A Message For All Time

A Message For All Time

A Novel by

Donald Hancock

Smashwords Edition

Copyright © 2011 by Donald Hancock

Copyright By Donald C. Hancock © 2002-2011

Helium, Inc.

All rights reserved.

133133

Smashwords Edition License Notes

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Introduction

It is with great pleasure that I introduce you to Richard and Gloria. They are the primary characters of a little short story that just seemed too expansive to remain a short story. There was too much to see and do and the short story just would not stand still for it.

I enjoy writing on an authors’ site called Helium. The story about the message for all time was first posted there, and it just seemed to shout to become more than a short story. It is a story of the patriotism that springs from living through a world war. It is a story of compassion felt for those who suffered loss during that war. There is a relationship between a single mother and her son that is inspiring to observe. And there is a romance between two people who had given up hope of having marital bliss after the death of their former spouse.

So, here is what it has become in its full growth. I hope that you will be as captured by the beginning chapter as I was. I gratefully acknowledge the help of my wife, Finetta, in proof reading each page and in encouraging me during the writing process. I would also like to thank the following friends who read my story and made helpful comments. Dorothy Ashe, Tom Carpenter, Chris Lupica, Marcia Scaggs, Heidi Piester, Kat Apf, and Patty Padgett.

I have enjoyed the writing of my first novel and I must say that the characters really did take on a life of their own and I awoke each morning with the ideas for the next chapter. I was not sure what they were going to do until they did it! Donald Hancock. September 2010. Augusta, Georgia.

A Message For All Time By Donald Hancock

Table Of Contents

Chapter 1. A Message Found

Chapter 2. After All These Years

Chapter 3. A First Success

Chapter 4. Pain From Having Loved

Chapter 5. Telling Jim’s Clara

Chapter 6. A Day Of Rest

Chapter 7. A Door Opens

Chapter 8. Getting Ready

Chapter 9. Meeting Sir Thomas

Chapter 10. Remembering

Chapter 11. Another Good Bye

Chapter 12. A Spark

Chapter 13. The Arrival

Chapter 14. The Appointment

Chapter 15. A Day On The Ocean

Chapter 16. A ‘Chemistry’ Is Recognized

Chapter 17. A Team Is Born

Chapter 18. Temporary Tourists

Chapter 19. A Revelation

Chapter 20. A Little Child Shall Lead Them

Chapter 21. A Decision Is Made

Chapter 22. First Kiss

Chapter 23. Sweet and Sour

Chapter 24. Mayday, Mayday, Mayday

Chapter 25. A Royal Welcome

Chapter 26. Bless You

Chapter 27. Unfinished Business

Chapter 28. Going Home

Chapter 29. Follow Your Dream

Chapter 30. The Wedding

Epilogue

Chapter 1. A Message Found

Richard was celebrating his 17th birthday. It was Friday, July 16, 1954. He and his mother, Gloria, were staying for the week end at a cottage, owned by a friend, at Brighton Beach on the southern coast of England. On this marvelous afternoon He could hardly contain himself as he rowed his little boat to shore. He had found the proverbial message in a bottle. He was afraid to try to open it in the boat for fear that he might damage the message. The bottle seemed obviously very old. The cork seal also seemed somewhat primitive by modern standards.

When he had secured his boat he put the bottle in his back pack, jumped on his bike, and headed for the cottage. As he ran into the house he yelled, Mom! Mom! Wait ‘til you see what I found! Richard went to the kitchen table, the center of all things important in his family’s tradition. He put down some newspapers and placed the bottle under the strong table light. He had difficulty with the cork at first but found a cork screw and got it free in a few minutes. He tried to dump the message but it, being rolled up, had unrolled and expanded. It would not come out without persuasion. He gingerly fished it out with some long eyebrow tweezers and carefully unrolled the brittle paper onto the table.

He read the following note to his mother. I write these words to no one special. I have no family, except for one. But somehow it makes dying easier if you say some sort of last words. I don’t expect anybody to find this so I write it as a statement to the ‘cloud of witnesses’ that the Bible says is watching me. I am floating in a little rubber life raft. The supplies aboard have long ago been used up, except for this bit of paper and pencil and a bottle that I saved. My ship went down from a German sub. Most of my buddies went down with the ship.

Three of us found this dinghy. The other two, Bob Swithers and Melvin Dorster, have already died from exposure and, I think, loss of hope. We have counted twenty days. I am Jim Stark of London. I am very weak and feel that my time can be a matter of minutes or hours at the most.

I want to say that I hope that what we are trying to do to turn Hitler around will work. I hope that peace will some day come back to the England that I love. But I want the world to know that, no matter who wins this war, I, Jim Stark, believe that freedom will win over tyranny wherever the two may meet. Freedom has within its own seed the fruit of triumph, and tyranny likewise has within its own seed the fruit of failure. God and the nature of life will see to that.

And so I die with full confidence that my dying alone on this drifting sea is not in vain and I will watch the inevitable victory march of human freedom from some grand stand seat among my buddies, somewhere up there. Know that I die in full hope of living again. Love to all, Jim Stark, March, 1942.

