The Kids Are Alright

April 2, 1941

"Marvin, can we do something tonight?" Sandra passed him in the hall, but had yet to kiss him.

"What, together?" Marvin stared at her.

She nodded. "It's been so long since we went out, and I know that the gunmen don't have training in the morning, so I figured it would be a good time for us to go out.

Marvin's brow curved, "I'm not sure. Who are we trying to prove anything to?"

Her nervous smile was replaced by a thin line. Her eyes stared daringly at him, "We don't have anything to prove."

"I like the way we have it now," Marvin wrapped his arm around her waist. He tried to pull her into a kiss, but she turned her head.

"I don't."

"Why not?" He tried to get her to face him, "Why can't this be enough?"

"Because we don't talk." Sandra whispered, "I feel wrong every time I walk away from you, because we don't even acknowledge each other verbally in words anymore. We kiss and then I'm expected to walk away and pretend that's enough."

"Are you saying you want to take this to the next level?" Excitement flashed in his eyes.

She pulled away from him, "You're a pig, Marvin." She tried to walk away from him, just as she was so used to doing, but this time, he followed her.

"Honey, please. You want to go out? Fine, we'll go out."

She spun on him, her face tight with agony. "Marvin, you mean so much to me. This last year started so well, but it's like when you got me, you stopped caring about having me."

He pulled her in close again, this time she didn't try to fight it, she was weak with sadness and fear of losing him. "Sandra Kathleen Green," he started, "I never meant to make you feel worthless to me. On our date when I took you to the piers, do you remember what I told you?"

She smiled with tears building along the edges of her eyes, "Of course, you said-."

"That you were the most beautiful woman I had ever seen, but I was afraid to talk to you because I didn't want you to realize that you could do better. That still stands. Don't leave, please."

She rested her head on his chest, "Marvin, pretty words are empty. They mean nothing."

Marvin lightly raised her chin with his fingertips, "But you don't." He stared deeply into her eyes. "Sandy, I love you."

Her eyes widened. "No you don't." She shook her head, "Marvin we both know that you're not capable of love."

"Then I'll take whatever this is. If this is the closest I ever get to love, then I'm glad it's with you." He kissed her, and she finally let him. "Sandy, will you marry me?"

A slight grin slid onto her elegant face, "No, Marvin. Not in this place."

"Then after the war. When we leave this island."

"That will never work. I'll go back to New Jersey, and you'll go back to Kansas. We'll go back to separate lives, and look back at our time together as bittersweet memories."

"I won't go back to Kansas," Marvin stared desperately at her. "I'll go to New Jersey with you. Sandy, I don't want to be away from you."

"Then why didn't you want to go to dinner with me?"

"Because I'm so afraid of getting too close to you." His eyes were pained.

"What?" her voice quaked.

"Every day I wish that we had met under different circumstances. We live in a war zone. What if I get too addicted to you, then I lose you? What if, God forbid, something terrible happens, and I'm left without you? I don't think I can endure that kind of loss."

She stared up at him, "Marvin, I don't know what to say-."

"Say yes." Marvin leaned down and kissed her.

She pulled away, smiling, "Ask me again when we're on our way to New Jersey."

"Then will you go to dinner with me tonight?"

She grinned, "Of course."