Free Missing in Action by Dean Hughes Page A

cowboy hat and using it to wave at people. And then a fire engine came along with a bunch of kids riding on it. He didn’t know why that was in a parade. But most of the rest of the stuff was no better. They did have a couple of floats made on the back of hayracks, pulled by tractors. One had a tall guy on it, dressed up like Uncle Sam. Someone had painted signs and put them all over the sides of the hayrack, saying that people should buy war bonds.
    The high school band marched down the street, and they played some pretty good music, nice and loud. That was about the best thing, except for a float with some high school girls on it—the Dairy Princesses. The truth was, two of them weren’t much to look at—Gordy called them the “Dairy Cows.” But the main one, the winner, was pretty. Gordy said she was Elaine’s big sister, and Elaine was going to look just as good someday. “I’ll take old Elaine to a dance sometime, and she’ll wear a dress like that one her sister’s got on—all low in the front—and I’ll take a look right down her neck while I’m dancing with her.”
    â€œYou better not let your mother hear you say something like that.” Jay had been around Gordy’s mother a couple of times now, and he’d heard her telling Gordy not to do this and not to do that.
    â€œYou’re right about that, Chief. When me and Lew was in fourth grade, we tried to hide under the stairs,over at D. Stevens department store, and look up girls’ dresses. We got caught doing it, and Mr. Stephens called my mom. I thought she was going to bust a gasket. But the only thing we seen was a big old lady wearing a girdle with all those straps to hold up her stockings. It made us both want to puke.” And then he had to bend over and pretend he was puking.
    Jay didn’t need to see that, but he laughed anyway.
    After the parade, he and Gordy found Lew and Eldred and some of the other boys at the baseball park—the nice one where the town team played on Saturday nights and Sunday afternoons. Some of the boys from the Delta High School team had gotten up a game with a team from out at Topaz. Jay was curious to see how well the Japanese boys could play, but as soon as he sat down in the bleachers, he noticed that Ken was out on the field, warming up at the shortstop position. That worried him a little.
    Their coach was hitting ground balls to the infielders, and they were making some nice plays.
    â€œThese guys are good,” Eldred said. He was sitting next to Jay, with Gordy on the other side, and Lew down on the end. Some other guys they knew were sitting in front of them.
    Buddy turned around and said, “They claim they’re in high school, but Japs all look younger than they really are. They’re probably older guys.”
    Jay didn’t say anything about Ken. He knew he was out of high school, but just barely, and he was still seventeen.
    â€œThey’ll do anything to beat us,” said Lew. “Then they act like little banty roosters strutting around. All our guys that age are in the army. We could put a lot better team out there if it wasn’t for that.”
    â€œSome Japs from out at the camp are in the army too,” Jay said.
    Buddy twisted more this time, to see who was talking. “What are you talking about? What army?”
    â€œOur army.”
    â€œThat’s a big lie. My dad told me all about that. Some of ’em get into the army, but they don’t fight. They just sit around at camps and don’t do anything.”
    Jay didn’t say anything at first, but he was sort of mad, so he told Buddy, “They’re going to get into the fight pretty soon. They want some action, and President Roosevelt says he’s going to give ’em a chance.”
    â€œWhat are you talking about, Thacker? Who told you that? That’s nothing but a big lie.”
    He decided he’d better not say