As Richard finished these words, he felt the tears welling up in his eyes. The tears surprised him at first and then

he found himself thinking of several things about this experience that was affecting him in such a powerful way.

He realized that no one else in the whole world had seen these dying words of a man who thought he was speaking only to Heaven. Just he and his mother had been afforded the privilege. He was also reliving the poignancy of those war torn years and what they had meant to England and to the whole world. He was only four years old when this was written, but he had heard about these war years all of his life. And the pathos and suffering that was reflected in the note was, by itself, enough to bring tears to the eyes of anyone.

Richard’s mother saw his tears and loved him even more for it. She knew his tender heart from his earliest days and always felt grateful that he had somehow inherited it from her own. They were both quiet for a long time, as though even a word spoken might dishonor the beauty of what they had just heard.

His mother finally broke the spell and said that she was wondering about how these men felt during those last days. Richard raised the question of the suffering that the loved ones had gone through during all of these years, not knowing anything about what had happened to these men. Their families might not even know for certain that they are dead – only that they are missing in action.

Richard went over the names again, Bob Swithers, Melvin Dorster, and Jim Stark. "You know, Mom, we know that Jim Stark lived right here in London. He said he just had one living relative, and of course, we don’t know from what he said whether that was a mother or wife, or just what. But , you know what. I feel somehow that I owe it to Jim and to that one relative, whoever it was, to let them know what I found in this bottle today.

It’s been twelve years but their loved ones could easily still be alive. Maybe it would help them to hear these words that we have just read. It is almost like, if I didn’t try to find them and share this message with them, I would be letting those guys down."

Richard’s mother said, "Son, I think you are right. In fact I feel very strongly that you need to find out if the other two men had relatives too. I am pretty sure they were from some where in England if not right here in London. I think we should write a letter to the Navy and see if we can find out anything at all about all three of them. Who knows what influence this message could have on the people who loved Bob and Melvin, and Jim.

Richard, I will help you in this if you want to tackle it. I can even take off from work if we need to do some traveling to follow up on what we find out from the Navy."

Mom, Let’s do it! I feel like we just have to do it. I don’t think I could live with myself if I didn’t at least try!

Little did Richard and his mom realize how prophetic her statement would prove to be...Who knows what influence this message could have on the people who loved Bob and Melvin and Jim.

Chapter 2. After All These Years

After lunch, that same Friday afternoon, they went to their home in London. They had just one thing in mind – calling the Royal Navy to see what she could find out about the writer of the message and his two friends. She looked for any information that she could find in the Government section of the London telephone book. There was a listing for the Royal Navy and she immediately dialed the number.

Gloria explained that she would like to speak with someone who could talk with her about persons who were missing in action during World War II. There was a long pause and then the operator said, This is a most unusual request, Mum, but I will do my very best to find someone to help you. Please be patient with me, because the process might take some time. Could I call you back? Yes, of course and Gloria gave her home telephone number. OK, said the operator – please know that I will do my best but I might be calling a dozen people before I find the right person.

I do appreciate anything you can do, replied Gloria.

As Gloria waited, she rehearsed just what she would say. In about thirty minutes the phone rang and the operator said, Mrs. Parsons?

Yes, this is Gloria Parsons.

Mrs. Parsons, I believe I have someone who can help you. This is Sir Thomas Lawn, retired from the Royal Navy.

Hello, Mrs. Parsons, How may I help you?

Gloria thanked the gentleman and then told him the complete story from the very beginning.

Sir Thomas listened with intense interest and when she finished he cleared his throat and said, What an absolutely marvelous story you have, Mrs. Parsons. Let me say that, ordinarily, the sort of information that you need can only be given to family members, but this is such an unusual set of circumstances that I promise I will help you if at all possible. So, we have three names – again, that is primarily Jim Stark, then Bob Swithers and Melvin Dorster, am I correct?

That is exactly correct, Sir! Gloria was delighted that this person was obviously listening closely.

Sir Thomas continued. Now, also, we do have some parameters concerning the sinking of the ship. The message was dated March, 1942, and Mr. Stark said that they had counted 20 days in their life boat. So that places the sinking either in February or March of 1942. We can search our records for any ships that were sunk within that time frame and search their lists of occupants.

We can not be absolutely certain that the three were Navy personnel. According to my experience the ship could have been transporting combatants from another service branch. But I will certainly begin with Naval records. Now, Mrs. Parsons, let me remind you that records were all kept in books in those days – no computers. Much of it was done in long hand. There were attempts to preserve all of the records after the war, but we certainly were not 100% successful. I promise you, though, that I will take this on as a high personal priority. I thank you very sincerely for bringing this to our attention.

I can’t tell you how much I appreciate your help, Sir Thomas!

Gloria could hardly wait to tell Richard of her preliminary success! He was overjoyed!

He said, Mom, in the mean time let’s go through the phone book and see how many ‘Starks’, ‘Swithers’, and ‘Dorsters’ we can find. You never can tell. We might just luck up!

