“Good trip?” she asked, stepping in time with Lily.
“Three days, three bases, three beds and three planes,” Lily replied wearily summing up her journey.
“Almost as many beds as Sadie managed in the same time,” Rita grinned, nodding wide-eyed as Lily looked at her for confirmation.
Rolling her eyes at the news Lily shook her head, “When will she learn, she gives the rest of us a bad name.” Lily started to unbuckle her parachute as they walked. “Does she realize that her hopping in, and out, of officer’s beds means we get hassle? They think we've all been tarred with the same harlot brush.”
Rita put Lily's case down and held out her hands to help her friend shrug off the heavy parachute. “I'm not sure she's thinking about much,” Rita surmised hanging the chute up.
Lily handed her paperwork in, pulled coins out of a zipped pocket of her leather jacket and slotted them into the soda dispenser, she tugged the knob then reached in pulling out a cool bottle of Coca Cola.
“So what did I miss while I was gone?” Lily asked placing the bottle against the metal opener and thrusting the bottle down, the cap released from the bottle with a small audible hiss. She gave Rita an expectant look as she took a long sip from the bottle.
“There's rumors of some of us being selected for bomber training,” Rita replied excitedly, her blonde curls bobbed around as she spoke, creating a pang of longing in Lily for Helen.
It was late March and it seemed almost impossible to Lily that the time could have gone so quickly and yet it feel like a lifetime since she'd held Helen.
“Are you listening to me?” Rita smiled waving her hand in front of Lily's face.
“Sorry, million miles away there,” Lily shook her head and focused on Rita.
“You know I scored pretty high in navigation in training and I'm pretty sure that Kansas isn't that far away.”
Lily smiled, Rita had figured out that Lily had a sweetheart based elsewhere from the excitement that would flush her face when she received mail; however, Lily never discussed Helen with Rita or corrected the assumption that her sweetheart was a man.
“May as well be,” Lily replied sadly. Rita looked in surprise at the unusually candid response from the dark haired woman. “So, bomber training?” she asked.
Rita opened her mouth to reply but halted at a shout of Lily’s name. Lily looked in the direction of the shout and grinned as she realized that Doris was coming towards her, waving papers in her hand. Rita shook her head knowing that their conversation was effectively at an end.
“Come find me when you're done,” Rita said rubbing Lily's arm.
Lily murmured an acknowledgment her eyes monitoring Doris' approach.
“'You got mail,” Doris smiled handing Lily a small pile of letters. Lily took the papers and flashed Doris a smile full of thanks.
Lily entered her room, tossed the mail onto her cot, and placed her soda bottle on her nightstand. She shrugged off her leather jacket, opening her locker she hung it up then automatically opened her drawer and pushed her clothing to the side, to reveal the framed photo of her and Helen. She traced a finger affectionately across Helen's face.
“Hey Hollywood,” she said softly, before replacing the clothing on top of the photo and unzipping her zoot suit. She pulled her arms out of the overall letting the top half drop to her sides and loosened her black tie, slipping the knot over her head. Opening the top button of her blue flight shirt, she picked up her half-full soda bottle and flopped onto her bed. Drinking from the bottle her free hand sorted through her mail, she recognized her sister’s spiky handwriting style, Adrienne's looping letters, Lucy's neat print, finally finding the handwriting that looked like a spider had fallen into an ink well and crawled over the paper while doing a small jig. She was about to open it when the next envelope sparked curiosity. She picked up the brown envelope with her name typed neatly in the center. She balanced the soda bottle between her thighs and slipping her finger under the seal she opened the envelope and pulled out the papers. Lily took in a deep breath, puffing out her cheeks as she read that she had been selected to attend Bomber School and was to report to the training base in Florida in two weeks’ time. She was flattered to be chosen but also nervous. She knew that Bomber School meant flying B26 Marauder's which had the worst reputation with pilots who had nicknamed it with a range of names from 'Flying Coffin' to 'Widowmaker' she let her breath out slowly putting the letter to one side and picked up Helen's letter deciding to distract herself with her favorite blonde.
She opened the letter and unfolded it carefully ready to read what Helen had been up to. Like most serving personnel, they were always careful in their letters not to give specific details of what they were doing in terms of the planes they flew but they also had to fight with the balance of missing each other and wanting to express that while not exposing the nature of their relationship. Lily found it a difficult line to walk when she wrote meaning her letters were usually short and filled with hints towards what she couldn't say. Helen's letters on the other hand were full of stories from the base.
Dearest Liliana
Greetings from your favorite machine-gun fodder! Things have been hectic here recently now that I'm flying. I'm not just doing training flights, they have me doing test flights for the mechanics as well…my feet barely touch the ground. Remind me to tell you some of the hair-raising stories of that when I see you!
I've finally been allowed off base, seems the major isn't one to hold a grudge. He maintains that I'm less of a danger in the air than in the office, apparently my coffee making abilities could be the Allies’ secret weapon. He reckoned that if we served up my coffee to Hitler the war would be over in no time…not sure how to take that!
Matty has settled in, have to say it's nice to have another fly girl on the base. Now that I'm off the hook with Chissy (As I like to call him ) we went to the movies on Saturday and saw 'Four Jills in a Jeep' movie wasn't much to write home about, but Alice Faye sang. I thought that you’d enjoy the song. Now I might get some of the words wrong but I think it went something like…
“You'll never know just how much I miss you
You'll never know just how much I care
And if I tried, I still couldn't hide my love for you
You ought to know, 'cause haven't I told you so
A million or more times?
Have been thinking (a lot!) about your pre-flight instruction technique, your handling of the wobble pump in particular along with your take off is something that impressed me -and something that I long to put into practice. I look forward to being your co-pilot again soon.
