Chapter 12

CHAPTER 12 The next twenty-four hours rushed by in a blur of sirens and blood and moaning, shouting men. But Danny barely had time to think about any of it. He was too busy. After that first moment when he and Ma saw each other — Ma hugged Danny so tight she almost cracked his ribs, and he hugged her back even tighter — she put Danny to work in the hospital. Hundreds of Hickam men had been

wounded. They were the lucky ones. Dozens had died when a bomb destroyed the barracks while men were just waking up. Dozens more never made it out of the dining hall when a bomb set it on fire. Others had been hit on runways, in hangars, or while firing machine guns at the bombers. There were only two doctors and two nurses at Hickam. They needed every spare hand they could find. Danny helped soldiers and volunteers make beds and sweep glass off the floor. He rolled bandages and found extra blankets for men recovering from surgery. He watched Ma as she hurried from man to man, changing bandages, holding hands, never flinching. Mrs. Sudo was right — she was brave. A few times Danny managed to peep in on Mack. Ma said he'd been given a powerful drug to take away the pain. He'd lost almost half of his blood. But Ma said he'd survive. As bad as things were at Hickam, Danny knew they were even worse out on the harbor. All night reports trickled in: The battleship Arizona was

gone, along with more than a thousand men. The Oklahoma was capsized, and more than a hundred men were still trapped inside. The California was sinking. The destroyers Shaw and Cassin had exploded. Other ships were badly damaged. For most of the day, Pearl Harbor was a sea of fire. Even men who managed to escape the burning ships had little chance of survival. Hundreds of planes at different bases had been destroyed or badly damaged. Hospitals all over Oahu were overflowing with wounded men. Danny heard that his school had been turned into a hospital. Everyone expected another attack. There were whispers about a Japanese invasion of Hawaii. Danny tried not to think about this, about how easy it would be for the Japanese to take over the island with so many ships and planes wrecked. The hours ticked by with no more Japanese planes. But America was now at war. Danny knew it would be months or even years before the sound of a plane in the sky didn't make him jump. It wasn't until the next morning that Ma and Danny finally got to sit together. Ma slumped in

her chair, more tired than Danny had ever seen her. Her white uniform was spattered with blood. But she listened closely as Danny told her the story of how he had been with Aki when he saw the first planes. Ma told him about the terrifying first minutes when the bombs started dropping on Hickam. "We'll remember this moment for the rest of our lives," Ma said. Then she let out a strange sigh. "To think, I got you out of New York because I wanted you in a safe place." She shook her head, and Danny could see she was fighting back tears. "I'm glad we're here." The words came out before Danny realized what he was saying. And Ma liked hearing them. She smiled a little. Just then, one of the doctors peeked his head in and said he needed Ma for surgery. "See you soon," she said to Danny as she headed out the door. "Don't go away, okay?" She was joking, Danny knew. Because where could he go from here?

But he thought with shame of his plan to leave on the Carmella. Would he really have gone? If those planes hadn't attacked today, would Danny be on that ship? He couldn't say. It seemed impossible that only twenty-four hours had passed since he first saw those planes. Because everything seemed completely different now. Not just the harbor, now in ruins. Not just America, now at war. But Danny too. Maybe yesterday morning he had been the kind of boy who would leave his ma. He would never know for sure. But he knew this: He wasn't that kind of boy anymore.