Under the Blood-Red Sun by Graham Salisbury Page A

clinging to her neck.
    “Japanese
planes, Mama … We’re being bombed! We’ve got to get rid of the flag.… Grampa took it out to the field and waved it. Someone might have
seen.”
    Mama squinted up, raised a hand to her eyes. “That’s just army planes … like always.…”
    “No
, Mama … They’re bombing … down by Pearl Harbor! We saw from the trees.”
    Two planes banked overhead, the red suns striking down like hot stones. Mama stared at them. It suddenly all made sense to her.
“Bury
it,” she said, her eyes wide with fear. “Bury that flag.” She ran inside the house and brought back Grampa’s photograph of the emperor. “Bury this too.… Go! Now!”
    Grampa ran to get a shovel. Billy and I dove under the house and managed to dig a hole with our hands. Lucky’s puppies surrounded us. Billy shoved them out of the way. They came back, and Billy put them in the pen.
    When we came out from under the house, Grampa was standing in the yard with the shovel. He gave us a sorrowful look, then walked away, slowly, out to the jungle.
    More planes circled overhead. They leveled out and sped away. The ships in the harbor had to be nothing but melting steel by now.
    Down by the grocery store you could still see a blur of smoke from the explosion, an ugly smudge in the sky.
    “I gotta get home,” Billy said, squinting up at it. “Quick! Maybe Charlie’s picking this up on his radio.”
    We started to run off, but Mama called to me. “Tomi, you find out, then you come home.…”
    Kimi peeked up at the sky and started clawing at Mama’s arms.
    “Tomi!”
Mama yelled. “Run!” She covered Kimi’s head with her hand and ran back into the house. Another fighter thundered in from behind me and Billy, coming right at us.
    Kimi was screaming inside the house.
    I fell to the dirt and covered my head. So did Billy. Machine guns started spitting, the
bop-bop-bop-bop-bop
jabbing down. I cringed. Squeezed into a ball.
    But the plane flew past.
    I peeked up and saw it drop lower as it headed up the valley, shooting at something near the cemetery. Billy and I leaped up and ran after it, trying to catch a last glimpse. The fighter dropped even lower, then disappeared below the treetops, guns still wailing. Seconds later, it shot back up into the sky.
    The air smelled like gunpowder. So much was happening, it made me dizzy. Little stars exploded in my eyes. I shook them away and took a deep breath. My arms started stinging, and I looked at them. Long, thin red lines of dried blood. I must have scratched them coming down the tree.
    “Come on,” Billy said. “Charlie’s radio!”
    I got up and ran toward the jungle, following Billy. Behind us, Kimi’s terrified screams filled the air. I stumbled through the bushes, the trees. I kept running, but not thinking. All I asked was to stay on my feet, to follow Billy and be stronger than my rubbery bones. “Papa,” I heard myself call. “Papa …”

Jackhammers
    Billy’s shirt floated ahead of me like a ghost. Planes kept droning on, out of sight above the trees. We were all going to
die!
They were going to bomb the whole island, bomb everything!
    Thoomp, thoomp, thoomp …
    “Billy!” I called. But he didn’t stop running. Green and yellow colors shot through the spaces in the trees, coming down like diamonds from the sun, everything spinning, spinning, spinning.…
    “Tomi,” Charlie said, his hand suddenly on my shoulder. “Tomi, you okay?” He shook me. Billy was there too. He stared at me with his mouth slightly open.
    “Tomi.” Charlie squeezed my shoulder.
    “I’m okay,” I said. “I’m … I’m …”
    “Come inside.” Charlie pulled me into the house. Mylegs were trembling. Billy put his hand on my back and followed me.
    “This is no maneuver.…”
    The voice on Charlie’s radio was tinny. Lots of static.
    “This is the real McCoy!”
    Charlie leaned forward, sitting on the edge of a chair. He kept his fingers on the dial, like he was