IWU
Helen
Lily let out a frustrated growl and smacked her hands down on the hard mattress, her head thumped against her thin pillow. She raised her hand and re-read the final paragraph again before kicking her legs rapidly against her bed.
“Someone having a temper tantrum?” Rita remarked from the doorway.
Lily looked up, surprised at the voice. “Something like that,” she replied sitting up and stuffing Helen's letter back into its envelope. She stood up and straightened her shirt. “I have to report to Florida in two weeks,” Lily announced, masking her concern at being chosen. Rita jumped slightly in celebration, hopping forward to hug Lily.
“Congratulations!”
Lily returned the hug, then pulled away and picked up Helen's letter to stow it with the ever-increasing collection of correspondence from the blonde.
“What am I going to do without you for six weeks?” Rita mused.
“Try and keep Sadie's knees together,” Lily joked about her roommate and her nocturnal habits.
“How ‘bout you give me something easier! Like World peace,” Rita replied dryly, sparking a guffaw from Lily. “I came to see if you wanted to eat, mess will stop serving soon.”
Lily's stomach growled in response.
“I guess that's a yes,” Lily smiled, quickly grabbing her tie and Eisenhower short jacket and dressing as they walked.
***
Lily was woken to a thud on the head.
“Morning, sunshine,” Sadie sang.
Grumbling a response Lily sat up and checked her watch, not believing that the night had passed already. Wearily she got out of bed and padded behind her roommate.
Sadie stood in front of the mirror, pulling at the skin her eyelids. “All the squinting because of the sun is giving me wrinkles,” she complained, pouting her full lips. As quickly as the pout appeared it left her face again replaced with a large smile, “We're flying short haul together again today.”
For the past two days the three WASPs had been delivering utility planes to a nearby base. Lily tried to match Sadie's smile and enthusiasm for the trip but two days of doing the same hour-long flight before boarding another plane home to repeat the process several times a day, was starting to bore her.
Rita entered the small shared bathroom, wash bag in one hand the other rubbing sleep from her eyes.
“How exciting,” she yawned.
“It is ‘cause today we're going to spice it up,” Sadie trilled hopping onto her toes.
Lily and Rita exchanged slightly worried glances at what the blonde's plans to 'spice' up their day would bring.
***
“Sleeping Beauty. It's Hot Lips. Do you read me?”
Lily looked over to her left, through the small cockpit window towards Sadie's plane.
“I read you Jones,” Lily point blank refused to call Sadie ‘Hot Lips’. Therefore, when she could she would ignore her call name when on the radio, “What's up?”
Sadie pulled back her lips in a smile, “You see those suspension lines ahead? You think you can fly under them?”
Lily focused her attention to the front, spotting the poles holding the high wires that Sadie referred to. Doing a quick mental calculation Lily broke from their formation and swooped down, easily clearing the lines that crisscrossed their way across the landscape. Whooping as she pulled the plane back up to the formation Lily chuckled into her mouthpiece, “What you mean? Like that?”
“Show off,” Rita interjected laughing looking across to Lily's plane.
On their fourth trip of the day it was Lily's turn again to navigate the impromptu course they had created for themselves to relieve the boredom of the flight. She dropped the plane down, However, this time, she misjudged the sag in one of the lines. The cable snagged on her wing, causing the plane to list momentarily. Lily fought with the controls to keep the plane level, her heart started to race as for a split second she thought she was going down. Fortunately, the wire snapped from the poles, wrapping itself tightly around the wing. Taking a deep breath Lily put the plane back into a climb to join her friends.
“Good luck explaining that when we land,” Sadie laughed inspecting the wing of Lily's plane from her vantage point, remarkably there seemed little damage to the wing itself. However, it was bearing a rather telling length of thick cable wound around it.
Lily laughed, the relief evident in her tone, “Let’s go for boring next time we do the trip. That was a bit more spice than I have an appetite for.”
***
Sitting out on the flight line, Lily tapped her lips with her pen, she loved coming out here to relax. She felt an overwhelming sense of comfort from the noise and activity around the hangars. It reminded her of her childhood and despite the racket from the engines, she felt at peace, there were only two other places in the world that provided that feeling, sitting in the orchestra, lost in the music that was playing and the other…Helen's arms.
Helen,
Machine gun fodder? Explain!
I'm glad that Matty is making Dodge a more enjoyable experience for you.
Lily paused, she was happy that there was another WASP on the base, as she'd detected in Helen's letters an unhappiness, despite obvious attempts to keep her correspondence upbeat. The first weeks particularly seemed to have been tough, Lily was grateful that in her first few weeks she had been kept busy flying, which gave some distraction to her misery at being parted from Helen. Up until her little flying display – which, when Lily had read about it, had caused her to laugh for a good ten minutes at Helen's description of the major's face as she flew over him - it seemed that Helen had been office bound. Having seen Helen when rain kept them grounded during training, Lily could not imagine Helen not flying regularly, the thought of the blonde sitting behind a desk conjured up the image of a tiger that Lily had seen when she and Henry had visited the zoo in Central Park on one of their first dates. She had watched as the tiger prowled back and forth in its small enclosure and had felt sorry that those strong muscles would never get the chance to run the speed and distance they were designed for, instead destined to only pace back and forth. Helen was destined to fly.
It's good that you're getting the chance to fly, I hope however that you're not doing any more dangerous aerobatics.
Lily smiled to herself thinking of her own recent moment of insanity and more so, the ground crew’s faces when she had parked in the stand with a long length of wire attached to her wing. At their quizzical looks, Lily had merely shrugged and announced that it must have been there when she picked it up, before hopping into the truck beside her laughing friends to be driven to their ride home.