Lovely War

James compliments Hazel on her playing and they introduce themselves. James asks Hazel to dance; she is replaced at the piano by her friend Mabel, who notices the attraction between the two and wants Hazel to dance. Aphrodite watches the action and encourages the two young lovers. She is surprised that Mabel can see her; Aphrodite is invisible to most humans, although she can affect their thoughts and behaviors. James and Hazel dance intimately, their attraction clear. James asks if he can see Hazel again. He must report to duty in a week, and he will be sent to the front line in France after initial training. Hazel gives James her address. She surprises them both by kissing him on the cheek.

As Hazel’s father walks her home, she reflects on kissing James, wondering why she did it and feeling embarrassed and overwhelmed. Her father is happy to know that she danced, believing that she deserves to have fun with young people, rather than always spending time with her parents. However, he warns her against falling in love with a soldier.

Meanwhile, James wonders why Hazel kissed him. He agonizes over whether it was more of a sisterly gesture, or a patriotic thank-you for his upcoming service. He desperately hopes that it was romantic. Knowing Hazel’s address, he decides to walk past her house on his way home.

Hazel, in her nightdress in bed, restlessly thinks of James and of the war. She hopes that he won’t be injured or killed. She doesn’t initially notice the figure on the street corner below her bedroom.

James finds Hazel’s flat above the barber shop called the King’s Whiskers. He looks up into the window and sees her leaning against it, her long hair out.

The action returns to the Manhattan hotel room, where Ares condemns the tale as “dull as dirt” (35). He predicts the rest of the romance, which he guesses will fulfill various stereotypes about wartime love and end in tragedy. Hephaestus silences his brother and urges his wife to continue telling her tale.

Aphrodite directs Hazel’s gaze down to the street below, where she sees James; he waves and then hurries away.

James castigates himself, embarrassed, for looking up into Hazel’s window. He is walking away when he hears Hazel’s window open. Turning around, he watches as she throws something white onto the pavement. Retrieving the note, he reads that she wants to meet for coffee at 8 a.m. tomorrow.

Both young people have trouble sleeping and are extremely nervous the next morning. James paces the street in front of the coffee shop until 8 a.m. He enters and waits. Hazel doubles back numerous times on her way to the coffee shop, debating whether to meet James or not. Eventually, she arrives. They greet each other. Aphrodite, in the form of a waitress, seats the couple. They order cake. Through halting conversation, they convey that they are glad to see each other again.

James and Hazel ask each other questions. Aphrodite is aware of the unspoken questions. Hazel asks, “What made you go to the dance last night, where you didn’t know anyone?” Secretly she thinks, “Imagine if you hadn’t” (44). James asks, “Do you always play piano at dances?” He secretly thinks, “Or do you dance with other lads?” (44).

Hephaestus watches his wife as she tells her story. He’s shocked by her emotion in recounting the tale of the two mortals. He considers that love is Aphrodite’s work in the same way that melding and mastering heat and iron are his work. He also reflects that, had he wanted a loyal wife, he could have chosen a different goddess, such as Hestia.

James and Hazel walk together after their coffee date. Hazel admits that she hasn’t told her parents about him. They joke and hold hands. He kisses her forehead. James invites Hazel to the Sunday concert at the Royal Albert Hall.

James walks Hazel home. They arrange to meet the following day for the concert. Hazel tells James that she plays the organ at her local church on Sunday mornings; the previous organist was killed in France. They plan to meet afterward. James almost kisses Hazel but then does not.

Hazel returns home and practices her piano. James has lunch with his uncle. Hazel goes to town hall that night with her father, who plays the piano there. He plays popular music. In one set, performers in blackface dance and sing to her father’s tunes. Hazel can tell her father disapproves of this; after the set, he says that he is a coward because he doesn’t quit in protest, but their family needs the money. He tells Hazel to “be braver than I’ve been” (56).

Aphrodite calls her first witness, Apollo. He is handsome and lithely muscular, dressed provocatively in a zoot suit, a necktie, and a fedora. He enters the hotel room. Ares tells Apollo that Aphrodite is explaining why Love loves War; Aphrodite snaps that that’s not the question at all. The male gods discuss the beauty of destructive force: Apollo references the Spanish flu, which he unleashed, and Hephaestus is Mount Vesuvius. Aphrodite says that she summoned Apollo to tell his part of a story.

James Reese Europe’s Clef Club Orchestra performs a “Concert of Negro Music” to a sellout crowd. The performers, including 15-year-old Aubrey Edwards, are extremely nervous. The music “explodes that night in New York” (63). The concert receives rave reviews and is discussed for years to come. Aubrey falls in love with performing. Apollo hears his wish to perform every night for the rest of his life and grants it. This wish will bring Aubrey to France—the “gates of hell” (63).

Aubrey and his band, now called the Army Band of the Army National Guard, 15th New York Infantry Regiment, play a concert in Spartanburg, South Carolina. The band, composed of Black musicians, is nervous to be playing in this very conservative and racist part of the country. Aubrey’s mother, who grew up in Mississippi, is especially nervous about Audrey’s performance—“she knows about lynching” (67). The band is a hit in Spartanburg, even though the band members are treated with disrespect during the day. The army is unsure where to place the 15th New York Infantry, knowing that white American soldiers will be unwilling to fight beside Black Americans. They decide to allocate the division to aid the French army.

Ares interrupts, wondering what a piano-playing American recruit and a pair of British lovers have to do with each other. Apollo and Aphrodite maintain that their stories will intersect.

James and Hazel meet outside her apartment. They are excited and nervous to see each other again. Hazel grabs James’s hand, and they run toward the train station. They take the train toward the concert, talking about their plans for the future as well as the war on the way there. They reach the Royal Albert Hall and take their seats as the musicians begin to tune their instruments. Both of them are transfixed with the music. Hazel sees tears in James’s eyes. She decides in this moment that James is the man for her.

The soloist is Miss Adela Verne. She plays a piece by Liszt. James asks Hazel if she would like to perform on that stage. She modestly explains that she is not as talented as he thinks. She says that she would love to come to the hall to play alone in the middle of the night; James says that he would watch. Hazel admits that she still hasn’t told her parents about him. They take the train home. Hazel wonders why James hasn’t kissed her yet and asks him this. James says they will kiss on the train platform at Charing Cross on Saturday, just before he leaves for France—he says he might not be able to go to the train station otherwise.

Hazel returns home to face her parents, who are disappointed that she didn’t tell them the truth about her meetings with James. James arrives home to a telegram summoning him to report days earlier than he expected. The next day, James and Hazel, who had made plans to see each other at lunch, do not meet; instead, James is on a train bound for Calais. Hazel returns home from the café to find a letter from James explaining that he is bound for France early. Both are devastated at his early departure.

Hazel paces nervously in her bedroom, thinking of James—cold and far away. She misses him and prays for his safety. Meanwhile, James lies in a bunk in a cold tent in France. He hopes that he will be able to see Hazel again. Aphrodite interrupts her own story to pose the question of whether it was kindness or cruelty to allow Hazel and James to meet so soon before his departure. She believes that “the pangs of loss do not invalidate the bliss of love” (84).