Don't let the title fool you: this one is a hot jump tune, built for the Lindy Hop. The path I had in mind is one of those Eastern-style garden walks paved with broken colored glass, the kind that catches the sunlight and throws it back in dancing patterns of red and blue and gold. Put a couple of Lindy Hoppers on it, and let the light chase their feet.

The Pacific news that month had some jump of its own. On June 30, 1943, the Allies launched Operation Cartwheel, the campaign to close in on Rabaul, Japan's great base on New Britain. American troops landed on Rendova Island in the New Georgia group of the Solomons, and American and Australian forces came ashore at Nassau Bay on the coast of New Guinea—the first of a long string of hops up the two island chains. There were months of hard fighting ahead. But the war out there was finally moving forward, on two fronts at once.