"He's coming by in a little while and we're going to a movie. I guess we'll talk then".

"Well, you see that you get back here at a decent hour, you hear?"

"Mrs. Carter, he's only got a couple of days to be here and I plan to spend as much time with him as I can."

"Look here, young lady, don't you go telling me what you'll do or won't do or you'll find yourself back in that home so fast it'll make your head swim!"

Mary turned from her, hung up the apron and hurried to her room. She was ready when she heard the familiar sound of Bill's old Ford in the street and hurried out of the house without a word to Mrs. Carter.

There was no movie for them that night, Mary told him how great he looked in his uniform and he told her more about the Navy than she would ever remember. She knew Mrs. Carter heard her as she came in a few minutes after midnight.

Bill came for her at noon the next day and they shopped for picnic snacks to take to the park with them. It was a mild afternoon and they spent hours walking along the river and as the cool evening came on, sitting on a picnic bench by the fire, always talking, sharing dreams of their life together when he would return. Bill told her how excited he was to be assigned to the Battleship Arizona and the thrill of going to Hawaii. This, Bill's last night in Joplin, they spent together. Mary didn't get home until nearly dawn. Mrs. Carter met her at the door.

The Arizona was sunk in the first hours of the war, but how Grandmother Mary's lover, Bill, spent the last hours of his life was a question left to her grandson, John, and his lovely wife, Connie, to decide. "Do we really want to know?"

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