“It’s so romantic!” Jane said. “You and me, alone together.”
“I wanted us to spend some time together before our life together gets turned upside down,” her fiancé said.
“Why would it be turned upside down?”
“Kids can be complicated, honey.”
“There’s nothing at all complicated about having kids. You shouldn’t be afraid!” Jane insisted. “All my friends are pregnant or have given birth recently. I don’t know why it took us so long to get pregnant.”
“I wasn’t in the war. I didn’t land on the beaches of Normandy, or North Africa, or even Sicily like all those young boys. Their men all went to war and fought to free Europe. They were away for four long years, they wrote letters, and they promised all those things to one another.”
“Just because you didn’t land on Omaha doesn’t mean you should turn your back on a baby...”
“No sweetie, I’m not turning my back, he’s my son! It’s just that I feel so guilty.”
“Why should you feel guilty? You helped with the war effort, you were in the Navy munitions factory.”
“True, but I didn’t go to war. I’ll never be as proud as the men who fought on the front.”
“Oh, enough of that now!” Jane was getting annoyed. “You deserve a child just as much as any man in this country. You worked day and night making shells on the line. And the war’s over. Now it’s about you and me, just us, here with our child.”
“You’re right, sweetie,” her fiancé whispered. It was a mild night, and Clark Gable was playing a fantastic role. What a wonderful actor he was; a titan of the screen.
“It’s wonderful, watching Gone with the Wind here in the open air with our future baby. Do you think he hears what Clark Gable’s saying?”
“Babies feel everything. If he kicks, that means he likes Gone with the Wind. If you feel him moving a lot, it means he’ll be a great marine.”
“My father would be proud if he joined the Navy. And my grandfather. They were all in the Navy, and we’re proud of them. Honey, he’s jumping around in there. He just gave me a big kick!”
Her fiancé whispered a few words into her ear: “I love you madly!” The pair had promised they’d have a baby after the war. It hadn’t been easy, but Jane had finally managed to get pregnant. She dedicated her baby to the U.S. Navy, in memory of all the American soldiers who’d died in the war, and all the men who’d saved Europe from disaster. It was the fifth time that Jane had seen Gone with the Wind; she never got bored of it. She observed her fiancé, his gaze fixated on Clark Gable. “I love you too,” she whispered. She was pensive, weighing names for girls and boys in her head. Men always panicked when their baby was on the way. Jane would keep comforting him, keep soothing away his guilt. Her fiancé had been unable to go to the front, although why exactly he did not know.
Alan Alfredo Geday