Gypsy Heart

By A.J. Llewellyn

Tinder McCartney thought he left behind his life as a gay male prostitute but soon learns returning to his old life may be the only way to save the man he loves...Tinder McCartney and his lover, Jason Qui, are adjusting to life in war-torn Hawaii following the attack on Pearl Harbor. Settling at first in Maui with Tinder's father, they go back to Honolulu to meet with members of the new military government regarding their plans to blow up a major access road in Lahaina that would leave the islanders in Maui stranded and without access to much-needed shipments coming into the island.

Back in Honolulu, Tinder and Jason are dismayed to see how much their beloved home has changed in just a few short weeks. Jason accepts a dangerous sea mission feeling that as a Chinese immigrant, he needs to prove his loyalty to the US. He and the crew of the ship disappear, and are presumed to have been taken by Japanese forces.

Tinder must decide what to do to help his lover. When presented with the opportunity to return to his old way of life in exchange for information that will help him rescue his lover, he must decide how far he is willing to go to heal his gypsy heart and save the man he loves...

• Language: English
• Publisher: Pride Publishing
• Release date: Jun 13, 2011
• ISBN: 9780857155580

A.J. Llewellyn

A.J. Llewellyn lives in California, but dreams of living in Hawaii. Frequent trips to all the islands, bags of Kona coffee in the fridge and a healthy collection of Hawaiian records keep this writer refueled. A.J. never lacks inspiration for male/male erotic romances and on the rare occasions this happens, pursues other passions such as collecting books on Hawaiiana, surfing and spending time with friends and animal companions. A.J. Llewellyn believes that love is a song best sung out loud.

Book preview

A Total-E-Bound Publication

www.total-e-bound.com

Gypsy Heart

ISBN #978-0-85715-558-0

©Copyright A.J. Llewellyn 2011

Cover Art by April Martinez ©Copyright June 2011

Edited by Stacey Birkel

Total-E-Bound Publishing

This is a work of fiction. All characters, places and events are from the author’s imagination and should not be confused with fact. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, events or places is purely coincidental.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any material form, whether by printing, photocopying, scanning or otherwise without the written permission of the publisher, Total-E-Bound Publishing.

Applications should be addressed in the first instance, in writing, to Total-E-Bound Publishing. Unauthorised or restricted acts in relation to this publication may result in civil proceedings and/or criminal prosecution.

The author and illustrator have asserted their respective rights under the Copyright Designs and Patents Acts 1988 (as amended) to be identified as the author of this book and illustrator of the artwork.

Published in 2011 by Total-E-Bound Publishing, Think Tank, Ruston Way, Lincoln, LN6 7FL, United Kingdom.

Warning: This book contains sexually explicit content which is only suitable for mature readers. This story has been rated Total-e-burning.

Pearl Harbor

GYPSY HEART

A.J. Llewellyn

Author’s Note

As with Vagabond Heart, the first book in my Pearl Harbor trilogy, Gypsy Heart is a work of fiction. The details depicted of actual battles, air raids, curfews and the daily life of Hawaiians in the aftermath of Pearl Harbor’s bombing are all as accurate as possible.

Tinder McCartney, his family, and his lover, Jason Qui, all live, work, and eat exactly as their fellow islanders did in World War II. Unlike Oahu, which had a huge influx of money thanks to US sailors arriving weekly to train and ship out to various points in the Pacific battle, Maui and the other outer islands experienced severe isolation and real deprivation.

These outer islands became the training ground for many US servicemen, particularly Maui and the Big Island of Hawaii because of the isolation and untouched nature of these exotic locations.

I hope I have captured the spirit of these wonderful people, many of whom have shared their stories with me. So many amazing people were willing to share, down to the last detail, what the first Christmas and New Year were like just a few short weeks after the Japanese attack, plunging the US into war.

The islands of Hawaii continue to bear the burdens of war. They have suffered heavier human losses than any other US state in the current war against terror. Any visitor to the island will see that the graveyards, especially those that honour our veterans, are alive. They are simply filled with colourful, tropical flowers, Hawaiian state flags and US flags flying high. Not a single veteran’s grave is untended and unloved…even if there are no living relatives of the deceased.

Everyone is ohana, family, and they are always remembered.

Similarly, the Pearl Harbor Survivors are not only a formal group but a handful of men still alive who lived to teach us about the events of December 7, 1941.

They are categorized as Living Treasures by the State of Hawaii.

I was privileged to meet one of these survivors, Mr Al Rodrigues, last October when I visited the Arizona Memorial during the massive reconstruction to its visitor centre. Anyone who hasn’t visited this Pearl Harbor memorial cannot imagine how emotional it is to visit the site. I was surprised how wrenching it was to watch the short documentary movie shot on the actual day of Japan’s attack on the island. I viewed it with a sad-faced Japanese tourist to my left and a very old veteran to my right, who attended dressed in full Army uniform.

He told me he had saved for decades to travel from Omaha to the Memorial. We both openly wept, like so many others, at what we saw on screen. Similarly, I was unprepared for the wrenching experience of travelling by boat to the Memorial itself.

As I walked over the wreckage of the Arizona with her entombed men still lying at the bottom of the harbour floor, emotion gripped me. Seeing the oil bubbles at the water’s surface from the still-visible gun turret moved me deeply.

Mr Rodrigues told me that legend has it that the oil will not stop dripping into the harbour until the last Pearl Harbor survivor dies.

