The Autumn of '44
an excerpt

He took her hand and they made their way over to the dance floor to join the other couples. The band was playing a fast, energetic swing piece, which was Tabitha's favourite sort of music to dance to.
“I'm Jake Cerulean,” he said. “What's your name?”
“Tabitha. Tabitha Morrow,” she answered.
“Pleased to meet you, Tabitha Morrow,” he said. “I love how the green in your dress brings out the blue in your eyes. It really makes you look quite stunning.”
Tabitha blushed. She'd been called pretty in the past, but stunning? Never. Stunning was a word for movie stars, not girls like her.
“Um, thank you,” she replied, hoping he didn't notice how taken aback she was by his compliment.
“So what do you do, Tabitha? Are you in school?”
“Um, no, well I mean, I just graduated. So I'm, um, between schools right now, I guess you could say. I start at Vassar in September. For now I'm working on a farm for the Women's Land Army.” She could feel herself speaking more quickly than she should be but couldn't seem to do anything about it. Why should she be so nervous? Just dancing and talking with a boy, what was the big deal about that? She realized she should probably ask about him. “Um, what do you do?”
“I'm an artist. But my day job is working at an ad agency. Please don't think badly of me for that!” He laughed.
She laughed too. “I won't. I know everybody needs to be able to pay the bills. That's so interesting that you're an artist. What sort of art do you do?”
“Sculpture, mostly. I paint a little when I have the time. Right now I'm working on a life-size bronze horse.”
“Wow, that sounds really great!” Tabitha exclaimed. “I love animals. I'm having so much fun working with them on the farm.” She found herself becoming more and more intrigued by him.
“Well, hopefully it will end up being great. It better, because I have an offer for it from a gallery in New York. I don't think they'd be too happy if it turned out to be mediocre.”
“That's impressive,” Tabitha said sincerely.
“So tell me more about you. What do you want to study at Vassar? What are your plans?”
“History, I'm not sure what yet. I'm really interested in the medieval and Renaissance period. I'm supposed to be getting a copy of the catalogue soon so I can decide what classes I might be interested in.”
“Ah, very good. I went to Columbia and studied art for a year and a half, but then I dropped out. I got pretty disenchanted with the whole college thing. Too much learning what other people thought, too little doing your own thinking. But best of luck to you, of course.”
They both fell silent after that, and Tabitha took a moment to really study him. She had to admit he was handsome, with those glimmering dark-brown eyes and dimples. He reminded her just a little bit of Cary Grant, with his hair cut fashionably in that style.. He had a jagged scar on his left cheek that she resisted the urge to ask him about, fearing it was too personal. And she did really like his pinstriped suit. She was, against her better judgment, finding herself quite intrigued by this loquacious, artistic, poetry-quoting stranger. He definitely wasn't what she usually thought of as her “type,” that being clean-cut, rather quiet, studious sorts of boys that basically reminded her of herself, which he certainly did not, but something about the way he talked to her and the dancing and the dimples and the way her dress made her “stunning” and the fact that it was a beautiful night of her last summer at home all mixed and conspired together and made her want to be even more adventurous. It had been a long time since she'd gone out dancing, and even longer since she'd been really captivated by a boy. It was a nice feeling, but she tried not to let it go to her head too much. They had only just met, after all.