Chapter 22

That evening, after having cocktails in their room, Kathy and Ken went into their bedroom to change. She slipped into the same white dress she had worn a couple of weeks earlier, then went to the closet, took out two dresses on hangers and went to the girls' room. When she entered, she found the Trang sisters only wearing their bikinis as they were about to slip on their uniforms. Kathy vetoed the idea and laid out the two dresses she had brought into the room with her. They were light-blue silk with chiffon skirts like the one she was wearing. Although the dresses had full backs to cover the girl's scars, the neckline plunged down to their navels.

The girls didn't know what to make of it, but slipped them on anyway. When they did, Kathy realized that the girls were innately very modest in spite of their behavior with Ken and herself. She assured them that their tits were now more than large enough and firm enough to keep the tops in place. After they were reassured, Kathy spent time carefully brushing their dark wavy hair. Then, insisting that they sit still, she very carefully applied lipstick and then put a white carnation behind Marie's ear and a red one behind Celeste's.

The girls were puzzled, but all Kathy would do was grin and say it was essential that they look as pretty as they could; with a grin she added that the different colored flowers were to enable her to tell them apart.

At dinner that night, Jerry Smith and The Swing Band were again present and playing. On this occasion Ali and Bill Clifford had joined the Carlsons and Conroys at the same table they had before: at the edge of the dance floor immediately in front of the bandstand.

Kathy spent much of the time at dinner teasing the other two women about being twins. They were the same height and weight, similar in age, and both were blue-eyed, golden-haired blondes. After dinner, Ali excused herself and went up to the bandstand where she introduced herself to Jerry and asked if she could make an announcement. He winked and called for a fanfare.

When he had the people's attention, he introduced himself and the band. Then he said, "Tonight, we have a rare privilege: As those of you who were here with us a couple of weeks ago know, we again have with us Ken and Kathy Carlson who are honeymooning here at Kapalua. I told you that night how Ken saved my life in Vietnam. Well, as I also told you, after being wounded I was evacuated back to the hospital at Clark Air Force Base in the Philippines. It was at Clark that I met the person who is with us here tonight.

"Vietnam was not a very popular war in Hollywood. There were some obvious exceptions — Bob Hope, for example. But a number of the names — Jane Fonda comes to mind — were spending their time in Hanoi. There was one notable exception, though, and her name is Ali McGrath. Frankly, many of us thought she was spending more time with the troops in Vietnam than she was in Hollywood — maybe that's part of the reason why her movie career cratered."

While he was talking, Jerry took his wallet out of his pants pocket and then withdrew a small slip of paper that was worn at the edges and discolored — obviously he had carried it with him for years. He continued, "You see, I was in the hospital when a Hollywood celebrity came through to see us. Now ordinarily, the only people the patients see — particularly those who are confined to bed — are the press flacks. The celebrity doesn't want to get his or her hands dirty and normally puts in an appearance in the auditorium or somewhere for the benefit of the staff and the few people who can move around.

"Well, not this woman. You see, the celebrity was Ali McGrath." Unfolding the paper he said, "She gave me this when she visited me in bed that day. It says, 'To Lieutenant Jerry Smith with all my love and best wishes for a full and speedy recovery. My prayers are with you.' It is signed Ali McGrath."

Tears were running down Jerry's cheeks as he continued, "This paper is tear-stained. Why? Because of what she had done just before coming in to see me. A young kid — only nineteen years old — was dying. Do you know what this woman did? I have this from the eyewitness testimony of a nurse who was in the room with them at the time. She stripped off her clothes and got in bed with this dying boy. Then she took his hand and placed it on her breast while she just held him, crooned to him and kissed him."

Now the tears were interfering with Jerry's effort to speak but he went on anyway. "That boy died in her arms. The nurse said what happened afterward was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen. This young woman tenderly closed his eyes, kissed him, and then prayed over his body for the repose of his soul. And you know what else?" Jerry asked rhetorically. "When that boy died, the nurse said he had the most beautiful smile on his face she had ever seen. Why? Because he was already in Heaven! He had Ali McGrath naked in bed with him, loving him."

Jerry shook his head and tried valiantly to clear his throat. Then he said, "All I can say about Ali McGrath is that if she were to go straight to hell, there would not have been a single American trooper in Vietnam who wouldn't go with her and feel honored at being able to keep her company."

Then Jerry looked at Ali, shook his head and said, "Ladies and gentlemen, it is an incredible honor and privilege for me to introduce Allison McGrath Clifford." Shaking his head again he concluded, "There's only one thing I don't understand: How can she look younger today than she did years ago out there? I don't know, but I assure you, she does. Ali?"

Ali's eyes were wet with tears when she took the mike, looked at Jerry reproachfully, and said, "Thank you very much, Jerry. But I really wish you hadn't mentioned that poor boy—"

Speaking into another mike, Jerry interrupted by saying, "Ali, I say again, you put that boy in heaven on earth: You were naked and in his arms. It was the most beautiful thing I have ever heard of."

