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Then he saw a lone Zero coming toward him.
It was flying low and following the highway, and after a moment he realized it was targeting the car.
The cannon were in the wings, and there was a good chance they would miss the narrow target of the car, but the m
achine guns were set close together, either side of the engine cowling. That was what the pilot would use if he was smart.
Chuck looked frantically at both sides of the road. There was no hiding place, nothing but cane fields.
He began to zigzag. The approaching pilot sensibly did not attempt to track him. The road was not wide, and if Chuck drove into the cane field the car would be slowed to a walking pace. He stepped on the gas, realizing that the faster he was going the better his chances of not being hit.
Then it was too late for forethought. The plane was so close Chuck could see the round black holes in the wings through which the cannon fired. But, as he had guessed, the pilot opened up with machine guns, and bullets spat dust from the road ahead.
Chuck moved left, to the crown of the road, then instead of continuing left he swerved right. The pilot corrected. Bullets hit the hood. The windscreen smashed. Eddie roared with pain, and in the back one of the women screamed.
Then the Zero was gone.
The car began to zigzag of its own accord. A forward wheel must have been damaged. Chuck fought with the steering wheel, trying to stay on the road. The car slewed sideways, skidded across the tarmac, crashed into the field at the side of the road, and bumped to a stop.
Flames rose from the engine, and Chuck smelled gasoline.
"Everybody out!" Chuck yelled. "Before the fuel tank blows!" He opened his door and leaped out. He yanked open the rear door and his father jumped out, pulling his mother along. Chuck could see the others getting out on the far side. "Run!" he shouted, but it was superfluous. Eddie was already heading into the cane field, limping as though wounded. Woody was half-pulling, half-carrying Joanne, who also seemed to have been hit. His parents charged into the field, apparently unhurt. He joined them. They all ran a hundred yards, then threw themselves flat.
There was a moment of stillness. The sounds of planes had become a distant buzz. Glancing up, Chuck saw oily smoke from the harbor rising thousands of feet into the air. Above that, the last few high-level bombers were heading away to the north.
Then there was a bang that stunned his eardrums. Even with closed eyes he saw the bright flash of exploding gasoline. A wave of heat passed over him.
He lifted his head and looked back. The car was ablaze.
He jumped to his feet. "Mama! Are you okay?"
"Miraculously unhurt," she said coolly as his father helped her up.
He scanned the field and spotted the others. He ran to Eddie, who was sitting upright, clutching his thigh. "Are you hit?"
"Hurts like fuck," Eddie said. "But there's not much blood." He managed a grin. "Top of my thigh, I think, but no vital organs damaged."
"We'll get you to the hospital."
At that moment Chuck heard a terrible noise.
His brother was crying.
Woody was weeping not like a baby but like a lost child: a loud, sobbing noise of utter wretchedness.
Chuck knew immediately that it was the sound of a broken heart.
He ran to his brother. Woody was on his knees, his chest shaking, his mouth open, his eyes running with tears. There was blood all over his white linen suit, but he was not wounded. Between sobs he moaned: "No, no."
Joanne lay on the ground in front of him, faceup.
Chuck could see right away that she was dead. Her body was still and her eyes were open, staring at nothing. The front of her gaily striped cotton dress was soaked with bright red arterial blood, already darkening in patches. Chuck could not see the wound but he guessed she had taken a bullet to the shoulder that had opened her axillary artery. She would have bled to death in minutes.
He did not know what to say.
The others came and stood by him: Mama, Papa, and Eddie. Mama knelt on the ground beside Woody and put her arms around him. "My poor boy," she said, as if he were a child.
Eddie put his arm around Chuck's shoulders and gave him a discreet hug.
