Pearl Harbor

      On Sunday, December 7^th, 1941, Faustino, like most people in Hawaii, made his way to the local Hawaiian church. The sun slowly rose out of the horizon. Faustino was an only child; his unique name was of Italian origin. That’s because his ancestors were all Italian and decided to give all their children, no matter where they were born, Italian names that were unheard of. Faustino in Italian means “Lucky”, and his parents named him this because he was born on 3/3/33 in San Francisco. His family all are Christian and go to church every week. Faustino and his family had lived on Oahu for only a week.

While walking, he started thinking about what it would be like to fight in a war. Faustino always loved planes and wished that one day he would fly in one and fight for his country.  He always imagined what the smooth metal wings, and the sophisticated controls would feel like in his hands.  He dreamed, just like every boy, to fly.

“FAUSTINO!” thundered his father, an austere and unforgiving man. He was a captain in the United States Navy. Adalfieri Lombardi (whose name meant ‘noble oath’) was not only harsh on Faustino, but also on his Navy men. His reverberant voice made everyone, including his family, panic – everyone, except for Faustino.

“Yes!”

“Come on!”  Faustino looked around for his parents. He saw his mom and dad walking in the opposite direction. His 6 feet 6 inches tall dad was an about one foot taller than Faustino’s mother. Faustino’s mother was a smart, loud, courageous mom that mainly did household work. Faustino was very attached to his family and couldn’t imagine losing them. He finished daydreaming and quickly caught back up to them.

“Where is everyone?” he asked.

As his mom got out her watch, she said, “They’re all in church, we’re just a bit late because we had a busy morning with the – .”

“You, Giovannetta, be quiet!” interrupted Faustino’s father angrily. Giovannetta was Italian for “God is gracious”. She got that name from her parents when they started going to church. Faustino thought perhaps this was about the war! Just last week, James, a fellow student, had talked about the war for his current events presentation. James’s dad was an international newspaper journalist and author – he knew everything! Faustino saw the church, forgot about it and continued walking.

It was only 7:50 by the time they got to the church. The old white church was filled with people chatting. Faustino scanned the small room for a chair but couldn’t decide where to sit. He was new here in Hawaii and didn’t have many friends yet. Luckily for him, a child about his age offered him a seat. Faustino and his family quietly took their place next to this family as Faustino studied the church. He noticed that this church was much older compared to his church in San Francisco. The church was very narrow, with one thin path that separated the two columns of mahogany benches. Faustino also noticed that the church was very dark and he thought that it might have been this way because of the small number of windows that were only on one of the walls. Everyone seemed to be minding his or her own business; there was no socializing. Was it because these people aren’t friendly, Faustino wondered? As he put aside the idea of making a conversation, he stared out into the open sky; the scintillating sun was still very low, but as the boy stared out into the horizon, he saw dots. Minuscule dots were moving. They were getting bigger and bigger! Calm down! They’re just birds! But as he stared into the open sky, he believed what he most feared. He was starting to think they weren’t birds. They don’t travel in groups of 400, they aren’t that big, they don’t fly that fast, they don’t fly that high; those specks definitely cannot be birds. Planes! Not just one, but what looked liked eight hundred. His brain shattered, his lungs collapsed, his heart froze. What’s happening? The wind screeched in his ear as dizziness took over his brain and made him scream. Nothing. After moments of disbelief he finally shrieked.

“HELP! WE’RE UNDER ATTACK!”

As Faustino yelped, everyone in the church started laughing.

“Kid, did you sleep enough last night?” said the man in front of him as he began to chuckle.

“Yeah, I think you’ve…”

“Everyone! Get out of the church!” Faustino yelled. No one moved. They all sat there, then one man asked, “Can we begin now?”

“Yes,” said the priest, “but could somebody please tell this boy to be – .”

“I’m not lying, everyone look out the window if you don’t believe me!”

“Ok everyone, lets ‘play along’ with this little boy….” As they looked out the window, it became silent. Everyone froze then ran outside and began moving haphazardly.

Faustino ran around and began yelling, “HELP!” SOMEONE CALL THE POLICE! THEY’LL KNOW WHAT TO DO!” No one seemed to be listening to Faustino. It was almost as if he wasn’t there. People ran at him as if they couldn’t see him and accidentally knocked him down. Faustino hit the ground as the people running around kicked dust into his mouth. He stood back up and wondered where his parents were. Where were his parents? Faustino was lost. Faustino looked around as everyone was running around in an unorganized fashion. He felt a wave of dizziness sweep over his body.

In the middle of this prodigious mess, Faustino was looking for his parents. The planes continued to fly closer and closer, and Faustino got farther and farther away from his parents. Suddenly, things turned even more dreadful – as a Japanese plane was flying over the church, it opened the cover on the bottom of the plane, and out fell a missile. It dropped down and “BOOM!” The entire church went up in flames. “Wait…are my mother and father still in there?” wondered Faustino. He quickly ran back to the church to make sure, but before he could get very close, a man came up behind him and grabbed him.

“What are you doing!” he demanded. “That building is burning, you don’t just walk back in.”

“But…my…mom and dad…might be in there. I can’t find them,” whimpered Faustino.

“It’s alright kid, tell me your name and I’ll see if I can find them.”

“My name’s Faustino, Faustino Lombardi”,

“OK kid, my name’s Arthur Smith.”

“Thank you, Arthur, may I go home now?”

“Yeah, do you know your way?”

“Yes I do. Thanks for your help. I’ll be going now.”

