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have argued with him, but not today. She was much too worried about Danny to launch into a debate on equality for women. “Well, I’m going to do something useful for the war effort,” she said aloud. “I don’t know what, but I’m going to do my part.”
    “The Japanese don’t stand a chance with Jeannie on our side,” John said. She punched his arm.
    “I’d better head home,” Russ said, turning toward the door. “I don’t know if my folks have heard the news yet.” Jean walked out to the kitchen with him. Her schoolbooks still lay open where she’d left them on the table, but the Japanese had just wreaked havoc on all of her plans.
    “See you tomorrow, Jean.”
    She kissed Russ good-bye and tried to return to her essay, but she couldn’t stop thinking about her brother Danny and the devastation at Pearl Harbor. And if her nation did go to war, and if Johnny did enlist, would she ever get to college? Jean wished she knew the answer.

 
    PART ONE
    Stockton, Michigan
Fall 1942
    “No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated
    invasion, the American people in their righteous might will win
    through to absolute victory. … With confidence in our armed
    forces, with the unbounding determination of our people, we will
    gain the inevitable triumph—so help us God.”

    P RESIDENT F RANKLIN D. R OOSEVELT

 
    CHAPTER 1
    September 1942
    “A German submarine laid mines
off Charleston, South Carolina, today.”
    *    Virginia    *
    Ginny’s morning began with the same old routine: fixing breakfast for Harold and the boys, packing their lunchboxes, retrieving all the things they’d lost or misplaced, reminding them to wear their jackets and to tie their shoelaces. But today she watched herself perform these tasks as if detached from it all, almost as if observing from a distance. And what she noticed was that everybody took her for granted. They never seemed to notice her , only her mistakes—and they always noticed those.
    “I don’t want this egg,” Allan said, pushing it away. “I like the yellow part hard, not all runny.”
    “This coffee is too weak,” Harold said as he dumped it down the drain. “I’ll grab a cup at the office.”
    “You put oleo on my toast,” Herbie complained. “I wanted jelly.” She made him a new slice of toast with jelly, but later, when she tried to wipe jam off his face, he squirmed away.
    “Stop smothering them,” Harold said. “They aren’t babies anymore.”
    Ginny watched as each one grabbed his things and hurried out the door. The family dog lay sprawled on the kitchen floor, but everyone stepped around him or over him, ignoring him as if he were part of the furniture. Poor Rex. They’d loved him as a puppy, but now nobody even saw him. If he ran away from home, how many days or weeks would go by before anyone even noticed? Was it the same for her? No, her family would certainly notice if there weren’t any meals on the table.
    “I’m a real person!” she felt like shouting. “Not ‘Mom’ or ‘Dear’ but a real-live woman!”
    Rex’s legs twitched as he lay stretched out on the green-speckled linoleum, as if he dreamt of running through fields, chasing rabbits. Did dogs dream of traveling to other places, doing interesting things, challenging things? Ginny had never dreamed of any other life except this one and now it had become meaningless. Tears filled her eyes. Stupid tears! She bent to pet Rex and he startled awake, tail thumping.
    “Well, boy, I guess it’s just you and me,” she said aloud. His tail thumped again, and he licked her hand.
    Virginia cleared the breakfast table, washed the dishes, and tidied the kitchen. She spotted an advertisement as she refolded Harold’s morning newspaper and paused to read it. Ads for defense workers were everywhere these days, thanks to the Office of War Information—in magazines, on billboards, on posters in every store window—but she saw this one as if for the first time. It