Chapter 1

THE PAST

I drifted in the dark, quiet place for a very long time...

Or it could have been just a few seconds.

It depends on how you define time.

That continued until...

Something Changed...

After God only knows how long in limbo, my mind began to assimilate facts and information. Instead of being some kind of cosmic hitchhiker, drifting in eternity, my ... my ... well ... my essence, or my being ... my intelligence, if nothing else, was suddenly forming around a destination.

The boundaries of time are only finite to the living. When you’re dead you go wherever your mind takes you, or the universe sends you. I’d been there and done that often enough to know.

Now that I was something instead of formless and meaningless, I couldn’t wait to see where the universe was taking me. The pictures that exploded across my brain were too jerky and unconnected to mean much, but eventually I sensed that I was going backwards instead of sideways. Images of things past blurred into focus just long enough to make an impression on me, and the impression was that I was retreating into the past as things began to slow down.

When the universe slowed my retreat long enough for me to take stock of the setting, I could see that I’d been sent much further back than the two other trips. It was clearly the 1940’s - wherever I was - and it was a very hot day.

When I realized that there were Christmas carols playing on an old radio and that the air was sticky and humid to go along with hot. I wondered if I was just dreaming. In my deadness it was possible - even likely - that I could hallucinate? Old time Christmas carols, played by an orchestra, in the middle of summer, qualified as a serious hallucination.

A beautiful woman momentarily blocked the sun that was heating my face. Her jet black hair gleamed in the golden rays. Her lips were heavily coated with far too much lipstick, but even so, I really wanted to kiss those lips...

So I did.

She tasted like Juicy Fruit gum.

Do they still make Juicy Fruit?

Did they even make Juicy Fruit in the 1940’s?

This dish was the perfect spokeswomen for the brand. Everything about her was juicy. My hands itched to take her to a bedroom, lock the door, and spend a month discovering her every secret.

She smiled when she knew I was awake and at least partially alert. When a strange man kisses you with enough passion to cause you to forget the date, it must mean he is awake enough to speak.

So she tried.

“Hey ... are you ok? That was some spectacular entrance.” Her voice was gentle and soft, like her body. The sound washed over me like a refreshing rain on a humid day. The vision in my vision was ... lovely. Her hair was sleek and full, just touching her soft, round, shoulders. Her skin was unblemished, nor beaten by weather. Her body seemed to be cloaked in perfect porcelain. I wanted to hold her instead of answer.

Surprising us both, I found my voice. “What happened? I seem to be a little confused.”

That made her smile deepen and her cheeks redden up a bit. This angel looked around the room we were in, it was some kind of dining room, or diner, and flicked her head towards the front door. “That ... BRUTE tried to pull my blouse off and when you told him to knock it off and leave, his three friends attacked you.

“It was like some kind of miracle when you grabbed the nearest chair, tore off the leg and used it like a crowbar to make them stop. When that big ugly one fell over the counter and smashed his head, they all helped him up and ran out, but you were really hurt. I mean, you looked dead when I first checked you for a pulse. I can’t ... I don’t ... it isn’t like you should even be alive, much less speaking and moving around. They really hurt you...”

She was lovely when she was scared.

My instinct was to take her in my arms and make the fear go away. So I did. She still tasted like Juicy Fruit. I could grow to love that gum. The woman made no attempt to shove me away, or cringe at my forwardness, so I held her while she shook the last of the adrenaline out of her system, making no attempt to get too intimate.

We would have stayed that way a long time had another young woman not intruded on our stolen moment. “Claire? Clair? We need to get going. We’re due at the base in thirty minutes.” She was just as young, pretty, but in a more girl-next-door kind of way. Clair – now that I knew her name – was stunning ... absolutely stunning.

The urgency in her voice told me that this little rendezvous was about to break up, so I pulled myself up to a sitting position and surveyed the situation.

My new body was tall and lean. The muscle tone on this guy was impressive. Running my hand across my brow I found a very short haircut, bordering on a crew cut. There was just enough reflection in the diner window to get a glimpse of myself, and I wasn’t ugly, so maybe I had a shot with Clair.

