Roberta Writes – Reblog: “The Soldier and the Radium Girl Part 1: The Bloom of Youth, Chapter 1: Enlist in haste, repent at leisure” by Roberta Eaton Cheadle

Thank you to Nolcha Fox for serialising the first chapter of my work in progress book, The Soldier and the Radium Girl on Chewers by Masticadores. This is the first section.

Jake Tanner

14 April 2017

He’d enlisted, and he could honestly say it was Nora Bayes’ fault. Jake had been enjoying a soda with his girl, Kate, and some friends at Eddie’s Pharmacy when the hit song, “Over There,” came on the radio.

        Over there, over there,
Send the word, send the word over there
That the Yanks are coming, the Yanks are coming
The drum’s rum-tumming everywhere
So prepare, say a prayer,
Send the word, send the word to beware
We’ll be over, we’re coming over
And we won’t come back till it’s over, over there

The words fired the patriotism of all the young men and by the end of the song, they’d all joined in, belting out the words in loud, excited voices. Slurping down the last cold mouthfuls of their ice cream sodas, they’d collectively decided to go and kill themselves a few German Bosch.

“We’re gonna wipe them out,” Beau cried. “Fucking Bosch want to rule the world, but they’ve got to get past us first.”

Continue reading here: https://chewersmasticadores.wordpress.com/2025/10/10/the-soldier-and-the-radium-girl-part-1-the-bloom-of-youth-chapter-1-enlist-in-haste-repent-at-leisure-by-roberta-eaton-cheadle/

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