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WHO'S STRONG AND BRAVE, here to save the American way?
Steve marched out patriotically from the curtains with a half enthusiastic smile on his face. Rebecca could tell he was nervous.
"Not all of us can storm a beach or drive a tank," Steve read from the papers taped to the back of his shield. "But there's still a way all of us can fight."
Who vows to fight like a man for what's right, night and day?
"Series E defense bonds. Each one you buy is a bullet in the barrel of your best guy's gun."
Who will campaign door-to-door for America?
Carry the flag shore to shore for America?
From Hoboken to Spokane,
The star-spangled man with a plan!
We can't ignore there's a threat and a war we must win,
"Each one you buy is a bullet in the barrel of your best guy's gun."
Who'll hang a noose on the goose stepping goons from Berlin?
Who will redeem, heed the call for America?
Who'll rise or fall, give his all for America?
Who's here to prove that we can?
The star-spangled man with a plan!
Days. Then weeks. Then they became months. Three months of show, after show, after rehearsal, after show. Steve began to memorize the lines. He didn't need them plastered to the back of his shield anymore. The song would get stuck in Rebecca's head. She didn't need to run over the verses every night. There was money, and there was something to contribute. It helped the war, right? They were helping the U.S. win. They were selling bonds. "Each one you buy is a bullet in the barrel of your best guy's gun." Steve's words repeated in her head.
It wasn't what she had imagined. But it was something, right?
Maybe.
Rebecca and the other girls looked ahead with salutes and shining smiles on their bajillionth show of the tour as Steve spoke the words he'd spoke so many times before.
"We all know this is about trying to win the war," he said. An actor playing Hitler tip toed behind the line of girls. "We can't do that without bullets and bandages, tanks and tents. That's where you come in. Every bond you buy will help protect someone you love."
Children in the audience began yelling and pointing at "Hitler" as Steve continued his speech.
"Keep our boys armed and ready, and the Germans will think twice about trying to get the drop on us."
At this line, "Hitler" broke through the line of girls and stood behind Steve. Still smiling proudly, the blonde turned around and pretended to punch the actor. A cymbal crashed as he made his action, making it seem more real. "Hitler" fell to the ground, and the crowd applauded. Rebecca and the girls behind him clapped and smiled.
From Buffalo..
Stalwart and steady and true,
To Milwaukee, to Philadelphia, to Chicago...
Forceful and ready to defend,
Steve waved to the cheering crowd.
The red, white, and blue,
There were comics.
Who'll give the Axis the sack and is smart as a fox?
Movies.
Far as an eagle will soar,
Who's making Adolf afraid to step out of his box?
Premieres.
He knows what we're fighting for,
Drummers. Dancing. Marching.
Who waked the giant that napped in America?
Lined up in rows behind him, smiling and high-kicking in their heels.
We know it's no one but Captain America,
Signing autographs.
Who'll kick the Krauts to Japan?
Lifting three of the dancers sitting atop a motorcycle up on stage.
The star-spangled man with a plan!
All the way from cheering crowds of children and parents in big cities...
"How many of you are ready to help me to sock old Adolf on the jaw?"
To silent groups of bored-looking army men in Italy, five miles from the war front.
[November 3, 1943.]
Bex wasn't out there. She and the other girls had done their part. They had danced and smiled, and the men cheered and laughed at the sight of so many girls. Something they hadn't been able to enjoy for a while.
"Okay." Steve stood awkwardly on the stage. "Um.. I need a volunteer!"
"I already volunteered!" yelled someone in the crowd. "How do you think I got here?"
The men all laughed.
"Bring back the girls!" yelled someone else.
"Yeah!!" the men chorused, raising their arms up in the air.
Steve looked nervously to the side of the stage, then back at the upset crowd. "I think they only know the one song, but, um.." He paused, then looked back and forth again. "I'll see what I can do."
"You do that, sweetheart."
"Nice boots, Tinker Bell!"
Laughs.
"Come on guys, we're all on the same team here," said Steve.
