his enlistment might mean.

  A sharp rap on the front door ripped her attention from the dreary prospect of war, and she tucked the angel into its nest before scurrying to answer the knock.

  With a deep breath, she turned the knob. The icy tail of a Blue Ridge winter storm whipped past the tall, blue-eyed man smiling on her doorstep.

  After five years as an official couple and knowing him even longer, she could usually tell what Charles Colvert was thinking, which scared her. Her anxious gaze sought his as he stepped inside, looking for the confirmation she dreaded, words long unnecessary between them.

  Charles’s grin faded and he nodded, snow melting off his strawberry blonde hair, making his answer quick and painless. “May I come in? I’m afraid I owe you an apology.”

  As Emily stepped back and closed the door behind her beau, her knees wobbled. When the latch clicked, she rested her forehead against the wood and refused to turn around.

  After a long moment, Charles rested his hands on her shoulders. In the quiet of the empty house, his soft words rang clear and feathered warmth against her cheek. “Hush, Emily. It’ll be all right. At least, tell me you understand.”

  Emily covered her mouth with her hand as she turned to the love of her life. If she tried to speak, she’d wail.

  He’d joined the Army, and now he’d go to war, exactly like she knew he would.

  His gentle expression gave way to a resignation of duty she dared not speak against. How could she, when so many boys volunteered? Reserve cracking under the strain, she held back sobs building in the pit of her stomach, pushing their way outward.

  “
Please don’t cry.” He pulled her as close as his thick wool overcoat allowed. “Everyone was there, Emily, all the boys. I can’t stay behind when everyone else is pitching in.”

  His wind-chapped face looked more handsome than ever through her veil of tears. “I understand, I truly do. I’m so scared, Charles. I don’t want anything to happen to you.”

  “I’m sorry. We should have decided together.” Charles took her hand and led her to the couch, where she tried to stop trembling. “You have to be strong. Be brave, Emily. You gotta believe in me. I can’t do my best if you don’t believe in me.”

  Looking at their locked hands, at the small diamond sparkling on her narrow, gold band, she gasped. The wedding. They would have to postpone their May wedding. And what about Christmas? And New Year’s?

  Everything in her world turned upside down.

  Panic pulled at the corners of her mind, so she focused on the red bows dotting the Christmas tree, counting them until she could speak without a tremor.

  “When do you leave?”

  “A week. Early next Tuesday, from Asheville. I’ll probably take the bus up there Monday night with some of the fellows.”

  So soon? His calm answer filled her with more dread. Her fingertips fluttered over his cheeks, forehead, nose, and chin, imprinting his image on her heart.

  With the patience of a saint, he took her hands in his again, and kissed the back of each one.

  “Aren’t you afraid?” she whispered, searching his eyes for any hint of apprehension.

  “No.” A smile started at the corners of his mouth and soon overtook his entire face. “Do you want to know why?”

  She grasped at the strength behind his words. “Yes.”

  “Because I love you, Emily. I can face anything, even horrible things, if I know you love me, too.”

  “Of course, I love you.” Swallowing around the lump lodged in her throat, she asked, “What about the wedding?”

  “We’ll figure everything out, I promise.” He leaned back and wiped a stray tear from her cheek. “Since we’re sending our troops in, the war will be over before you know it.”

  She didn’t think so. Hysterics wouldn’t do either of them any good, so Emily nodded and tamped down her worry. A promise was a promise, and he hadn’t yet failed his word.

  When he glanced around the room, his gaze lingered on the stockings hung from the fireplace mantle. Theirs hung side by side. Then his brow furrowed. “Where is everyone?”

  “Daddy’s working late. He’s sure they’ll step up shifts at the mill because of the war. They’re going to need, well, everything.” She sniffled and then tried on a small smile. “Susan will be home soon. She had piano after school.”

  Charles kissed her on the cheek, then reached into his pocket and handed her a small roll of bills. “When she gets home, why don’t you go into town with her and stop at Miss Barker’s, buy the pretty green dress you’ve had your eye on? I’ll take you to dinner this weekend, over near Boone. We’ll go to that high-falutin’ place you like so much, with the candles and classical music. What do you say?”

  She nodded, not wanting to spend a moment away from him until he left. “It’s supposed to storm something fierce and it’s at least an hour to Boone, there and back. Snow’s already here.”

  “Why don’t we wait and see what the weather’s like when the weekend comes ‘round? I want to take you out, make some happy memories we can both hold onto.”

  She sifted through the bills he’d given her. “Twenty dollars? Charles, this is far too much. I can’t take this.”

  When she pressed the money back into his hands, he insisted. “Honey, if I take this with me, I’ll spend it on nothing. You should have a beautiful new dress to wear, so everything’ll be perfect. I’ll stop by and talk to your daddy about what I’ve decided. Maybe ge won’t worry about us spending time alone together. Sound good?”

  “Sounds good,” Emily agreed. The probable highs and lows of one last romantic evening to themselves made her hands tremble as she folded the money.

  “We’ll forget about the war and have a great night.”