The sudden movement made me a little dizzy, and Clair grabbed my arm to steady me. She used it to steer me into the nearest booth and asked the man behind the counter for a glass of ice water, which he fetched immediately. The diner was truly out of the forties, as were the outfits worn by the two girls.

A quick glance told me I was dressed in some kind of military tan and the clothes fit loosely on me, which made me think I wasn’t officer material. If I was an officer, my uniform should fit like it had been tailored and it wasn’t ... didn’t ... fit that way ... I mean.

Clair stood over me protectively while I sipped the water she handed over. The coolness was welcomed as the liquid quenched the heat in my throat. I noticed Clair’s hands. They were dainty but strong. She had skin that was almost translucent, it was so white ... and the softness made my teeth hurt from desire. I wanted to taste her from stem to stern, and border to border. My entire body wanted her, and if the smirk in her eyes was any indication, she knew it.

Clair excused herself to go to the restroom and I took that moment to check the wallet in my pants to find out who I was this time. The military identification card informed me that I was Army Lieutenant Phillip Rasmussen and the orders folded neatly inside the front pocket indicated that I was in the Army Air Corps, assigned to Wheeler Field.

As I recalled from high school history, Wheeler was near Pearl Harbor and the Fifteenth Pursuit Group launched twelve fighters to engage the Japanese on December seventh, scoring the several kills on the first day of our direct military involvement in World War Two for the American military.

When Clair came back I asked the pregnant question, “What day is it?”

She smiled like I was a slow first grader and said, “Why Lieutenant, it is Sunday the seventh of December, and if Jenny and I don’t get a move on we will be late for our assignment at the base. Although,” she giggled again and it sounded like beautiful music. “I’ve never been kissed by an officer before ... It was ... it ... well ... It was nice. You are a good kisser, Mister.”

I knew that the universe had a sadistic sense of irony but this was over the top. Somehow the universe sent me back to live through Pearl Harbor Day, and I was going to be right in the middle of it.

“What time is it, please,” I asked feeling scared.

“It’s just about six AM. Why?”

“Are you heading past, or near Wheeler? I really need to get there like RIGHT NOW,” I said with just a bit too much emotion.

Clair smiled. “We are heading to Wheeler. Jenny and I are meeting General Wilson from stateside, to help him and his aides get film for something or another. We are public relations assistants at Wheeler. Come on and we’ll get you to the base right away.”

I didn’t stop to think about how the late Phil Rassmussen got himself to this diner. All I could think about was getting to Wheeler and finding a way to get their planes in the air to meet the Japanese and slow them down long enough to get some of the fleet out to sea where they wouldn’t be sitting ducks. I turned to the counterman, handed him some bills from my wallet for the broken chair, and charged out to a waiting O.D. green jeep.

Clair tossed me the keys and I drove like a madman, following their directions, finally skidding through the front gate of Wheeler just as the air raid sirens began to wail. The girls hopped out and found their General near their three quarter ton truck loaded with their film, camera, and recording devices. He was ready to run for cover, but I convinced him to go with us up the mountain with three fifty caliber machine guns, conveniently located just off to our right, and a large number of ammo boxes that were locked up near the offices. One would think that the universe was providing me all the tools necessary to change history, or at least soften the devastation. On the drive to Wheeler I had seen a tunnel that was situated just right to take on some of the Japanese bombers. My hunch was confirmed when saw them streak over the mountain and swoop down toward Pearl.

There was just enough high school history in me to remember that at least one wave of the Japanese bombers flew in and back out to the Carriers’ right over that mountain. The tunnel faced the harbor. If we set up the guns at the tunnel entrance, we could even the odds up, even if just a little and do it from a relatively safe place. Some of those bastards were going to fly right over us as they approached the naval base.

The General agreed to ride with us, and I had a young corporal load all the ammo and the three .50 caliber machine guns into the three quarter ton truck.

