“Oh, depend on Vera to get out of any sort of tight spot,” replied Kitty confidently. “She’ll be along after a while with a station wagon full of girls.”
Kitty had her own Canteen duties to look after and was quite busy for half an hour before she realized that Vera had not yet arrived. Only one carful of girls had come in, and although they were doing their best to make the boys have a pleasant evening, there was still not nearly enough girls. Kitty decided the Canteen girls would have to do double duty by helping the USO hostess.
She was about to tell Mrs. Evans she would go outside into the hall to be some boy’s partner for a dance when she noticed a lonesome-looking fellow at her own Snack Bar. She had served him a cup of coffee when he first came in and had made overtures of friendship which had been indifferently received. He still sat on the end stool, looking dejectedly into space, half his coffee still in the cup.
“Anything else you’d like?” she asked.
“No, thanks,” he replied, without changing his position or looking toward her.
She went back to the kitchen a moment later to get some more cream, and Sally, elbow deep in suds, said, “Poor boy, he’s been sitting there in a fog for the last half hour. Guess he’s got something rather bothersome on his mind.”
“He looks like a new one in the service,” commented Kitty.
Later as she wiped the counter clean she noticed the sailor’s fresh, fair complexion not yet tanned by the southern sun. There was something about him that made her think of Billy. Her own little brother might look like that when he was grown up. In twenty years she hoped there wouldn’t be another war to catch him in its snares. If it had to happen she knew she would thank any Canteen worker who would cheer him.
She pushed a neatly wrapped sandwich toward the sailor. “These sandwiches are really good,” she said encouragingly. “Wouldn’t you like to try one?”
Then he turned slightly and looked at her for the first time. “I couldn’t swallow a bite,” he said.