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PAGE 14 (Four panels)

Panel 1: Hazel in interview pose, now slumped backwards.

Hazel (1): And she wasn’t the only one. Two more of us also disappeared in almost exactly the same way.

Translation (1): E lei non fu l’unica. Altre due di noi scomparvero quasi allo stesso modo.

Panel 2: A fat folder containing official reports, sealed and with a large stenciled word CLASSIFIED stamped across it.

CAPTION – HAZEL NARRATING (2): The Navy ordered us not to talk about it. They said it would be bad for morale.

Translation (2): La Marina ci impose di non parlarne. Dissero che sarebbe stato un male per la morale.

CAPTION – HAZEL NARRATING (3): People asked fewer questions about orders back then, you know.

Translation (3): La gente faceva poche domande sugli ordini, sai.

Panel 3: A panel showing the Bride’s dive in the water, as if taken from the Scelleratini film of 1905, a split second after the scene on Page 5, Panel 4 above, such that the Bride has broken the surface of the water, and has submerged down to her waist.

CAPTION – HAZEL NARRATING (4): I tried not to think of it much myself, but in the late 1970s, I think, I saw a film clip of film made by some Italian people of the same place from long, long ago. I think it was on PBS late at night.

Comment (4): “PBS” stands for “Public Broadcasting System,” an American television network funded by a combination of government, corporate, and listener contributions. It has a focus on education and high-culture television and is not sponsored by advertisers like most of the rest of American broadcast television.

Translation (4): Ho provato a non pensarci molto, ma alla fine degli anni ’70, penso, ho visto un filmato girato da alcuni italiani nello stesso posto di molto, molto tempo fa. Penso che fosse sulla rete PBS a tarda notte.

Panel 4: A panel showing a front page of the Dallas Morning News for Tuesday, October 6, 1981. A large part of the front page would be a posed formal picture of PHOEBE PETROBUX (a very pretty and probably blond teenager, who we’ll see more of below) under the headline TEXAS TEEN STILL MISSING IN SOUTH PACIFIC. (Possible filler headlines, taken from real world history for that day that could be included for verisimilitude, could be RAOUL WALLERBERG MADE HONORARY U.S. CITIZEN and REVEREND SUN MYUNG MOON INDICTED FOR TAX EVASION).

CAPTION – HAZEL NARRATING (5): And then we all read that terrible story about the poor girl from Texas.

Translation (5): E poi tutti abbiamo letto quella terribile storia su una povera ragazza del Texas.

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PAGE 13 (Four panels)

Panel 1: A pretty Navy nurse in the act of taking off her uniform shirt, exposing her brassiere. She is standing on the beach next to a sign which reads BEACH STRICTLY OFF LIMITS TO ALL MALE PERSONNEL.

CAPTION – HAZEL NARRATING (1): The Shore Patrol would close the beach off once a week just for us nurses.

Comment (1): The “Shore Patrol” (SP) are an internal police force for the United States Navy, roughly equivalent to the military police in an army.

Translation (1): L’uomo della sicurezza chiudeva la spiaggia una volta alla settimana solo per noi infermiere.

Panel 2: The shirt of the nurse in Panel 1 flying toward the viewer. The panel should imply that it is part of a movie being filmed and that Panel 1 was an earlier frame in the same, but the nurse has noticed that she was being filmed an, in chagrin, has tossed her shirt at the camera lens, which it is about to cover.

CAPTION – HAZEL NARRATING (2): Since it was only us girls, we didn’t bother putting on bathing suits. It was wonderful to be out in the water like that.

Translation (2): Dato che eravamo solo noi ragazze, non ci preoccupavamo di indossare costumi da bagno. Era meraviglioso essere fuori nell’acqua in quel modo.

Panel 3: Another interview shot of Hazel, whose expression has darkened a bit over that in Panel 1.

Hazel (3): But then the disappearances began. This was in 1943. One of them was my cabinmate, Willa Congerman.

Translation (3): Ma poi iniziarono le sparizioni. Era il 1943. Una di loro era la mia compagna di cabina, Willa Congerman.

Panel 4: Head-and-shoulders shot of WILLA CONGERMAN (“Willa”) in the dress uniform of a Navy nurse (shoulder epaulets indicating that she has has the rank of Ensign). If possible it should be taken as a detail from Page 10, Panel 1 above.

CAPTION – HAZEL NARRATING (4): She just went swimming one day and…disappeared. She was a really strong swimmer, and it was a perfectly calm day with no tides. No one heard her call in distress.

Translation (4): Un giorno andò a nuotare e… scomparve. Era una nuotatrice molto forte, ed era una giornata perfettamente calma senza maree. Nessuno ha sentito la sua chiamata di pericolo.

CAPTION – HAZEL NARRATING (5): Some said it might have been a cramp, but no one ever found a body. And there weren’t any sharks in the area.

Translation (5): Alcuni dissero che poteva esser stato un crampo, ma nessuno trovò mai un corpo. E nella zona non c’erano squali.

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PAGE 12 (Two panels)

Note: This page will probably work best is laid out in landscape format, with the second panel an inset in the lower right.

Panel 1: A “group photograph” panel of about a dozen U.S. Navy nurses in dress uniform, smiling and facing the camera. The hair, makeup, and uniforms should be in a style appropriate for 1943. Of them is a 20 year-old Hazel Gluck (see panel below). Her smiling face is surrounded by a circle to distinguish her from the rest of the nurses.

CAPTION – PSEUDO-NARRATION (1): And the presence of a U.S. Navy hospital meant the presence of U.S. Navy nurses. We were able to interview one of the survivors.

Translation (1): E la presenza di un ospedale della Marina statunitense significava la presenza di infermiere statunitensi. Siamo riusciti a intervistare uno dei sopravvissuti.

Panel 2: An “interview pose” panel, showing HAZEL GLUCK (“Hazel”). In this panel she is a very aged, frail old lady with thick eyeglasses.

Hazel (2): I remember how when we were first posted to Motofupo, there was this lovely beach with beautiful water to go swimming in.

Translation (2): Ricordo che quando ci mandarono per la prima volta a Motofupo, c’era questa bellissima spiaggia con acque limpide dove andare a nuotare.

SUBTITLE – IDENTIFYING TAG (3): Lt. Hazel Gluck, USN, Ret.

Comment (3): “Lt.” is an abbreviation for “Lieutenant,” the third-from-lowest commissioned officer rank in the United States Navy. “USN” is an abbreviation for “United States Navy” and “Ret.” means “retired,” no longer on active service.

Translation (3): Tenente Hazel Gluck, marinaio USA, in pensione.

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