One last hug, a brief, final kiss good-bye, and he started walking away, backward, still looking at me. I stood there watching him, wiping my cheeks.
“Remember, no tears,” he said, cupping his hands so I could hear him over the bitter wind that whipped around us. He blew me one last kiss, waved good-bye, and jogged off to round up his soldiers and head to the front.
I stood there for a minute so I could compose myself before heading into the mess hall. When I walked in, Dottie was playing the guitar, and she and Joe were leading a large group of GIs in a very raucous version of “Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer.” Viv was sitting nearby, watching and laughing, but when she saw the look on my face, she came over, putting her arm around my shoulders.
“You okay, Fi?” she asked.
“I have to be,” I said, letting out a breath. “Come on, let’s eat and run. It’s not safe for us here. We need to get back to the rest of the girls.”
Dottie had said a tearful good-bye to Joe, once again. And we all thanked Hoffman and hugged him good-bye. The colonel was being tended to in the hospital, so we didn’t even get to see him before we left. When he was ready to travel, the three of them would be heading to somewhere near Bastogne to regroup with what was left of the Twenty-Eighth.
An hour after dinner, we were gassed up and ready to go, but we sat waiting for a long time as there were important convoys coming through, and the army told us to hold off until they passed. Like everything in war, the trek to Verdun took longer than we expected, as the roads were packed with troops coming and going to the front, ambulances carrying the wounded, and vans of Nazi prisoners.
When we pulled into the large chateau in Verdun, it was after 10:00 p.m. The sky was clear and star-filled, and the moon was almost full. All the Clubmobiles from Group F were parked outside, and it gave me an overwhelming feeling of coming to someplace like home.
“Do you think anyone’s still awake?” Dottie asked. As we slowly opened the front door, we were met with subdued cheering and barking.
“Barbara, you crazy little dog, I have missed you so much!” Dottie said, scooping up the ratty pup and hugging her tightly.
“It’s a goddamn Christmas miracle!” Blanche said, teary-eyed as she and Frankie came running over and threw their arms around us, nearly knocking us to the floor with their hugs. To the right of the entryway was a large candlelit room with a roaring fireplace. Every girl from Group F was there, and a Christmas party was well underway. We were greeted with more hugs, surrounded by our friends, and I was overwhelmed with the relief and happiness of being safely back with them. There was a somber air to the group that I chalked up to everyone’s holiday homesickness.
“Here.” Doris of the Dixie Queen came over and handed us glasses of a bright-yellow sparkling liquid. “No eggnog available, so we made this punch. It’s not particularly delicious, but it does the job.”
“Quick trip to Vielsalm, huh?” Liz came over to us, her face grave, but then she broke into a smile. “I know why you did it. But I’m just so glad you three are back here safe, you have no idea.”
“Me too,” I said. “And I’m sorry, I never would have gone had I known . . .”
“Not even the general knew,” she said.
“Frankie, I’m so glad you’re back. How are you feeling?” I asked.
Frankie looked pale and thinner, with no sign of her usual high energy.
“Well, I won’t be wearing a bathing suit anytime soon, but I’m . . . I’m doing okay. Happy to be out of that station hospital,” she said. Her eyes filled with tears as she took a deep breath and crossed her arms, and then she started to cry.
“Oh, Frankie,” I went over to her and gave her a hug.
“When does Martha get back from the London hospital?” Viv asked.
Blanche and Frankie looked at each other with sad expressions. That’s when I noticed Blanche’s eyes were puffy, with dark circles under them. The entire room had gone quiet at the mention of Martha’s name. The despair on Liz’s face told me everything before anyone said a word.
“Viv, Martha . . . she’s gone,” Blanche said, her face crumpling as she looked at us. “Her hands weren’t healing, and she needed more skin grafts. She was still at the station hospital, and they were getting ready to ship her back home to an American hospital for surgery. The station hospital was bombed. She was in the hall, talking to some soldiers. She was the only one who didn’t make it.”
“Oh no. No, no, no!” Dottie put her hands up to her mouth, sank to the floor, and started sobbing as Barbara jumped onto her lap and tried to comfort her. Liz sat down next to her and put an arm around her shoulder.
Viv cursed loudly and kicked one of the chairs as she put her hands over her face, her chest heaving as she cried.
“I can’t believe it,” I said, feeling sick, as I wiped away the tears running down my face and hugged Frankie again. “Martha? Our Martha gone? Are you sure?”
“I had to identify her,” Liz said in a whisper, looking up at me and nodding, her complexion white.
“We had a small ceremony. I’m so sorry we couldn’t wait for you,” Blanche said, shuddering as she took a breath. “It’s been an awful blow. I’ll forget for a little while, and then I’ll hear a song or see the packs of Life Savers—she loved her Life Savers so much—and then I’ll burst into tears all over again.”
“And I wake up and think she’s going to walk through the door from the hospital any minute,” Frankie said, biting her lip. Now I knew why her eyes were so bloodshot. “And then I remember, and I just feel horribly guilty. I had just gotten out. If I had been there—”
“But thank God you weren’t, Frankie,” I said. “Then we might have lost you too.”
“Her poor family,” Dottie said, wiping her tears with a napkin.
“We have their address. Everyone’s been writing them letters. Not sure if it helps much,” Frankie said.
“I think it will,” Liz said. “And it will help all of us.”
We all sat with this news for a while, sipping our punch and grieving for our sweet friend. It was devastating, and a shock to lose one of our own. To see our happy group of six forever reduced to five.
Frankie got up and said, “I almost forgot. We have a surprise that will cheer all of us up a little. Our Christmas mail from home just showed up yesterday, including copies of LIFE magazine. Wait ’til—”
“Shush,” Blanche said. “Don’t ruin the surprise. Hey, who has one of those LIFE magazines handy?”
At the mention of the magazine, everyone started crowding around us, and I looked at Viv and Dottie frowning. ChiChi had tossed one to Blanche, and she had it behind her back.
“Close your eyes,” Blanche said.
“What is this about?” Viv said, frowning.
“Oh for Pete’s sake, just close them, Viv,” Frankie said.
We all closed our eyes, and then seconds later Blanche said, “Now open them.”
I opened my eyes, and all the girls were watching our reactions. Blanche was holding a LIFE magazine in front of our faces. And our faces were looking back from the cover. An up-close picture of the three of us taken on the day of the ceremony with Harvey Gibson in London. The cover read, THE RED CROSS CLUBMOBILE GIRLS: BRINGING A BIT OF HOME TO THE TROOPS AT THE FRONT.
“Holy cow, is that real?” Dottie said.
“No way. You made this,” Viv said, grabbing it from Blanche. “It’s a practical joke.”
“That’s a really big picture of our faces,” I said, wincing.
“It’s real all right,” Blanche said, and a few other girls in the crowd held up their own copies, smiling. “You gals are now the famous faces of the Red Cross Clubmobilers.”
“Harvey Gibson and Judith are absolutely thrilled at the publicity,” Liz said. “It’s been quite a hit in the States. Speaking of mail, I have to ask, were you able to preserve all of that Christmas mail?”
“We were,” Dottie answered her. “Some of it is a little worse for wear, but we’ve got it.”
“Then we really saved all five truckloads,” Liz said, nodding, with an expression of relief and pride. “We did it.”
“Come see, we’ve got more mail for you too,” Liz said. “Christmas packages from home and cards and—”
“Oh, and something like two dozen letters for Viv from Harry Westwood,” Blanche said.
“What?” Viv asked, her cheeks growing pink.
“I’m not kidding, he’s crazy,” Blanche said. “Come see.”