“See ya, kid.” Faustino then made his way home. But he was still terrified of what had just happened. He tried to calm himself down, but as he walked, another plane bombed a beautiful beach house that was about 100 feet away. The clean white paint on the side of the building went up in flames as the palm trees around it caught on fire. Faustino froze with shock as his mouth dropped open. It took him a moment to realize what had just happened before he ran away.  He ran for his life, for this was no place for a kid. He decided that he might be able to find his parents at his house, so he headed in the direction of his house, hoping that his mom and dad would be waiting for him at the front door.

Faustino ran away from all the action, thinking that he knew the direction of his house. But on the contrary, he had no clue where his house was and kept running to get away from the fire. Faustino’s biggest fear was fire, and right now, neighborhoods were going up in flames. All the beautiful, expensive beach houses were going up in flames as Faustino ran. The smell of gasoline filled the air as golden flames burned the sidewalks. There was one scene that stuck in Faustino’s mind. He saw a lost baby, crying on the sidewalk with his parents nowhere in sight. The baby’s shirt was not white like the store’s display, but instead it had dirty marks from all the chaos. Tears ran down the baby’s small face as a burning house fell on him. Faustino was dumbfounded. He quickly called for help but everyone was busy running around insanely. Faustino did know what to do so he ran.

The picture of a small helpless baby lying in a fire couldn’t get out of his mind. All this commotion was too much for Faustino to handle. He was used to a simple life with a daily routine. But this day was not normal. Faustino continued running, sweat pouring down his face, as his shirt got drenched with exploding fire hydrants. Faustino eventually collapsed on the beach; he could not run for over a mile without taking a rest. Faustino laid down on the beach and continued panting like a dog. Eventually he fell asleep on the (what used to be white) sand.

After about 40 minutes of sleeping, Faustino pulled himself up, and began walking. He didn’t want to run anymore. Faustino, a city kid, was not used to this. He walked until he found himself in the neighborhood park. I must be close! Faustino ran up the hill excitedly and peered over, but for the rest of his life, he wished he hadn’t. As Faustino plodded up the hill, he glanced down and was petrified. There, lying among several burning pieces of wood, was a broken plane. Then something moved in the plane, and a kamikaze pilot climbed out. His face was covered with the unpleasant mixture of sweat and dirt, as he banged angrily on the plane engine that had recently failed on him. The tail of the wing was bent and the long metal frame stuck out. The pilot slowly made his way out of the broken cockpit, frustrated with the situation his plane was in. He was staring right at Faustino. There were a few moments of silence before Faustino came back to the world he was living in. This is no dream.

“私は死ぬことになっていた!” yelled the pilot as he broke up in tears. He ran around hurting himself, appearing to do his best to kill himself. The pilot ran to the top of the shiny red monkey bars and jumped head first on the hard cement. Blood poured down his face as he ran towards Faustino.

Faustino ran into the forest, away from the park, away from his neighborhood. Again, he ran his heart out until he came to the harbor and tripped on the curb. He used the last of his strength to get back up when he saw his dad. Silent screams poured out of his mouth. No one could hear poor Faustino over all the commotion caused by the Japanese. “DAD!” He wasn’t heard. Faustino sat hopelessly, too tired to get up, to tired to get to his dad. Suddenly, he saw his dad get in a plane. NO! Faustino sprinted to the runway. But it was too late. Faustino’s father had taken down the runway.

The airplane sped down the runway with burning planes on each side. Fire radiated along the runway and this plane, too, caught on fire. With its tail burning, the plane continued to speed down the runway. As the plane began ascending, the fire made its way up the plane and approached the gas tank. Suddenly, the plane exploded. Pieces of metal fell back down to earth like fireworks.  But Faustino was not cheering and clapping- he was devastated. He just witnessed the most tragic event that would ever occur in his long life. Faustino cried his eyes out, but it was no use. If I ran instead of walking, if I was stronger and could run farther, if I didn’t fall asleep, then I would have been able to stop my dad before he took off, thought Faustino. He soaked himself with his own tears. It was no use dwelling on the past, so he didn’t. Now his only family left was his mom. And he was determined to find her. He picked himself up, and continued his search as he made his way into the burning horizon.

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      “Welcome to the Rome 1960 Olympics! Today, one of the main events is the 10,000 meter race,” blared the commentator over the loudspeakers. Faustino was very excited for this race; he had been waiting all his life for this day. The countless hours of training brought him here to represent the US. After the tragic loss of his dad, he vowed to himself that he would someday win a long distance race for his dad. Giovannetta, Faustino’s mother, was in the front row supporting him. Her wheelchair wasn’t a problem because all the people around her gave her some space. During World War Two, Giovannetta lost both of her legs when a bomb blew up 10 meters away from her. Luckily she survived and was able to come and support Faustino.

“Bang!”  The race started as Faustino took an early lead. After about twenty minutes of running Faustino still showed no signs of stopping. All of his training paid off because no matter how hard everyone else tried, no one could pass him. Faustino had already lapped everyone. He ran until the last minute and finished with a time of 23 minutes and 12.52 seconds. A new world record! Faustino waited for about four more minutes until the other racers finally finished.

During the award ceremony, Faustino invited his mother to come and stand with him on the top. His mom was inclined to accept the offer and the officials agreed. As Faustino was handed his gold medal, he stared at it for a few moments as tears of happiness flowed. Suddenly, he threw it into the crowed and let out a howl of anguish: “This is for you, daddy!”