A Spent Bullet
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A Spent Bullet Overview
Premise: Can two young people from diverse backgrounds and each carrying dark secrets, find love during the difficult days leading up to Pearl Harbor?
ELIZABETH REED has had it with soldiers. It’s 1941 and thousands of them have flooded her home area for what’s being called the Great Louisiana Army Maneuvers. Elizabeth, a twenty-year-old schoolteacher, dislikes soldiers due to being used by an officer during her college years. She has returned to her hometown—carrying a dark secret—resigned to life as an unmarried elementary teacher.
Her life changes on an August afternoon when a soldier tosses a bullet from a passing convoy. The empty cartridge contains a note that will set in motion a series of bizarre events. Elizabeth refuses to pick up the spent bullet and doesn’t see her younger brother BEN retrieve it. He takes the bullet to her grandmother who cooks up a plot to get Elizabeth into a relationship.
The note contains the name and address of Private HARRY MILLER, a Wisconsin soldier who detests three things: the Army, Louisiana, and Helen, his fiancé in Milwaukee, who just sent a Dear John letter. Private Miller didn’t know his name was on the tossed bullet as fellow soldiers did it as a joke.
Through the scheming of Ben and Elizabeth’s grandmother, a written correspondence begins between Elizabeth (with the grandmother writing “for her”) and Harry.
On the day before the “battle” begins, a tropical storm settles over the battle areas. As Harry’s unit fights in the rain and mud, he observes various events that tell much about the army and its men. We follow his unit as they march north, and Harry realizes that in spite of his dislike of military life, he is the type of soldier others look to in battle. This portion of the story reveals Harry’s growth from self-centeredness and self-pity to one of duty and discipline.
With the battle over, Harry rushes to accept Elizabeth’s written invitation to meet her. Arriving, he quickly learns that Elizabeth knows nothing about any letters. As the day unfolds, everything that can go wrong does. Harry leaves at the end of the day, vowing to never return.
The next day what will be called the “Battle of Shreveport” begins and Harry’s company is thrust into the middle of the fighting. During their movement north, Harry makes a heroic effort to save a drowning soldier and in the process finds the courage to capture Elizabeth Reed’s heart.
After five days of marching and battle, a truce is called, ending the Louisiana Maneuvers. Full of newfound courage, Harry returns determined to capture the beautiful teacher’s heart. A front porch music session kindles Elizabeth’s love toward Harry.
The next week, a tragic accident occurs: an Army truck strikes and kills Elizabeth’s brother Ben. Harry observes how this simple country family’s shaky yet solid faith weathers a crisis. Elizabeth’s mother and her unconditional forgiveness of the Negro soldier who struck her son especially touch him.
As Elizabeth shares the source of her faith with Harry, she realizes the most difficult part of repentance is often forgiving oneself from past mistakes.
During the days leading up to his unit returning to Wisconsin, Harry proposes to Elizabeth while atop a stalled Ferris wheel. Eventually, she accepts and they plan a quick wedding. On his last weekend before their wedding, Harry chooses to be baptized in the cold water of Bundick Creek. It’s his way of signifying what has happened in his heart.
That afternoon, following a family tradition, Elizabeth takes Harry to a grove of old trees in the nearby swamp. He carves their initials and wedding date into the bark. He runs his hand over the carved date: 12-7-41 and says, “Well, no one else may remember next Sunday, but we will: December 7, 1941.”
The plot of this story is woven from true stories told by the many “Harry and Elizabeths” who met, fell in love, and married during the 1941 Louisiana Maneuvers.
