Never Say Goodbye

Chapter 1

"Helen are you okay?" No, not really I wanted to say but couldn't. I was so caught off guard all I could do was stare. I saw him, he was there, or so I thought. These past few months I've been seeing him everywhere, in men with the same dark hair and deep ocean blue eyes. Especially, if they wore the green jacket and khaki pants, the service uniform of the marines.

Everyone seemed to be wearing it these days, which made my imagination run wild. I got flashbacks even as I sent off my own brother, Johnny, and he was wearing the navy blue instead of green. It started happening ever since I got the call from Charles' parents informing me that he had gone MIA, missing in action, and was most likely dead. I won't lie, I never stopped hoping and praying to God that he was alright and that he would come back to me like he promised before he left. That was so long ago now, ages it seems like. They never did say he was actually gone, just missing. He was only missing, he could come back. He could be still alive. "Helen! Hey Helen, we're going to be late, hoist anchor would ya?"

"Coming." I mumbled and shook my head to clear my thoughts.

"Donald will get on our case if we're not in there on time today. Sometimes I'd love to give that guy just one, right in the kisser. You know, that if it wasn't for us this joint wouldn't even get any customers—Helen?"

"Hmmmm? Oh, yeah, I know Judy. He gives us a high-hat but he appreciates us, believe me. Besides, we won't be here for much longer, we've got that audition for that place tomorrow and we both know we're a shoe in."

"Yeah, well, I surely hope so. We won't get anywhere in a crummy joint like this! I can't wait, can't you just see us in that nice ritzy joint in beautiful, top notch costumes."

"As nice as we can get with clothing rations being what they are." Judy stopped mid-stride and put her hands on her hips. "what?"

"Don't be such a Debby Downer. Dream a little, what the heck happened to the dreamer I used to know and love?" Judy and I have been best friends since we were in diapers, she knew everything about me. We came from a small town of Big Bear near Los Angeles. We've done everything together, we're almost incomplete without the other. Neither of us could not possibly imagine life without the other. When she got a big job in New York, they refused to give me the job too, she fought with the manager until he agreed.

That was only the beginning he liked us so much he let us volunteer at the Stage Door Canteen. We even had some gigs as chorus girls for a few shows on Broadway. But we only stayed a year until we got sick of the steely city and returned to California. When we got here and auditioned for Donald I did the same for her. He only offered me the job, but I kept pestering him until he agreed to give us both the job. Our move back seemed to have God's hand in it, everything seemed to fall into place. We hadn't been back for long when we got the call to audition for the swankiest places in town.

We started to rehears and Judy drew up some new sketches for our costumes. Our excitement was short lived though, it wasn't long before Charles' mother called. She was sobbing uncontrollably, she could only heave out a word every other sob, but I got the gist. Charles was MIA and was likely to be dead. He left almost a year ago and it's been a mere four months since I heard the news.

To make matters worse the club we had auditions for kept postponing and changing the date. According to them they were waiting until the boss of the club could be there personally to see us. It was alright with us, we didn't mind. . . at fist. I sort of thought it was all just a way to give us the brush off. But when we found out that the owner was in the military and was due to return soon, I figured they weren't trying to shake us off. How could we not understand, just like every other woman on the home front, everything we did was for those brave boys. We volunteered at the local USO, and victory gardens. We recycled, and our ration books always had extra stamps left in them.