Howie and Ears Malloy were seated at the table in the Throckmorton kitchen. The room was a little bright and a little awkward for serious studying. So many books had been piled on the table that some had spilled over onto the floor. They had all been checked out of the Binnington Public Library. And all the way home with the heavy load Howie had thought longingly of the library at the Hinton home.
Both boys were ignoring the makeup table in the corner. It was “mostly” out of the realm of their experience.
Ears’ only comment was “Why are there so many different red lipsticks?”
“How many brown shoes does your mother have?” was Howie’s reply.
“Oh, I see,” said Ears. “It’s one of those things.”
Nodding his
head, Howie took the top book “The way I
see it, there are four areas in which we can organize our arguments in favor of
dropping the atomic bomb on
“You know,” said Ears, “there are things I would rather do with Emily Hinton than argue.”
“Oh,” said Howie, “I did not know that you were a baseball player.”
“I’m not, chess is my game,” Ears bragged. And he puffed out his chest.
Howie looked puzzled. Why did Ears want to play chess with Emily? Howie did not think that Emily even liked chess.
“I’ll bet Emily is a good dancer,” continued Ears.
Ah, now Howie understood. Yes, Emily was a good dancer – at least she stuck her foot underneath his far fewer times than any of the other girls that Howie had danced with. But Howie would far rather argue with her. Now that he thought of it - it was great fun to argue with Emily. Of course, a fellow had to be careful about not getting hit. Emily was sometimes prone to punctuating her points with a sharp jab. A horrifying thought occurred to Howie. Emily would not hit anyone during the debate – would she?
Not willing to pursue that thought, Howie return to the subject at hand. “What else does your book say,” he asked.
“It says here that there were two other options, besides the bomb, to forcing a surrender. One was an invasion with hand to hand combat like what was done at Iwo Jima and Okinawa. It says here that they were terrible battles. The other was a blockade to starve the nation into surrender.”
“The children would have gone hungry.” Howie had a vision of hungry dark haired children. And he knew how that argument would affect Emily. For no explainable reason, he imagined Emily in the future with her own children – feeding them.
“Well,” said Ears, “ if the invasion would have been as bad as the fighting on Iwo Jima and Okinawa continued, it would have been very bloody. It says the President Truman predicted that there would have been one half million casuals on each side – not counting civilians. Do we know anyone who fought in those battles that we could talk to? My father spent the war guarding the coast of Maine.”
“My father was in the war,” said Howie, “and I think that he fought in the Pacific. But he never talks about it. All he ever does id talk about is insurance and tell bad jokes,” Howie added.
“What about Emily’s father? Say, are you going to her birthday party? What are you going to wear?
Howie put down his book and picked up two folded invitations to Emily’s party. One had a series of Xs and Os on the outside.
“Oh yes, I am going and I have decided what I am going to wear,” he said tapping the two unopened invitations against his palm. “But I’d rather not admit to it… er…I mean that it is a secret.” Howie was embarrassed to tell Ears that Emily had ordered him to wear a clown costume and with makeup. “I have my reminder here. And Em gave me another one to post on the bulletin board at school tomorrow to remind everyone to wear a costume.”
“I have to be at school early for the Chess Club. Do you want me to post it for you?”
“Sure, that would be great. Now which one is mine and which one gets posted?”
Rather than opening them and finding Emily’s note reminding him to wear the clown costume, he continued to turn them over looking for a name on the outside.
All he found were the Xs and Os. “What does these mean?” he asked showing them to Ears.
“They look like math symbols.”
“They sure do,” agreed Howie. “Maybe they are variables.”
“Well, a variable stands anything. So, that one must be for everybody at school. Here give it to me.”
Howie handed it over and the note from Emily with hugs and kisses for Howie and a reminder to come dressed as a clown was shoved into a book and on its way to be posted on the bulletin board at school.
“Now, what where you asking about Emily’s father - was he in the war? Yes, he did something top secret. I think he was in intelligence.”
“Do you mean he was a spy?”
“No, I don’t think so. I think he gathered intelligence from wounded soldiers and people that had been in battle areas. You know he is very smart. So they used his brains.”
“I think that my dad was just a soldier,” Howie went on. “I don’t think that he was anything special during the war.”
Let’s categorize our arguments,” Howie went on to say.
“OK,” said Ears. “What was the main military strategy for using the atomic bomb?”
“They wanted to avoid a bloody invasion. The Battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa had shown them the enormous casualties that could occur,” Howie answered.
“Good,” said Ears. “What was the position of strength that was established by bombing.”
“The Japanese knew that to delay their surrender would mean many more deaths with almost no risk to their opposition.”
“Very good,” said Ears. “And what were the humanitarian benefits?”
“If the Japanese surrendered, both sides could avoid any more deaths.”
“We are going to kill them,” said Ears.
Howie was a little uncomfortable with that. “Maybe, we shouldn’t say ‘kill them’ when we are talking about so many deaths,” he said.
“Oops, you’re right, Howie,” replied Ears. “But,” he added gleefully, “we are going to win.”
“We’ll clobber them…not dead of course,” added Howie. “But Ears, do you think we are right?”
“What does that matter. But, yes, from what I have read, I think the bombing was right the right thing to do. It doesn’t matter, of course. If we are good at debating, we should be able to argue for either side and still win. Its logic - not morality that wins here,” said Ears, “But girls are so emotional – always looking at the human side of things. Why I’ll bet that they could not argue a single point if they did not believe in it.”
Howie winced. That sounded uncomfortable close to what Em had said.
“They don’t understand the beauty of pure logic. It’s like math. “Or like chess,” Ears added. “Only Karen Switzer is a good math student isn’t she.”
Howie nodded.
“Well, we will have to be sure that we are more logical than her. After all there are two of us.”
“You are forgetting about Emily.” Howie was worried. He knew that Emily could come up with a Zen like argument out of nowhere that they would have no way of anticipating and could not possibly counter.
“No I am not,” replied Ears. “I am thinking about her a lot. I sure would like to dance with her at her party. She is the prettiest girl in school.”
“What?” said Howie.
“And you could dance with Karen.” Ears offer magnanimously. “Only, I don’t know how to dance. How did you learn?”
Emily had taught Howie to dance using baseball moves. But foe some reason that felt personal. All Howie told Ears was, “I learned to dance by using imitating baseball moves. I am most comfortable with baseball so when I dance I imagine that I am playing baseball and no one knows the difference.” ‘Except Emily,’ he thought to himself.
“That’s a great idea - only I more comfortable with chess. I’ll figure out what chess moves a dance reminds me of and do that instead. Thank you, Howie. Now I am sure that I will be able to dance with Emily. I’ll steer Karen you way,” he added. “Well, I have to go. Goodbye, Howie, and thanks again.”
Howie did not answer. He just walked Ears to the door. He never had thought that he would have competition for Emily. He suddenly had an overwhelming desire to dance with her - and keep her for himself. If Ears could a chance to dance with her, it would be over his dead body. Let HIM dance Karen.