Isabel’s War Read Online Free PDF Page A

“The doctor would know if there was any chance of that.” Her glance shifts to Roy. “Gosh, but he’s awfully cute, Izzie. And to think you were the one to find him.”
    I roll my eyes. “A lot of good that does.”
    Roy has been invited to have lunch with us at the hotel. Helga, who has been resting most of the morning, is looking a little less ghostlike. But everyone is watching her for signs of rabies, just in case the tetanus shot didn’t do the job.
    Questions are directed at her by worried well-wishersfrom all over the dining room. “How much does your leg hurt now?” “Is there any kind of burning sensation where you were bitten?” “Are you sure the wound isn’t infected?” “Have you got a headache?” “Can you drink water?”
    After Helga wanly assures everyone that she has no symptoms of rabies, interest focuses on Roy who, by now, admits to our meeting in the woods. He asks me how my “snake bite” is doing and did I remember to suck the venom out after I got back to Moskin’s?
    I don’t think this is very funny. And it lands me in trouble with my parents. My mother immediately demands an “explanation” and promises that we’ll “talk about this later.” Which makes me feel like a baby in front of Roy and Helga, who are the golden couple at the table.
    Both my father and Mr. F. want to know how come Roy enlisted in the Navy and whether he thinks it’s better to choose your branch of service or wait to be drafted. I know my father is thinking about my brother Arnold, who’s getting awfully close to being assigned a draft number. Roy, it turns out, is seventeen and just out of boot camp, which is why he’s on furlough waiting for an assignment, maybe in the Pacific, maybe somewhere else. Helga gazes at him worshipfully as he relates his plans for the future. He is only a raw seaman at the moment, but he might as well be an admiral as far as she’s concerned. And doesn’t Roy know it? And isn’t hejust eating it up?
    Lunch is finally over and Helga has been ordered by all the grownups to go back to her room and rest. Minnie Moskin herself comes out of the kitchen with a glass of half-milk and half-cream and a tray of her thick round cookies for Helga to take to her room. Mrs. F. carries the tray for her as she limps off toward the annex, while Roy stands looking after Helga wistfully.
    I rush up to Roy, dragging Ruthie behind me, and I introduce them. “You should have come to the casino last night. We had such a great time,” I tell him, poking Ruthie and crossing my fingers behind my back.
    â€œYeah,” Roy sighs, his eyes still focused on Helga’s slowly retreating figure. “But how was I supposed to know she’d be there? I figured it would just be a bunch of kids or a lot of older folks.”
    â€œOh, thanks a lot,” I reply. Even Ruthie looks hurt at Roy’s remark. “So how long is this furlough of yours, anyway?” I ask the great lover.
    â€œJust one more day.”
    â€œQuel dommage!” I know it’s not nice of me but I just can’t help it.
    â€œWhatever that’s supposed to mean,” Roy mutters as he starts sauntering off...the last he’ll probably see of Shady Pines.

Four
    â€œYou shouldn’t have cursed him in French like that,” says Ruthie, as Roy disappears across the road. “He’s fighting for our country. He could get killed in the Pacific. The Japanese are sinking our battleships right and left. Or don’t you read the papers?”
    â€œI don’t. Not the way my father does. Who can remember the difference between New Guinea and Guadalcanal? And where in the world are the Solomon Islands? Anyhow, what I said to him wasn’t a curse. Dommage is the word for pity, so all it meant was, What a pity .”
    â€œIt sounded,” Ruthie insists, “like you called him a