  Since 1983, the federal government has honoured the requests of survivors of the USS Arizona to be interred with their shipmates. I learned that the memorial park is closed for these special ceremonies and the name of the fallen warrior is added to those names on the wall of honour. I was surprised how much this second list of names also affected me.

Mr Rodrigues visits Pearl Harbor weekly to talk to visitors about the events that changed his life, and the world, forever. He was on active duty, about to eat breakfast, when the attack occurred. He grabbed a .30 calibre rifle and reports being so close to the Japanese Zeros, he could see the pilots’ grinning faces. He shot at them and also alerted his shipmates, rescuing many of them. He admits to survivor guilt for not being able to rescue all of them.

He is an erudite, wonderful man who has a great sense of humour. I never did get to finish my ham and eggs that morning, he told me.

I have no idea if he plans to be interred upon his passing with his fallen shipmates, but judging by his passionate commitment to their memory, I suspect he might.

Mr Rodrigues is revered by his fellow islanders, his family, and Pearl Harbor Visitor’s Centre. There is always great excitement when he visits.

On the other end of the spectrum, I was dismayed to hear recently of another Pearl Harbor survivor, 93-year-old Mr Arnold Bauer, living in squalor in El Cajon, California. He was the victim of elder abuse. It is a terrible story and his abuser faces criminal charges. Most devastating is the fact that the police found Mr Bauer surrounded by vermin and trash, in the foetal position in his bed, clutching a photo of his ship, the USS Vestal.

He remains in poor condition due to his abuser’s treatment.

We on the mainland have much to learn from Hawaii about how to treat our returning warriors—from all the wars.

~A.J. Llewellyn

Dedication

I would like to dedicate Gypsy Heart: Pearl Harbor Series Book Two to Mr Al Rodrigues

and Mr Arnold Bauer for their courage, and their hearts.

Thank you for what you did for our country.

~Lest We Forget~

Trademarks Acknowledgement

The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of the following wordmarks mentioned in this work of fiction:

In the Mood: Glenn Miller

Spam: Hormel Foods Corporation

Salvation Army: The Salvation Army USA

M&M’s: Mars, Inc.

Heath: The Hershey Company

K-Y Jelly: Johnson & Johnson, Inc.

Old Spice: Proctor and Gamble

Ford: Ford Motor Company

Moana Surfrider: Kyo-Ya Company

Chapter One

Wailuku, Maui

Saturday, December 20th, 1941

It’s not fair. It’s not fair. Why can’t I go?

I watched Linda, my father’s wife, sobbing as she filled the bathtub with water. Not for any of us to bathe, but in case our water supply was cut off. I could hear the incessant babble of the radio in the living room, as well as my father and my lover talking in low, worried tones.

We’d just heard the latest rumours were that the islands’ waterlines could be poisoned.

Sometimes I wish we didn’t have to listen to the news, Linda said. Sometimes I just want to forget all this. She shot a vicious glance out the door in my father’s direction.

"And he wants to stay here."

I was bewildered. She’d been angry for days that my father hadn’t caved in to her demands to travel to Honolulu and get themselves squeezed onto the special-evacuation ship bound for San Francisco, the first one since Pearl Harbor’s bombing.

Linda—I couldn’t call her ‘Mom’ even though my father wanted me to—leant back on her haunches and wiped her teary eyes with the back of her hands.

I hate this life, she said. "I didn’t sign up for this. I bet they have wonderful food on the ship. I bet they have oodles of chocolate."

None of us signed up for this, I wanted to say, but didn’t.

As usual, I had no response, no words of comfort for her. She’d been sleeping with my father when he was married to my mother. As she lay dying in bed of cancer, my father’s affections had transferred over to Linda. Once she’d passed, they didn’t even observe a respectable period of mourning. At the first hint of war, they’d escaped Honolulu and the busy life there for slower-paced Maui. They’d had grand plans…and then Pearl Harbor was attacked.

We were now at war with Japan. Linda still seemed to be in shock.

It had been thirteen days since the horrific bombing of Pearl Harbor. My father had called and begged me and my lover, Jason Qui, to come to Maui. We’d arrived by boat a few days before and I was surprised by how badly Linda was handling her new circumstances. Things weren’t easy for any of us, but we were, I felt, among the lucky ones.

Though Maui was an island away from Oahu, the threat of a new Japanese attack was always present. Here she was at seven o’clock in the morning, running water into the tub in case we needed it for survival.

All those lucky people leaving, she said.

I’d seen the photographs in the newspapers of screaming families rushing to get off the island. I’d even recognised a few of my former Hotel Street co-workers. Me? I’m an island guy. I’m in it for the long haul.

I pulled back the black curtain that was nailed over the window each night.

All our evening meals were served in the bathroom these days because its window was the only one that could be blacked out, so I was comfortable sitting in there with her.

I sat on the toilet, lid down, trying to be chummy and reassuring.

Well, it’s just a precaution, I reminded her. We haven’t been poisoned yet.

She gave me a fierce glare.

Just a precaution, she mimicked.

I said nothing. I knew she hated her new part-time job at the post office, but with all the able-bodied men being put to work in shipyards, supply depots and other essential civilian positions, she and all the other local women were being asked to pitch in.

The sugar mills, one of Maui’s biggest industries, had temporarily shut down, their workers encouraged to join the military. They either enlisted or worked on various local projects