Free Sophie and the Rising Sun by Augusta Trobaugh Page B

you do. You shouldn’t do that anymore.’’
    “Excuse me?” he almost bowed again, but stopped himself.
    “We’ve all seen those newsreels at the movie over in Brunswick, and that’s the way those Japs do all the time. Bow and bow at each other.” Her voice began to crack. “Bow even to our ambassadors and then turn around and attack us!’’
    Mr. Oto had never seen her so angry before.
    “Pigs!” she spat out the word and then turned and went silently back across the garden.
    He stood at the gate for a long time, until his heart slowed its pounding and he could breathe once again. His one thought was that he should go to Sophie right away. But then... supposed this terrible news would cause her to end her friendship with him? That, he simply could not bear. But the mere thought of it taught him, once again, the true meaning of a broken heart.
    In the end, he did not go to Sophie, could not bear the possibility that she would now hate him. If that happened, it could wait until the next Sunday, when he would go to the riverbank to paint, as always.
    And maybe she would come.
    And maybe she wouldn’t.
    Around that same time, Sophie was sitting in a wicker armchair on her sun porch, reading a little, but more often, simply looking out across the backyard and thinking of the beautiful Sunday morning she’d had in Mr. Oto’s company.
    From the radio in Sophie’s kitchen came soft strains of music. But then some static and an excited voice saying something—almost yelling something that she couldn’t quite make out. A strident sound that seemed all out of place on such a beautiful afternoon. She waited for the music to resume, but the voice just kept going on and on.
    Finally, she got up and went into the kitchen, and in that first moment when she fully comprehended the news about the attack on Pearl Harbor, she felt her world change forever.
    War! This will mean war once again. All the fine young men going off to die in distant battlefields. Like Henry.
    But then, right away, another thought leaped into her mind:
    Grover!
    A sudden, loud knocking on her front door and her feet moving mindlessly into the living room. Grover?
    But when Sophie opened the door, Miss Ruth was standing on her porch, her mouth in an impatient pout and her shoulders huffy and offended-looking.
    “Miss Ruth?”
    “Yes,” Miss Ruth answered. “Who did you think it would be?” she asked suspiciously.
    “Uh... come in, please.”
    The polite words came out, despite the turmoil in her heart, and somehow, her mama’s voice showed up in her ears: “ You must always have good manners, Sophie!”
    Miss Ruth entered the living room, glancing around as if seeking something to criticize. Sophie still stood at the door, unable to move her feet.
    “Sophie? I’ve come to ask why you aren’t coming to church anymore.”
    “I...” Somehow, Sophie couldn’t make her mouth work just right.
    “Sophie?”
    Silence. Only silence.
    “What’s wrong with you, Sophie? Are you ill?”
    “I... can’t talk right now.” The words sounded weak and tired, but inside, Sophie’s heart and mind were a jumble of mindless, flapping wings, darting this way and that, flying into each other and then darting off in another direction.
    “Sophie? I’m speaking to you! Are you ill?” Miss Ruth’s shrill, relentless voice.
    “Pearl Harbor!” Sophie finally managed to say.
    “What? What are you talking about? Have you lost your mind?”
    A terrible sob erupting from Sophie’s chest, and her hating herself for it. “The base at Pearl Harbor. In Hawaii. It’s been bombed!”
    “What? Bombed, you say? Bombed?” Miss Ruth put a shaking hand over her heart. “But who ? Who would do such a thing? And how do you know this?”
    “Radio,” Sophie whispered. “On the radio.”
    “But who ?” Miss Ruth insisted. “ Who bombed the base?” Miss Ruth’s beady eyes were filled with both alarm and tears.
    “Japan.” Sophie breathed out the word.
    “Oh!