Everywhere on the base people were waking up and trying to make some sense of the attack. I HAD to get up that mountain and bring the heat to those Kate and Val bombers and see how many I could take out of the fight. Clair and Jenny went along for the ride, unwilling to part with their movie cameras and film cassettes. Or maybe they saw and opportunity...

It was early on Sunday morning and there was no traffic to speak of so the trip to the tunnel was mercifully short. The tunnel was quite long, but I only needed to set up to shoot from just inside the south entrance to do some serious damage. The General figured out my strategy, and with the corporal, helped set up the guns in a line, while the girls got their cameras out and operating. The filming they would do was going to be far beyond what the Army expected.

Once the three guns were emplaced and loaded, I grabbed the first one and fired right into the canopy of the first Kate to clear the ridge, as the pilot banked to begin his descent into the harbor. The tracers helped me adjust for drop and wind. The sudden blossom of red inside the canopy told me that I’d scored. That’s when the gravity of the situation hit me.

I’d just changed the course of history. How would my actions change the world from the one I knew into the one that came about because of the changes I was making? The Universe decided to take me out of the world I knew and drop me into the middle of the attack on Pearl Harbor. Any changes I cause will be either absorbed without causing a world ending diversion, or the Universe already planned for them. Either way, it was way above my pay grade.

Far too soon another Kate banked right over us, and I had to scramble to put rounds into the pilot. The first burst missed but a stray round hit the poorly protected fuel tank and the splattered fuel ignited, sending the Kate into the mountainside in a ball of smoke and flame. These bombers came over the ridge in single file to try and avoid detection and ground fire. They came off the carriers in formation but that changed due to topography and common sense. Whatever their reasons, they flew directly into my guns.

So far we were two for two.

There was no way to know how many bombers got there ahead of us but I was determined to burn every single plane that came over that mountain to the ground. The incoming planes seemed to be spaced about a half mile apart which made it hard for the oncoming pilot to see the danger until I was already shooting. The bombers’ rear-facing guns were not designed for ground targets, and that gave me another real advantage for as long as it lasted.

The corporal had been humping ammo boxes to keep me firing, but very suddenly General Wilson was at my shoulder shouting above the din. “You need to rotate to another gun and let this one cool down some. We have three. Use them all, son.” That was great advice, and I moved to gun number two, the center one just in time to kill the pilot of the incoming Zero escort. While I got gun number two into the battle, the corporal took off for more ammo and some other supplies the General thought of as he hurried the young kid into the truck.

“That’s THREE,” Wilson hollered and then shouted to the girls. “I sincerely HOPE you have this all on film!” Claire smiled and gave the General a ‘thumbs up’ sign, calming him down while I took out another Zero.

‘This was all wrong,’ I thought as bombers dropped into the valley and the explosions of their unused load kept up a steady pattern of destruction. ‘These guys should be radioing in and getting a bunch of Zeroes up here to put us all in our graves, instead of flying over the mountain, getting dead and disappearing into the valley jungle far below.’ History was going to look different from what I was taught in school, unless the Universe had it all sorted out ahead fo time.

As I took out more enemy planes, I realized just how bad of a kick the guns were giving off. I knew I needed gloves, but with none to be had, so I tore my shirt into rags and wrapped both hands to save as much skin as possible. I knew that when this day was over my whole body was going to be one big ache. I already felt like I’d been working out for ten hours straight. Everything hurt. Hopefully it will have been worth it.

For over an hour, one Jap after another cleared the ridge above and behind us, only to find the last thing they expected to see. Ahead of them, littering the hillside was the wreckage of their comrades, immediately followed by their canopy being ripped to shreds or fuel exploding, as I poured fifty-caliber Hell into them from behind. It was a bit like shooting ducks frozen in a pond and I knew they would send some kind of attack at us to shut us down.

“General,” I shouted above the noise. “Unless I miss my guess, our enemies are going to send a squad of Zeroes at us from below to take us out of the fight. You need to move the ladies and your cameras out of direct sight, so the only thing the Japs see is the fire from one gun.”