Then he smiled warmly and said, "Maybe that's the answer to my question: There are enough saints in heaven who are blessing the name, Ali McGrath, and praying to God for you that it has made you younger." He looked at her and said, "Ali, I'm sure that's what's happening. Honest."

Then he added, "That last comment is also typical of Ali McGrath. You see, the Ali stories circulated by word-of-mouth among all the troopers. It seems that Ali spent almost as much time keeping her activities a secret as she spent with the men." Then he looked out at the crowd and said, "I hope it's clear to you by now how much that scrap of paper meant to me ... and still means. All I will say is that if Ali asked me for anything, my answer is an automatic yes, regardless of what the request might be. And that includes giving her my life!"

Ali just shook her head and said, "Good evening, and thank you, Jerry." Then she smiled her sunshine smile at him and said, "You sure look better today than you did the last time I saw you. Between a bandaged shoulder and a leg that looked like the doctors had been using an earthmover to excavate, you didn't look too great." Then she hopped up on the bandstand, took him in her arms and sweetly kissed him full on the lips.

When she hopped down again, Jerry was shaking his head in amazement and said, "Now I would have said that what you all just heard was flat-out impossible. You see, she has it exactly right in describing how I looked that day. Now I want you to remember that when she saw me, she was still crying over the boy who had just died in her arms. Nevertheless — and in spite of the thousands of men she visited — she really remembered me. And that was many years ago, besides." With a brilliant smile he finished, "Now I guess you see why we love her so. Anyway ... Ali?"

She smiled at him and winked, then speaking into the cordless mic she said, "I'm here tonight wearing a different hat. You see, among my other jobs, I am the managing trustee of the William Harrison Clifford Foundation, and tonight I'm here in that capacity."

Looking around the room she said, "Would Marie and Celeste Trang please come up to the stage?"

The two sisters didn't know what was happening but they came up to the stage from where they had been standing in the back corner of the room. As they came forward, a man wearing judicial robes also approached the microphone from the side.

When the girls were standing in front of Ali, she asked, "Marie and Celeste, I have heard that you very much want to become American citizens. Is that true?" The girls were utterly shocked and could only nod in unison. Then Ali said, "Girls, it is my honor to present Judge Thomas Driscoll, a justice of the United States Court of Appeals for the 9^th Circuit. Judge Driscoll?"

The judge looked at the two girls and smiled warmly. Then he said, "Marie and Celeste Trang, would you please raise your right hands."

The girls did and the judge administered the citizenship oath of allegiance. The girls were dumbstruck but were able to correctly respond. When they finished taking the oath, he took out a pen, signed the two naturalization certificates, gave them to the girls and departed. The girls were so amazed, they were rooted to the spot unable to move.

Then Ali said, "Girls, it has come to my attention that you are saving all your money in hopes that you may be able to save enough to be able to attend law school. Is that correct?" All the girls could do was to nod in unison.

Ali smiled her sunshine smile and said, "Wonderful! It is now my great honor to award you both William Harrison Clifford Fellowships. The fellowships pay for tuition, fees, expenses, room, board and incidentals for your three years of law school. You have been admitted as first-year students at the Law School of University of Southern California in the class convening in just three weeks. Congratulations! It couldn't happen to two more deserving people!" With that Ali jumped down from the stage and kissed each of the girls in turn, then returned to the table and sat down. The girls were left standing at the bandstand.

Marie and Celeste looked at each other, then asked Jerry for a microphone. Marie acted as the spokeswoman for the pair. "We don't know what to say. You see, two dreams of ours have just come true. First, we are now citizens of the United States. Second, we will be going to law school in just a couple of weeks."

Tears began to roll down her cheeks as she continued, "You see, Mrs. Clifford is right. We have been saving all our money for school. Frankly, we never even hoped we could go to a school like USC. It seems that the tuition increases every year just about equal the money we saved in the same period of time. We were losing, in effect. Now suddenly, our dream has come true.

"The first thing we must do is to thank Kenneth and Katherine Carlson. You see, as many of you heard a couple of weeks ago, Mr. Carlson saved us from death in Vietnam. Just a short time ago they restored us to life. Now Mrs. Clifford has made a dream of ours come true."

With a grin she looked at Ali and said, "Mrs. Clifford, Mrs. Carlson has told us so much about your law firm, Clifford & Jamison. For that reason I intend to specialize in tax law while Celeste specializes in corporate law. We have been told that your firm does not have specialists in either area. Moreover, it is our intention to be at the very top of our class so you will seriously consider our applications for employment in your firm."

Before she could say anything further, Ali was out of her chair and running back to the stage. Taking the microphone she said, "Marie, nothing could possibly make me happier or more proud than to have you and your sister join our firm. Consider yourselves to have standing offers of employment."

Marie just shook her head and said, "For those of you who do not know it, Mrs. Clifford is also the managing partner of the law firm of Clifford & Jamison, considered by most to be the finest law firm on the Pacific coast." Then with a grin she added, "And it's all women, by the way."

