Savior

by Tyler S.

My name is Philip Marks, a seventeen-year-old lineman, on board the U.S.S. Yorktown. My family is from Honolulu, Hawaii; my mom is a tailor, and my dad helps build ships for the war effort in the Pacific. I had a brother in the Navy, but he died when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. To this day I still remember the Naval officers coming to inform my parents about Paul’s death. My parents cried all through the night. I remember the pain and grief when I saw my only brother lying dead in the casket before me. His skin felt burning cold on my fingers. I think about him every day, and every day I blame the Japanese for the suffering they caused my family. I joined the Navy to avenge my brother’s death, and this is what I plan to do until my dying breath.

*****

I shoot straight up out of my bed, and I can feel the sweat that accumulated during my nightmare all down my neck and back. These nightmares started the night after I found out that my brother was dead. Today is May 7, 1942. It is exactly five months since my brother died, yet the nightmare is always the same:

I see my brother standing helplessly before me, and I always try to warn him about the bombs that are coming to take his life away, but I know it is no use. He cannot hear me. I see his scared face as he realizes that there are bombs coming for him, and he knows it is too late to save himself. When the bombs hit the ground, I feel the earth shake underneath me; I know I am perfectly safe, but I cannot say the same for my brother. All I can see after that is a great big cloud of smoke, and I collapse on the ground, crying until the nightmare is over, knowing that my brother is gone forever.

I take deep breaths to calm myself down. I look down at my watch. The time is 5:00 A.M. We have to get up at 5:30 A.M. sharp, so I have thirty minutes all to myself. I sometimes try to go back to sleep when I wake up early, but I never can. So I just sit in my bed, close my eyes, and try to think of nothing for the next thirty minutes.

The U.S.S. Yorktown

After what seems like a lifetime, Lieutenant Thomas comes into our dormitory to wake us up. He yells at the top of his lungs, “Wake up!”, and all of the boys around me violently spring up into sitting positions, as if cannons have shot off right next to their ears. As one, we all shout back, “Sir, yes, sir!” We all slowly get down from our beds, and get dressed for another day on the U.S.S. Yorktown.  My closest friend on the ship, Jack Rogers, comes down from the bunk above me, and I ask him as we get ready, “How’d you sleep last night?”

Jack replies, “Fine,” and then asks me, “How did you sleep last night? Did you have the nightmare again?”

He already knows the answer to those questions, but I tell him anyway, “I never have a good sleep, Jack. I had the same nightmare again.”

Jack frowns a little, and says, “Just don’t think about it, okay? When you go to sleep, try to think of a happy memory, so the nightmare doesn’t come up in your dreams.”

“Okay,” I say, unconvinced. Jack puts on his shoes, but doesn’t tie them, and I ask, “Why aren’t you tying your shoes? You might trip.”

“Oh, well! Let’s just go to breakfast,” he replies. So we walk toward the dining hall with Jack’s shoes untied. Not surprisingly, he trips over his shoelaces and starts to fall forward. But fortunately, I have sharp reflexes and am able to hold him back so he doesn’t fall flat on his face. I laugh at him and say, “I told you to tie your shoes. Sometimes, Jack, you don’t think very much. But are you all right?”

Jack smiles and laughs, too. He says, “Yeah, I’m all right. I just lost my footing a little bit.” Jack’s smile is always contagious, and a huge grin spreads across my face as I laugh with him all the way to the dining hall. They’re serving pancakes for breakfast, my favorite breakfast food, and on the table is a bottle of my favorite syrup, Log Cabin. My stomach growls. I realize I am so hungry that I could eat a whole cow. Jack loves pancakes, too. We share a lot of the same interests and do practically everything together. We sit down at a table with our plates loaded with pancakes. The pancakes seem to call out to me to eat them, so I do. I can tell that the cooks used Aunt Jemima mix because my mom always uses it to make her own delicious pancakes. After we finish all of our pancakes, our stomachs full to bursting, we head out of the dining room to start a normal day.

Jack and I report to the top deck for our assigned duties. Jack is a lineman, too, so we always spend all day together. Lieutenant Thomas tells us to start on our normal routine, and then everybody disperses into different groups. My group’s job is to make sure that the airplanes take off and land safely. Every day, we send five scout airplanes to check and see if the Japanese are near us. They take off at around 7:00 A.M., and return around 6:30 P.M. before it gets too dark for them to see where they are going. It is now 7:00 A.M., and the planes are ready to take off. Jack and I lead the first plane safely to the runway, and it takes off without a problem. Airplanes have always fascinated me. I think it is amazing how something so big can defy gravity. This part of my job, I love. We do the same thing for the next four airplanes. However, we then have to make sure the other planes are ready to fly at a moment’s notice. We must fill the tanks with gas and check that all the monitors and gears are in working order. This part of my job, I hate. It is just so boring. We finish all of this by the time lunch begins. For lunch I have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and Jack has a tuna sandwich. After we finish lunch, I head up to the top deck with Jack to smoke a pack of Camel cigarettes.

I hand a cigarette to Jack and he says, “Thanks. Do you have a lighter I could borrow?” I light my cigarette first, before handing him the lighter. He lights his cigarette, and we stand for at least ten minutes making smoke rings. We finish our cigarettes, put them in the ashtray, and walk back to the boring part of our jobs.