They started throwing tomatoes. They cheered as Steve stood there, dumbfounded, and held his shield up in front of him. He went back to the side of the stage, and the girls came back out. All Rebecca and the others had to do was smile and wave, and the men would cheer.
— ☆ —
Later, it started raining. Other girls were taken back home, some got close with the army men. Rebecca got changed backstage. She was the only one of the girls who was really in the army. The others laughed when she told them that.
"What, don't you have dreams?" she had said to them, changing her shoes.
"This is a dream," one of them had returned. "This isn't enough for you?"
Bex put on a brown coat and left the dressing room. The girls watched her go. Some of them snickered behind her. It felt like she was in high school again.
It was raining. She didn't go past the end of the stage, not wanting to get wet. She turned around and looked at the open left stage exit— Steve was there, sitting on the stairs. He looked lonely. Bex stepped over and joined him.
"Hi, Steve," she said.
He had been drawing in a little notebook— it was a picture of a dancing monkey with an umbrella on a unicycle. It had a shield just like Steve's, and a sweater with a star on it.
Steve looked up at her, then raised his brows.
"Hi," he said, as if he hadn't been expecting her.
"Hi," she repeated. She took a seat next to him. It was silent for another second, then Rebecca said something else. "That wasn't one of our better shows, was it?" she said rhetorically.
"Yeah," said Steve, looking away at the ground. "I've never had to improvise much before. The crowds we're used to are usually more, uh.."
"Twelve?" completed Bex.
"Yeah," said Steve.
"Don't you want to do more, Steve?"
"We are doing something."
"Something," Bex scoffed quietly.
"Bond sales take a 10% jump in every state we visit," he said, looking back at her.
Bex shook her head. "Those are Senator Brandt's words," she said.
"At least he's got us doing this," he said. "Phillips would have had me stuck in a lab, and you God knows where. Without me."
"So those are the only options, then?" said Rebecca, tilting her head. "This or nothing? A lab rat or.. or a—" she looked down at his drawing. "— a dancing monkey?"
Steve looked back down at the notebook.
"This can't be it," said Rebecca. "This can't be what Erskine worked so hard for."
Steve looked at the rain, a look of sad realization on his face.
"What?" questioned Bex.
"We've dreamed about this forever, Rebecca. Coming overseas, being on the front lines, serving our country..." He looked up at her. "Then we finally get what we want... and we're wearing tights."
"And heels," she finished. "This isn't what we wanted, Steve."
As she finished her statement, a truck with a Red Cross on it honked its horn and pulled up next to a tent with the same logo. Men with red crosses on their uniforms ran up to the truck in the pouring rain and opened the doors, pulling out a man on a stretcher. He didn't move. His arm was bandaged heavily.
"They look like they've been through hell," said Steve, looking back as they unloaded more men on stretchers.
"These men more than most," said a third voice behind them. One with a familiar accent. Bex and Steve turned to face the person.
"Peggy?" said Rebecca.
"What are you doing here?" asked Steve, surprised to see her.
"Officially, I'm not here at all," she said. "That was quite a show you two put on."
"Thanks," said Bex. Steve just looked down. He closed the notebook next to him, though Bex was quite sure Peggy had already seen the drawing inside.
She looked back at the scene behind them as the last man was helped out of the truck. He could walk— but he was wobbly. His head was heavily bandaged.
"Schmidt sent out a force to Azzano," said Peggy, seeing Bex and Steve's interest in what had happened to the men. "Two hundred men went up against him, and less than 50 returned. Your audience contained what was left of the 107th." Steve and Rebecca immediately turned to look her in the eyes when she said the infantry's name. "The rest were either killed or captured," She completed gravely.
Steve and Rebecca glanced at eachother.
"The 107th?" repeated Steve, worried.
Barnes's infantry.
"What?" asked Peggy.
Steve grabbed Bex's hand and ran into the rain toward the tent with the Red Cross. Peggy followed them, holding her coat over her head.
He has to be alive, thought Bex. For Steve's sake. Please let him be alive.