Chapter 3

CHAPTER 3 Ma straightened her white nurse's cap and kissed Danny good-bye. When she opened the door, Danny heard her gasp. Danny hurried over. Ma said that there was no crime here in Pearl City. Still, Danny was used to being on the lookout for people lurking outside their door, waiting to pounce. But there was nothing on their porch but a pot of pink flowers, wrapped in a bow.

"Goodness!" Ma said. "That man doesn't quit!" Every morning for the past week, there had been a present waiting for Ma on their porch. They all came from a man named Lieutenant Andrew Maciel — Mack. He was a B-17 pilot at Hickam Air Force Base, where Ma worked. Danny had met him a few times when he drove Ma home. He came from New York City, so Danny figured he couldn't be all bad. But then Danny found out he was from that fancy part of New York City called Sutton Place. Danny and Finn hated those rich Sutton Place kids, with their chauffeured cars and snooty expressions. Danny hoped Ma wasn't sweet on this guy. She smelled the flowers and smiled a little before handing the pot to Danny. Then she kissed Danny again and headed on her way. Danny could hear her humming until she disappeared around the corner. He brought the flowers to their little patio around back. He sat down on one of their rickety little chairs. The sun felt good on his face, and

there was a warm breeze off the ocean. Maybe he'd miss the smell of the air here when he got back to New York — it smelled sweet, like sugar cane and pineapple. One thing he'd definitely miss was the sound of the bells that rang out every hour from the battleships anchored in Pearl Harbor. The naval base was just five minutes from their house. There had to be a hundred warships crowded into the harbor with their guns ready to blast away. The best were the eight battleships. They were huge — like skyscrapers turned on their sides. Ma said the battleship guns were so powerful that one blast could blow an entire house to smithereens. Danny wished he could tell his teacher in New York about those ships. Most teachers at their school hadn't bothered much with Danny and Finn. But Mrs. Mills was different. When it was too hot or cold outside, Danny and Finn would offer to wash Mrs. Mills's chalkboard for her. She always said yes, and she always happened to have a Thermos of lemonade or hot chocolate with just enough for them. She also had a big world map on the wall of her

classroom. They could point to any country and Mrs. Mills could tell them everything about it. More recently, Mrs. Mills had talked to them about the wars happening all around the world. She pointed to Asia, where Japan was fighting China. She pointed to Europe, where there was a maniac named Adolf Hitler in charge of Germany. He was sending his armies out to conquer every country he could. Mrs. Mills hated Hitler. "The world has to stop that monster," she told them. "He's marching across Europe now. But you watch. If we don't stop him, he'll want America next. He'll want to hang a German flag over the Empire State Building."

Danny and Finn didn't like that idea one bit. And then one day they heard a shocking rumor: One of Earl's guys said that German U-boat submarines were sneaking around the waters just off Coney Island, in Brooklyn. That did it! Danny and Finn skipped school and hopped a subway down to Brooklyn. They sat there all day, freezing on Coney Island Beach, watching out for U-boats. They had no idea what a U-boat would look like. But that didn't matter. Finn brought his baseball bat. If a German soldier

had tried to step onto the sand, Finn was ready to clobber him. They didn't spot a U-boat. But the day wasn't a total waste. When Mrs. Mills heard that they'd skipped school to protect America, she gave them both an automatic 100 percent on their spelling tests. Finn grinned so big you could see the gold tooth from when he broke up a fight between two of his little brothers. Thinking about his good times with Finn gave Danny a strange feeling. Of course Danny never cried — he was no sissy. And he'd learned a trick when he was younger. On those nights when he was alone in the apartment, wishing Ma wasn't gone so much, wondering why his father had left them, he'd push all the feelings down, and then pack them tight together. He could almost imagine them somewhere deep inside him, a hard ball of ice. Lately that cold hard place had grown so big Danny almost felt numb. But it was better than lying around crying. Now Danny stood up, cursing himself for wasting time. He had to pack, write his note to