*****

It’s eight o’clock, and it’s time for dinner. I walk with Jack back to the dining hall, and we see that the cooks have made ribeye steak with mashed potatoes. This dinner is another all-time favorite of mine. We sit down with our food, and I take the A.1. steak sauce, pouring a little puddle next to my steak. Jack pours the steak sauce all over the top of his steak, and we devour our meat until there is only bone left. We head back to our dormitories, and Jack and I take showers, put on our pajamas, and get ready for bed.  As Jack and I climb into our beds, a sense of uneasiness fills up the pit of my stomach, a feeling I last felt when my older brother died. I know that tonight’s nightmare is going to be extremely vivid. I also sense, as I drift to sleep, that something bad is going to happen tomorrow.

Screaming wakes me up. I see sirens flashing all around me; they make an ear shattering noise. I jump out of bed, dressing as fast as I can. My whole dormitory is in total chaos. Everyone throws on clothes and yells, trying to figure out what is going on. Jack is already dressed by the time I get out of my bed. I have to scream over the loud noise to ask, “What’s happening? This place is chaotic!”

Jack yells back, “I heard people screaming that the Japanese are within range of attacking the ship!” My stomach drops at the statement, and I turn ice cold. Jack continues, “I also heard that we can’t see the other ship. This battle will probably be fought only with bomber airplanes.” I frown because that means that I can’t do anything to help with this battle.

I reply, “Oh, this is really bad. What do we do? What’s going to happen?” Jack does not reply; instead we follow everyone else, and run up the stairs to the top of the deck to find out more about the situation. When we arrive on deck, Lieutenant Thomas speaks to everyone, and judging by the worried looks on their faces, I can tell that the news is not good. “Everybody calm down. I’m going to explain everything. We have just located Japanese carriers in the Coral Sea. We are going to send pilots off to bomb their carriers. So, we need the linemen to report to the runway immediately, and get the bombers safely into the air.”

After he says this, Jack and I run straight to the runway. We get there in about a minute, and to my surprise the pilots are already there. They are getting into the bomber planes. We quickly send all of the airplanes into the air. It only takes us about forty-five minutes to do so, and I think that has to be a world record. We run straight back to Lieutenant Thomas, wanting to hear more about what is going on, knowing that we did all we could to help in this situation.

We find the lieutenant near the control room, and he fills us in on the situation. “Nice job, guys. You were fast. I know you’re all wondering what’s happening, so I will fill you in with what I know. We can’t see the Japanese ships, so this battle will only be between aircrafts. None of you will be able to fight directly against the carriers. I have just been informed that the Japanese have sent airplanes to bomb us. But you guys gave us an advantage because you sent the airplanes off quickly, so we will be able to attack their carriers first.” I smile at the fact that I helped at least a little. “We have, at most, thirty minutes before the Japanese bombs come. We need all of you to stay close to the runway, but undercover in case one of our airplanes comes back to land.” My smile disappears in that instant because I realize that my life will be in danger by standing so close to the runway where the Japanese bombers will drop their bombs. But, instead of objecting, we all just say, “Sir, yes, sir.”

We leave Lieutenant Thomas, and head back to the runway. None of us talk because we know that our lives are in grave danger. We stand in the doorway leading downstairs to the dining hall. Jack stares into space, and I get chills just by looking at him. We wait there for at least ten minutes, and then I hear a distant noise. I hear the sound of a propeller spinning.

I shout to everyone, “I hear a propeller in the distance! I don’t know if that airplane is ours or not.”

Jack says, “I will go check.” He heads out into the open, and I scream, “Get back in here! It could be the Japanese!” But Jack just keeps on walking to get a better look at the incoming plane. It finally comes close enough that I can see that it is not one of our airplanes, and it is coming to drop a bomb on our ship. This time I scream at the top of my lungs, “Jack, get out of the way, and find cover! It’s a Japanese airplane!”

Jack doesn’t move an inch; he is stuck in his position, frozen with fear. I hear the airplane use its machine guns, and I see bullets hitting the deck about fifty feet from Jack. He has at most forty seconds left in his life. I realize that I need to save my best friend so that he does not die like my brother. So I just run.

I run faster than I have ever run before. I reach Jack just in time to push him out of the path of the incoming bullets that are now fifteen feet away. When I push Jack, he jolts out of his daze, and realizes that the plane is fast approaching. Together we sprint for cover under the staircase just as the plane reaches the spot where we once were. We bolt right into the staircase, and go as far down as possible. We see that the plane circles around the boat, and drops its bomb. I hear the bomb’s whistling noise as it plummets toward the ship. The bomb hits, and it explodes, probably wrecking the ship’s deck. As the plane leaves to goes back to the Japanese carriers, we slowly get up out of our crouch.

I scream at Jack, “What were you thinking?!”

Jack says in his calm voice, “I just wanted to see if it was our plane, but I guess I was wrong.” He smiles a little, and looks confused while he says, “Philip, why did you risk your life to save me?”

I look at him affectionately, and I say, “I did not want to lose another brother.”