Orphan Train

Vivian calls Dutchy “Luke” in the company of other people, but “Dutchy” when they are alone. He calls her “Viv” because he thinks it sounds like “Niamh.” Contrary to Mrs. Nielsen’s fears, Dutchy encourages Vivian to continue her studies and her job at the store. With Mr. Nielsen’s help, Dutchy gets a job in Hemingford as a music teacher. Every weekend Vivian goes with him to Minneapolis, where he continues his piano performances. Dutchy is impulsive and passionate, while Vivian is even-tempered and orderly, yet they each temper the other. When they lie together in bed, Dutchy tells her how lucky he feels to have found her. After years of “keeping so much hidden,” Vivian feels like she doesn’t “have to pretend” with him. She realizes that her own parents were never in love the way she and Dutchy are.

One day, a reporter on the radio announces that Pearl Harbor has been attacked. And with that, “everything changes.” Several of Vivian’s former classmates and friends enlist in the army. Business changes and signs everywhere encourage people to make “sacrifices” for their country. Dutchy shamelessly maintains, “they’ll have to come for me”—but when the draft begins, Dutchy is called. Before he leaves, Vivian gives him her claddagh cross. While he is in training in San Diego, Vivian discovers she is pregnant. Despite Mrs. Nielsen’s concern for her health, Vivian continues to busy herself with work and volunteering to keep her mind from worry. Dutchy then ships out to the Central Pacific. He and Vivian exchange letters every week. Dutchy is thrilled to become a father, writing that he’ll “finally have a family.” Vivian always includes the same “cliché” words in her letters, meaning them wholeheartedly: “I love you. I miss you. Be careful. Be safe.”

One day a man from Western Union comes to the store. He reads Vivian and her parents a telegram, announcing that “Luke Maynard” was “killed in action.” Vivian puts her hand over her stomach to touch “the baby – our baby.” As the months go by, Vivian stays busy with her work at the store. Mrs. Nielsen, Mrs. Murphy, Lillian, and Emily keep her company with movies and tea. She gets letters of condolence and Dutchy’s personal items from Jim Daly, Dutchy’s shipmate. It “will be years before” she puts the claddagh cross back on. Dutchy’s superstition kept him from telling others about the baby, and in Vivian’s replies to Jim she makes no mention.

One night, Vivian goes into labor, and Mrs. Nielsen takes her to the hospital. During her difficult delivery, Vivian finally weeps for Dutchy. She “learned long ago that loss is not only probable but inevitable” and she weeps uncontrollably for the “loss of a future [she’d] dared to envision.” Overwhelmed with sorrow, Vivian decides she can’t bear the idea of loving so deeply “ever again.” Seeing her sadness, Mrs. Nielsen assures her that she’ll “go on for this baby.” But Vivian has already decided. She pushes the baby out. The little girl has blonde hair. She says the name “May” into her baby’s ear, and thinks of how her baby, like she herself, is “the reincarnation of a dead girl.” Without any warning to anyone else, Vivian gives the baby away.