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She stood waiting at the small
Utah
memorial with a group of four other wives, including the captain’s wife and Cindy Soldato, and read and re-read the plaque a dozen times while they waited:

NEAR THIS SPOT, AT BERTH FOX 11

ON THE MORNING OF 7 DECEMBER 1941,

THE USS UTAH WAS STRUCK ON THE PORTSIDE

WITH WHAT IS BELIEVED TO HAVE BEEN

THREE AERIAL TORPEDOES AND WAS SUNK.

SHE WAS SUBSEQUENTLY ROLLED OVER

TO CLEAR THE CHANNEL BUT WAS

LEFT ON THE BOTTOM.

At first they were the only people there. As a group, they tried to fight off the fear that the ship’s plans had been changed, perhaps they were pulling into a different berth, or directly into the drydock. None of them expected the Navy to tell them anything if such a change were ordered.

Within an hour, though, two salty looking bosun’s mates arrived on the scene, and began pulling serious looking ropes from a line locker on the pier, a sight that set Angi’s heart soaring. One of them had a black radio clipped to his belt, and Angi

listened closely to the crackling communications on it, alert for any mention that would mean anything to her; the name of the ship, Danny’s voice, anything of the kind.

She heard a whistle from sea before she saw anything.

“There they are,” said Cindy, pointing.

Angi could see them then, a single dot on the horizon that soon grew. She saw that there were tugs on either side of the submarine, their jaunty profiles contrasting with the round, black mysteriousness of the submarine’s hull.

A jeep suddenly pulled up behind them on the pier, one captain driving another captain. The driver was Mario Soldato. Angi didn’t know the other one, but she thought she might have seen him around base, at some function or another. He wore gold dolphins and a command pin. She presumed he was Shields’ relief. Or, perhaps, Soldato’s relief. While the
Alabama
had survived catastrophe, Angi knew that many careers would not.

“Can you see them?” said Mario.

Angi nodded and Cindy stepped to her side. They got out of the jeep and walked to the
Utah
memorial with them to get a better view. Both captains, Angi saw, had binoculars.

After taking a look and focusing his, Soldato handed them to Angi. “Take a look?”

She lifted them to her eyes, taking a moment to find the
Alabama
in the view. Danny was on the bridge.

He was serious, but happy, she could see. He was pointing toward them with a massively bandaged hand. She wondered if he’d already spotted them, and recognized her the same way she had instantly recognized him. Without lowering her binoculars, she lifted her left hand and waved.

His smile broadening, he lifted his bandaged hand and waved back.

Angi put the binoculars down. With her free hand, she verified again that in her pocket was the ultrasound photo of their unborn baby girl.

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Todd Tucker

Copyright 2012 by
Todd Tucker

The characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher is unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property.

First e-book edition: September 2012