Lovely War

James and Hazel nervously wait for each other at the train station in Paris. James sees Hazel and is stunned by her beauty and by the fact that she is waiting for him. She turns and sees him.

James and Hazel hug emotionally. James buries his face in Hazel’s hair, amazed that she is there with him. Hazel correctly guesses that James is starving. Smiling and blushing, they decide to get food.

Colette, from a café across the road from the train station, happily watches James and Hazel emerge. She notes that James is tall and handsome and has eyes only for Hazel. She wishes that Aubrey could be there with her.

Hazel and James go to a food market and buy food. They walk around Paris. Hazel says she suspected that James would enjoy seeing the beautiful architecture after the trauma of the front. He is touched and shocked at how completely she understands him. He tells her that he is a sniper. They go to a church and light six candles for the six Germans James has killed while at the front. He weeps for the men he has killed, and for the fact that he will have to kill more Germans.

James and Hazel continue to wander through the city and then go to a restaurant recommended by Colette’s aunt for dinner. Over dinner, Hazel reassures James that the deaths of the Germans aren’t his fault; he is part of a larger war machine. They admit their love for each other.

Ares, listening to Aphrodite’s story, angrily wonders when James will finally kiss Hazel.

They finish dinner. James pays for the bill. At a park they dance to a tune that Hazel hums. They kiss.

Commenting on the kiss, Ares says, “Thank god.”

James and Hazel go to Colette’s aunt’s home, where they’re both staying. When Colette and her aunt go to bed, James and Hazel continue to kiss in the kitchen, until they are interrupted by Colette’s aunt, Tante Solange. They go to bed, eagerly anticipating seeing each other the next day.

Hades reveals that Aubrey’s mother would be devastated to see her usually resilient and cheerful son so withdrawn and defeated. She would worry, if she knew the circumstances of Joey’s death, that Aubrey’s death might be next.

The next morning, James and Hazel walk around Paris. James buys a ticket for the last outgoing train heading north from Paris at midnight. They have photographs taken together. They climb the Eiffel tower and eat lunch at a café. James buys Hazel a pink coat that he notices her looking at through a shop window.

James and Hazel part ways emotionally after spending the day together. Hazel waits outside Tante Solange’s house watching him leave. They vow to write to each other daily.

Hades: Aubrey and his band reach the resort town Aix-les-Bains. Europe encourages Aubrey to practice on the piano, but he goes to sleep instead.

Ares: James rejoins his regiment outside Gouzeaucourt. He tells his friends that he and Hazel “had a grand time of it” (282).

Aphrodite: Hazel and Colette say farewell to Tante Solange and board a train for Saint-Nazaire.

Colette is surprised when Aubrey continues not to arrive at their hut. She sends a letter to Aubrey at Aix-les-Bains, suspecting that he may have gone with the band, but she never hears back. James writes to Hazel regularly.

Aubrey continues to mourn Joey’s death and to miss Colette. He finds it impossible to play the piano, as it reminds him too much of her. He receives her letter but decides that the kindest thing for both of them is to ignore her and to let her find someone else.

As Europe and Aubrey transcribe musical notation, Europe asks whether Aubrey has been writing to Colette. When Aubrey admits that he hasn’t, Europe urges Aubrey to do so, suggesting that although it wasn’t safe for Aubrey to remain in Saint-Nazaire, Europe didn’t intend to end their relationship. Europe urges Aubrey to try to find happiness with Colette, in spite of his grief over Joey’s death.

Aubrey starts to write to Colette but has no idea what to say. He writes out the musical score for the piece he wrote for her, “Dinant,” and signs it, “Love, Aubrey” (288).

Hazel goes to the YMCA relief hut at Saint-Nazaire and asks a young Black YMCA volunteer, Jennie, about the whereabouts of Aubrey. Jennie says that she has not seen Aubrey and that he wasn’t on the list of soldiers scheduled to go to Aix-les-Bains. Jennie confidentially tells Hazel that a young Black soldier was brutally beaten and hastily buried. Both women worry that this may have been Aubrey, especially because he was brought on a stretcher by Europe, Aubrey’s commanding officer and band leader.

