"Akibu"
by Meribel Blanchard
Cover Art by Judith A. Sullivan
Copyright ©2002
ISBN: 0-87714-815-5 eBook edition
ISBN: 0-87714-300-5 PB edition
All rights reserved by Denlinger's Publishers, including the right to reproduce this electronic book, or portions thereof, in any form, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review.
This is a work of fiction. All characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental.
DEDICATION
To Hatsuko Ikehara
and to members of the 2nd Air Rescue Squadron,
Okinawa, 1951-1952
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
To my daughters, Dale, for final editorial assistance and Linda, for continued technical direction. And to fellow writers and friends who kept those encouraging words coming.
THE AUTHOR
Meribel Blanchard, a native Missourian, has resided in several U.S. states and visited most of the rest. She traveled extensively and lived on Okinawa and in Germany. She enjoys exploring roads to see where they go.
A freelance writer and newspaper columnist, Meribel has been stringer, proofreader, editor and publisher. She owned and managed two bookstores in the Washington, D.C. area, which she considers an excellent way to lose money.
The writing bug bit at age seven, with her first sale to a children's magazine. At ten, while enrolled in Horace Mann Elementary School in New York City, she wrote, directed and produced a play, a veritable "Broadway Production." Since then, her short stories and articles have appeared in a variety of publications.
For many years Meribel attended the Star Island Writers' Conference, Portsmouth, New Hampshire, with one tenure as Director of that group. She led the writers' workshops at Southeast UU Summer Institute in Virginia for two summers, She participated in Writers' Roundtables in Massachusetts, Maryland and Florida and is currently active in three critique groups.
Meribel swims whenever possible, fishes if her lines are untangled, and cooks when the mood or necessity strike. She wields a hammer for Habitat for Humanity, likes the theater, music and walking, She adores auctions, poking through second hand shops and yard sales. She is the sole support of two voracious cats.
Meribel returns to her native Missouri and takes her readers along in her book, "Marry Me and Die."
THE BOOK
It is 1941. Red haired, fifteen year old GLORIANNA HAMILTON helps her parents operate the missionary school on Shima-Shima, a tropical island in the South Pacific. Her friend and confidant is MISAWU, an island native, with whom she explores the beaches and learns the natives think she is the reincarnation of their red haired goddess, AKIBU. Glorianna puts no credence in this fable, but find it amusing and sometimes useful. She is a restless, romantic teenager, longing for adventure.
On the beach the two girls meet PHILLIP SHERIDAN, a young American, recovering from a misadventure at sea. Glorianna takes him home to meet her parents, who assure themselves that the two are always chaperoned in the following weeks. The couple manage to fall in love. Phillip arranges for passage home, planning to bring Glorianna with him as his bride. At first, Pearl Harbor and the consequent war seem not to change their plans. But on Christmas day, The Japanese destroy the mission, and both Glorianna and Phillip believe each other to be dead. Misawu leads Glorianna away to safety in the wild mountainous area of Shima-Shima. Phillip is smuggled off the island to return home to the USA and enlists as a Navy airman. We follow his adventures and exploits as he serves in the war. Neither Phillip nor Glorianna can forget each other.
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