They found only three ‘Starks’ and they were surprised at how few. There were five ‘Swithers’, and two ‘Dorsters’. They realized, of course, that marriage might have changed the names of widows and daughters. By the end of the day they had called all of the prospective names and no one recognized any of the three men.

That night, at dinner, Gloria and Richard were both a bit discouraged. Richard said, I guess we’re being silly, Mom. This whole project could take weeks or even months. So there’s no sense at all in getting upset because we struck out on the very first day!

Gloria got up from her chair and came over to Richard’s chair. Son, before your Dad died, he said that you would be the ‘man of the house’. Maybe you and I thought he was just trying to make you feel good. But, you know what? You have become a very mature young man. I really do admire and depend on your wisdom!

Thanks, Mom. You have no idea how good that... Richard could not finish the sentence because of the flood of

emotion. He stood up and they embraced for a long time, enjoying the strong bond that they felt.

As they stood, the phone rang. Hello, Gloria speaks.

"Yes, Mrs. Parsons, This is Thomas Lawn. I do have some preliminary information for you and let me please

emphasize that it is VERY preliminary. There is bad news and good news. The bad news is that there were just two ships sunk in the area during that time frame. One was a troop carrier, The HMS Doubleday, and we have a very complete record of its occupants. None of your three men were on that list. The other ship was a cruiser, the HMS Faraday. We have a partial list of its crew, but we do know that they picked up a partial replacement crew of ten men the week before and the list of those men was lost in the sinking. So your three could certainly have been among that replacement crew."

The good news is that we have found the name of one ‘James E. Stark’ in the Naval records of that period, and his home address IS listed as London. Of course, after all these years this might be a very cold clue. But it IS a beginning!

The address we have is 25 Collingswood. The only name listed as dependent is a Mrs. Woolsey. It does not list what relationship she had to Stark. So that is it so far, Mrs. Parsons. I will keep at it. Please let me know if you have any luck with this address. I am as interested in the outcome as you are. This is a labor of love for me. I was a sailor too in those days!

Oh, thank you so much, Sir Thomas. I can not tell you how much this has helped! Even if this address does not lead us to our goal, it means so much to know you are helping us. We know that, as you said, it has been many years! Keep us informed and we will do the same with you!

Chapter 3. A First Success

Gloria and Richard could hardly wait until the next day to begin their search for the address that Sir Thomas had given them. Then Richard remembered, Blimey! (Blimey was an old expression that his Dad often used and Richard loved to imitate. He and Gloria would always smile at each other when he said it).Blimey! I just remembered that city map that I used for my school project. It has all of London with the streets listed!

He went to the desk in the library and retrieved the map. Gloria brought a magnifying glass and he spread the map out on the kitchen table and turned on the over head light.

Here is the list, let’s see – The C’s. Here it is – Collingswood! It’s still there – C 4. I found it on the map, Mom! Do you have a pencil? OK – let’s circle it so we can find it tomorrow without any trouble. Tomorrow is Saturday! You don’t have to work! We can go after breakfast!

Needless to say, neither Richard nor his mother slept very soundly and they both woke up before daylight. They had an early breakfast, got their baths, and then began the long wait before they could reasonably disturb the occupants of 25 Collingswood Place.

At 8:30 Gloria said, I think we can go now. By the time we get there it will be 9:00. That should be fine.

They drove to the neighborhood with Richard looking at the map and telling Gloria where to turn. As they neared Collingswood Place, Richard said, You know, all Sir Thomas said was ‘Collingswood’. I do hope that Collingswood Place is it. It is definitely the only one by that name listed. So it is either the right one or else the right Collingswood is under some new freeway or parking lot!

No negative thinking on this project, Richard, said Gloria. Here it is – # 25. It is an old house. This could really be it! They went to the door and twisted an old fashioned spring type door bell. Gloria straightened her skirt and blouse. The door opened and an auburn haired woman who appeared to be in her 50’s said, Yes?

Gloria took a deep breath. I am Gloria Parsons and this is my son, Richard. We are looking for anyone who might have known a service man during the war by the name of Jim Stark... Gloria was prepared to give a few more details, but the woman closed her eyes and looked as though she might collapse. Gloria and Richard quickly helped her to a chair on her porch. They each took an adjoining chair and waited until she composed herself.

The woman finally spoke. I knew Jim. What..What do you know about him? Is he alive?

Gloria quietly said, No. I am sorry to say, Jim died at sea as the result of his ship being sunk during the war. Gloria then told the story of the message being found and took out a copy of the message. She gave it to her son to read, knowing that a man’s voice was more appropriate. She also felt that it was Richard’s discovery and he deserved to be the reader. When he had finished there was that same silence that they had experienced when they had first heard the message. The message seemed to carry with it a need for a certain reverence.

After several moments, Gloria said, "when my son and I had finished reading the message, we felt strongly that we should try to find anyone whose heart ache might be relieved by hearing the story. Through the help of a Sir Thomas Lawn, we were able to obtain this address