Hazel tells Colette what Jennie told her. Colette is desperately worried, not knowing whether Aubrey is dead or alive. Hazel tries to comfort her.

Mrs. Davies orders Colette and Hazel to her office and says she has found out that they invited male soldiers into the Y hut after dark. Mrs. Davies furiously tells the girls that the most shocking part of their conduct was that they “mingled romantically with Negro soldiers” (297). Hazel angrily retorts that Aubrey “was worth ten of Mrs. Davies” (297). Colette and Hazel tell Mrs. Davies that they are resigning. Mrs. Davies clarifies that they are dismissed. They take the last of their pay and leave. Mrs. Davies tells them that their parents will hear of their misconduct and that they will receive no reference.

The war continues monotonously for James outside of the times of active combat. Both the British and German troops are preparing for an offensive. James and his comrades haul supplies through the trenches toward the front every night. The Germans will outnumber the British significantly, James reflects. He writes frequently to Hazel and to his family.

Hazel and Colette travel back to Paris to Tante Solange’s. Colette wonders whether Aubrey is dead. Hazel encourages her to remain hopeful until they know for sure.

James wakes to the thundering sound of shells, the yells of men, and the taste of smoke, dirt, and mustard gas. Officers yell commands. The Germans are beginning an offensive. James and his comrades shelter in the trenches of the support line, fortunately some way back from the frontmost trenches.

In her bedroom at Tante Solange’s, Hazel awakes to the sound and the palpable thrumming of distant guns. She realizes with dread that the guns are being fired at the front, where James is.

The 15th New York National Guard becomes the 369th United States Infantry. This division is put under the command of the French armies. General Pershing of the US Army had been reluctant to send supporting reinforcements to the front to be managed by British or French forces, but “he could spare a Black regiment, to be used as needed” (306).

The guns finally fall silent. The air is filled with smoke and dirt. Mason whispers to James that “they’re coming” (307). German stormtroopers arrive in James’s stretch of the trench. James shoots one in the neck and stabs another with his bayonet, remembering the “long thrust, twist, kill, kill, kill” instructions from his training (308). A Flammenwerfer, a stormtrooper with a flamethrower, appears above the trench, spraying fire. James shoots him in the face, killing him. The Flammenwerfer continues to spray fire as he falls, badly burning James’s comrade and friend Chad. James takes Chad on his back and the remaining men, including Mason, James, Chad, Mick, Vince, and Billy, retreat toward the communication trenches.

James and the other men deliver Chad, badly burned, to a Red Cross division. The men organize themselves to try to take back a section of the firing line at the front, which German troops are occupying. As they move to the front, a German soldier nearby is throwing grenades; Mason volunteers to climb up above the trench network to fire on him. James says that he should do it instead, but Mason insists on accompanying him, and the two men go together.

James sees the creeping figure of the German with the grenade launcher in the fog and shoots him. James and Mason quickly roll away from the position they had been in. Mason shoots a stormtrooper who is moving through the fog toward them. James moves away to see if there are more German soldiers; Mason stays put to cover him. In his new position, James sees that a German soldier has his gun trained on Mason and quickly shoots him. Mason jumps up in surprise. From nowhere, a German shell crashes into Mason, and he is instantly obliterated.

The gods consider the image of Adelaide Sutton Mason, Frank Mason’s recently widowed wife, receiving the telegram informing her of his death.

Frank Mason, recently dead, arrives at a beach scene of his hometown, which Hades has conjured. He laments that he has left his wife and child, as well as their second unborn baby. Mason’s family appears and walks toward Mason and Hades, who takes the form of a sailor Mason used to know. Hades comforts Mason, saying that sleep will bring his family, especially his children, closer to him.

James finds his way back to the relief trenches, exhausted and disorientated. He refuses to come out of a dugout. Billy, a friend of James’s from his division, eventually wrestles James’s weapons from him and carries him from the dugout to a medic tent. James is sedated.