A Boy's Dream





At twelve years of age it was Mikey's dream to be a sailor.He wasn't very big at twelve, short and skinny.He was kind of a loner, a dreamer, a mama's boy.His mother worked in a defense factory on the second shift.His oldest sister was a secratary for the local office of a nationwide company.She worked for their father's boss.His next sister, who was three years older than Mikey was a junior in high school, with plans to go to nursing school.His father was always away on sales trips.When he was home, or at least in town, they never saw him very much.Although they didn't have a lot of money his mother hired a lady to come in a few days a week to clean, and babysit.Mikey didn't like that word, he wasn't a baby and besides his sisters were there when his Mom was working.

Mikey only had a couple close friends, one, JR, was his age and lived one house away and the other lived around the corner and two blocks away.He was three years older and was going to quit school.Norm was a big strong kid and looked old for his age.There were eight kids in his family and he was the youngest.His oldest sister wrote a letter for him, pretending to be his mother. They got his birth certificate and changed his birthdate to make him eighteen.He joined the navy and Mikey and JR were mad. Neither one of them was big enough to look that age, besides none of their sisters would forge their birth certificates for them.Mikey dreamed about going with Norm and joining up, but that was all he could do was dream.

JR and Mikey didn't like school, but did their best and dreamed, especially Mikey.In the summer the two of them got a job with an older lady that had a canoe rental business on the river.They took care of the canoes, made sure they were clean and had no leaks.The canoes had pieces of carprting and a pillow with a back rest.Young couples would rent them by the hour to take leisurely jaunts up the river.There were islands with hidden areas in the bushes, and they would pull in and both sit on the carpet and make out.Most of the guys were servicemen home on leave and the girls were their steady's.Sometimes they stayed over their alotted time and didn't have enough money to pay the full amount, or they just plain didn't want to pay so they would go further up the river and leave the canoes.Mikey and JR would have to take a conoe the next day and go find where they were and bring them back.Old Missus Habersham would be pulling her hair and wringing her hands and cursing all young people for being dishonest.



With a lot of luck and some stern admonitions from his oldest sister, Mikey made it through highschool by the skin of his teeth.He still had his dreams of being a sailor.He was seventeen and needed his mother's OK to join.Not long after Mike(y) was accepted by the Navy, Norm's family received word that Norm had been killed on board his ship in the Pacific. The war had been over for two years, but Norm had stayed in and was killed when a plane crashed on his carrier, killing the pilot and seventeen men on the ship.Mike was in boot camp and was devastated,unable to go to the memorial service.His dream was coming true, but they weren't happy dreams.

JR had gotten a job in a shoe factory after school, but was unhappy.His father had just been discharged from the Army and told JR he should go in the service to learn a trade.He took his dad's advice and quit his job.The Navy turned him down for some reason he never found out.The Army was glad to get him.He went through basic training, had a seven day leave and was shipped to a place called Korea.A year later he was declared MIA.His father shot himself when they got the news.Mike was having nightmares.He had hoped to get on a battleship afterboot camp but was sent to radio school in Newport,RI.Twelve weeks later he graduated and was jumped a grade past Seaman 1st to Petty officer 3rd class for being first in his class.He was placed on fleet tanker after a fourteen day leave.The ship was on it's way to the Med when he heard about JR and his Dad.

On his second trip to the Med the following year, while on overnight shore leave he met a girl in Naples,Itlay.She claimed that her father was a U.S.G.I. from WWII.Of course this would have made her about eleven or twelve years old, but Mike never tried to reason that out, he was smitten and dreaming. She was a beautiful girl and very alluring.Mike bought her a ring and she promised to wait for him.He planned to make a career of the Navy and had enough time in to apply for shore duty.They planned for her to come to the states after Mike found where he would be stationed.When the ship's three month tour was up it returned to Newport.Mike was transferred to radio school as an instructor.Two weeks later he received word from Sophia's mother that she had been arrested for prostitution and was in jail.She had sold her ring to use for bail. The next day she disapeared.Mike's dreams were falling apart.

A year later while attending a movie on base, Mike saw Sophia with a sailor he didn't know.After the movie he waited outside, when Sophia and the sailor came out he approached them and asked what was going on. She acted as if she didn't know him and the sailor claimed they had been married two months before he returned from Italy.Mike's dreams were haunting him.



Mike applied for immediate transfer to sea duty.While on a trip to England the following year Mike was lost at sea in a freak accident.Dreams can be deadly.


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