  Numb, she nodded and walked him to the door, then kissed him good-bye. Her heroic fiancé walked up Polk Street, head bent, broad shoulders hunched against the wind, hands in his pockets. Her heart broke when he stopped on a dime, glanced over his shoulder, and blew her a kiss.

  Though she felt a little silly, she reached out and grabbed the kiss on the wind and held her hands over her heart, the way she had when she’d nursed a crush on him in the fifth grade.

  As soon as she shut the door, tears came in a wave. She’d never make a life without him, no way. She didn’t even want to try.

  CHARLES SAT AT THE dining room table with his parents and younger brother, Jeff. At thirteen, Jeff seemed excited to hear the details of Charles’s enlistment experience. He didn’t seem to grasp the dangerous possibilities involved.

  “I wish I was old enough to sign up,” he exclaimed.

  Charles met his father’s anxious gaze across the table, then nodded. “Jeff, I know this seems exciting. There’s a lot involved. I have to go to training, and I’ll be assigned a specific job to do. I might not ever get to the front if they think I’d be more help cooking meals or fixing tanks.”

  While his words did little to deflate Jeff, his mother seemed to relax a bit. He couldn’t save his family from worry, an integral part of joining up. He wished he could, though.

  “He’s right,” his father said. “And while Charles is away, he needs to know you’ll do the right thing and pitch in around here, pick up in his absence.”

  Now the kid looked a little worried. Charles, while he still lived at home to save money to start his life with Emily, did the lion’s share of the hard labor around the place. He said, “You know, mow the lawn for Dad and till the garden for Mom. The kind of stuff I usually do.”

  Jeff nodded and decided he needed to stop talking. “Looks like I’ll have plenty to do, then. You’ll write to me, won’t you?”

  Charles smiled. “Of course. You’d better answer, too.”

  “You bet.”

  As an unsettled silence fell over the meal, Charles confessed, “I’m going to marry Emily before I leave. I mean, I’m going to try. I haven’t talked to her father yet, and I’d like to get his permission and have a small ceremony before I go.”

  His mother’s jaw slid wide open while her eyes narrowed. “Before you go? You’re not giving yourself much time, Charles.”

  “I know,” he answered quietly. “We’d planned for May and, well, I just don’t want to ask her to wait. Who knows how long this war’s going to go on, after all?”

  “It can’t last forever, son,” his mother argued.

  “Lizzie,” his dad reached out and took her hand. “He’s a grown man and how long have we known they’d end up together? Do we really want to quibble about when or how?”

  “I suppose not,” she murmured.

  “This way,” Charles continued, “You can look out for one another. Especially you, Jeff.”

  “Me?” The thought of taking care of his brother’s wife sent his head wagging. He wouldn’t know what to do with any girl. “What am I supposed to do with her?”

  Charles laughed. “Just make sure she doesn’t get sad, stay in the house all the time. Invite her to your baseball games and make her feel like family while I’m gone.”

  “You going to the Justice of the Peace?” his father asked, stacking his dinner plates.

  “I have another idea, and I’m going to need a lot of help to pull this off.”

  Everyone smiled, momentarily distracted from the sadness of his impending departure. Exactly the result he’d hoped for. His mother prodded, “What’s your idea? We’re all willing to help however we can.”

  “I invited her to dinner this weekend, Saturday night. I’ll take her to Boone, to the nice place where she likes the fancy desserts. When I bring her back, I want to surprise her with a wedding at the
little chapel in Antioch. Just family, hers and mine, her best friend.”

  His mother clapped her hand over her mouth, then burst forth with ideas, “We can decorate the place like Christmas, all warm and cozy. Bert, you can talk to Reverend Luddington, can’t you? See if he can make time?”

  His father nodded. “While he’s retired from the pulpit, I’m sure he can still perform nuptials. I’ll give him a call tomorrow and find out. Charles, you’re absolutely certain about all this?”

  Nodding, Charles had never been so certain about anything in his whole life. He wanted to spend the rest of his life with Emily, and he didn’t want to wait to get started.

  He checked his watch. “I need to duck out and speak with her father. If he opposes the idea, he could put a stop to everything. I won’t go against his wishes.”

  “Then I suggest you get your coat,” his mother said, rising from the table and putting an end to their meal. “Sun sets pretty fast around here.”

  MISS BARKER’S DRESS Shop, situated conveniently beside the tailor’s shop, looked warm and inviting as Emily and her sister, Susan, approached from the street. A rather new establishment, they highlighted the coming holidays with sparkling lights of red and green in their window display.

  “Come on!” Susan pulled at Emily’s hand. The impatient high schooler had inhaled her dinner, so they’d be able to go shopping tonight before the store shuttered. “They close in an hour.”

  “There’s plenty of time,” she argued. She definitely wanted to buy this beautiful dress. She had from the first moment she laid eyes on the garment. Buying the dress meant the reality of this final dinner with Charles, their last night out before he left Bryeton.

  And only God knew if he’d ever come home again.

  If she could stop time, she would. Right here, right now. Or maybe yesterday, before she even knew he enlisted. They could stay in this happy place, together, for the rest of time, just as they were.