She whispered something to Jerry Smith who quickly nodded, then she nodded to Celeste and said, "I can't tell you how pleased and proud we are right now. We are now Americans! If you don't mind, we would like to sing a song for you. It was written by another immigrant to the United States who made good as a song writer. Although it is not his real name, he is best known by his pen name, Irving Berlin."

With that she and Celeste began to sing God Bless America. It was the most beautiful and fervent rendition anyone present had ever heard. It rang out as a prayer from the two young women. When they concluded, there was silence for a few moments and then intense cheering.

When the applause died down Marie continued, "Many years ago, a great American, Abraham Lincoln, said, 'A house divided against itself cannot stand.' Further, he said in reference to our country at that time, 'We cannot long continue half slave and half free.' A great war was fought as a result — more American lives were lost than in any other in our nation's history. The result? The nation was no longer divided: It was entirely free. With your permission, Celeste and I would like to sing a song from that period with the prayer that Vietnam, our native country, will also soon be free..."

With that, the two girls began to sing a capella, "Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord..." Although the band had no music for The Battle Hymn of the Republic, they were individually very gifted musicians. At first the drummer came in with a quiet snare drum roll under the girls. Then a quiet trumpet joined in.

When they reached the first chorus, Jerry said softly into his mike, "Please all join in on the chorus."

By this time all of the people present were on their feet and singing, "Glory, glory, hallelujah..." and yet in spite of the hundreds of people singing, the girls crystal-clear soprano voices were soaring over everyone. When they reached the last verse, there was almost total silence as the girls sang, "As He died to make men holy, let us fight to make men free ... His truth is marching on!" By this time the entire band was into it. There was a blare of trumpets and a roll of drums as they swung into the chorus with the entire room singing, "Glory, glory, hallelujah..."

When the song ended there was silence for long moments and then another thunderous burst of applause and cheering. When it finally died down, Marie said, "We would like to sing one more song, if we may. This we dedicate to our saviors, Katherine and Kenneth Carlson. It is a song usually associated with Thanksgiving. Well, tonight is our night of thanksgiving, and particularly we must give thanks to them." With that the two girls sang, "We gather together to ask the Lord's blessing. We hasten and chasten his will to make known..."

When the girls finished, there was just another stunned silence as the people soaked up the beautiful, heartfelt song they had just heard.

As they remained in silence, Ken quickly got to his feet and went to the stage. He kissed the two girls lovingly and took the microphone from them before they fled back to the corner of the room.

"A short time ago you heard from Jerry who met Ali McGrath at Clark. I also saw her in Vietnam. I'll never forget it. You see, normally the Stateside entertainers could only handle good weather — and that's assuming they could find their way out of Saigon. Not many did. Well, one day we heard that Ali McGrath was going to be at a particular forward base that was never visited by entertainers. When we heard she was coming, we had less than one day to cover over thirty miles through the jungle to be there, but for my men, with the incentive of seeing Ali McGrath in person, thirty miles was a piece of cake.

"Unfortunately, when we arrived at the base, it was raining. And it just rained harder and harder and harder ... I was sure that the evening was going to be a washout — our forced march was turning into a waste of time and energy.

"Then this beautiful blonde girl appears. There was no band, no supporting entertainers, no MC ... No nothing! The rest of the troupe — if there was a troupe — stayed inside somewhere where it was dry. But she comes out carrying a cordless mic and wearing a poncho. Do you know what she does next? She strips it off. All she's wearing is a pair of short shorts and a tee shirt which is almost instantly soaked. She's walking in the deep mud barefooted. Do you know what she does? She jokes about entering a wet-T-shirt contest and says she normally could never make the grade because she's so flat-chested, but since she was the only female for miles, maybe she could win one that night.

"It's Ali McGrath, of course. What does she do? She stays there for three solid hours in the pouring rain. I'll never forget her jokes about her hair. Of course, although her hair was soaking wet and plastered to her head, all it did was to show its natural wave even more. The show? There was no show. All she did was to go around with the portable mic and talk to GIs."

Ken shook his head and said, "A short time ago, Jerry said that the guys over there would follow Ali McGrath to hell. He sure got that one right! And he was also right when he said they would consider it a rare privilege to be able to keep her company!"

Then Ken grinned and said, "Would you believe it? I only found out this afternoon that my wife works for this woman. She really does. At any rate, I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate my wife on her brilliant victory in the tournament today." Looking at Kathy he said, "Honey, please come up and take a bow."

Kathy came up and at the same time Hank Wellington joined them at the microphone. He announced that the resort — along with Lloyd's of London — was presenting Kathy with a silver tea and coffee service. He went on to explain that the reason Lloyd's was participating in the gift was that they insured Chrysler Corporation which, in turn, had a standing award of one million dollars to anyone who shot a hole-in-one on-camera in a televised golf tournament. Of course, Kathy had won, but, as an amateur, could not accept the money.