The Flight Girls Page 3

  I breathed in the cool air, watching as a streak of tangerine seared the sky.

  “I could look at that all day.” Lieutenant Hart startled me as he spoke through the intercom system Bill had rigged in the little Fairchild.

  Unlike the bombers and fighter planes, trainers didn’t have radios. But after a near accident when a trainee didn’t understand his trainer’s signals to hand the controls over the week before we girls arrived on the island, Bill had mounted a microphone in each cockpit and wired two helmets with headphones. I’d only been shocked twice so far.

  I stared at the back of the lieutenant’s head. Was I to answer him? Was he commenting or making conversation?

  I heard my mother’s voice in my head, admonishing me. Audrey, dear, it’s impolite not to respond.

  While I struggled to find the right words, he spoke again.

  “How long have you been flying?” he asked, turning his head slightly and giving me a view of his chiseled profile.

  I sighed. This was easier. A direct question. I could answer a direct question.

  “I began flying for the army on June fourth, sir,” I said.

  “And before that?”

  “Oh!” I said, my cheeks coloring. “You meant—Twelve. I was twelve, sir.”

  “You’ve got me beat,” he said. “I didn’t start until I was fourteen. I grew up in a town with only a couple hundred people so finding someone to teach me wasn’t easy. My mother ended up paying the crop duster two farms over to do it, much to my father’s horror. Who taught you?”

  “My father,” I said. “And old Hal Hudson. He owns the little airfield I learned at.”

  “Your father, huh? He didn’t worry about you flying?”

  “He always wanted a boy so he was thrilled when I took interest.”

  “Is he a professional pilot then? Is that what he does for work?”

  “No. Flying is a hobby,” I said. “He works in oil.”

  My father was oil. Big oil. Texas oil. But I didn’t talk about that here. Back home everyone knew I was the firstborn daughter of Christian and Genevieve Coltrane, and lived in the elegant farmhouse-style mansion in Preston Hollow. Here, I was just a girl who loved to fly. Which was the simple truth of me.

  “And your mother? What does she think about you flying?” he asked.

  “My mother would like my feet on the ground, preferably surrounded by several pairs of other little feet.”

  “Ah. I know this argument well,” he said with a chuckle. “So how did you get her to let you come here?”

  “I didn’t,” I said. “He did.”

  We zipped along Maui’s northern coastline, passing Paia and glimpsing waterfalls in the deep-forested hills before rounding the northeastern tip to where the rugged shoreline of Hāna hid.

  We flew across the southern part of the island toward Molokini. Below us the Pacific sparkled around the little crescent piece of land as though the sky had rained diamonds overnight. The yellow halo of the sun began to make its appearance, pulling the blue from the skyline as she prepared to make her grand entrance without competition.

  I did another Immelmann and then dropped us lower for the split-S, my heart sinking. If I didn’t do this well, I had a feeling I’d never be allowed to do it again.

  I flexed my fingers and squeezed my eyes shut for a brief moment before pulling the throttle back.

  I performed the maneuver as I always had, with precision and meticulous attention to my surroundings. The Fairchild, as she always did, glided effortlessly through the thick Hawaiian sky as I finessed her around and down, slicing through the air and then leveling out.

  “Again,” the lieutenant said.

  I went through the maneuver three more times and then he took the controls and tried it for himself.

  “Effortless,” he said, giving the controls back to me.

  “That’s why she’s my favorite,” I said and steered us back toward Wheeler.

  “She suits you.”

  I smiled in the island wind.

  “What will you do after you tire of all this beauty?” he asked. “Will you find another base to teach at? Or maybe a flight school?”

  No man had ever asked me that before. As though I had plans, a vision for my life other than what had come to be expected of a woman. As though I were more than just a creature whose mere existence was solely dependent on serving men.

  “I’m going to buy an airfield,” I said and held my breath.

  But if I was expecting him to balk at my idea, I had another think coming.

  “Do you have one in mind?” he asked.

  I blinked. “I do,” I said. “Hudson Airfield, where I learned. Hal wants to retire in a few years. I’ve let him know it is my intention to purchase it.”

  “Would you run it and hire others to do the flying for you?” he asked. “Or would you fly as well?”

  “I have to fly,” I said. “At least part-time. The place needs a lot of work. It’s old and some of the hangars are leaning. There’s a little café and general store I’d love to fix up.”

  “Is there a hotel nearby?”

  “No, why?” I asked as I flew us west over the north shore of Oahu.

  “If you had a small hotel, just a dozen or so rooms, then anyone flying in for the night could stay there instead of heading into town. Especially if it’s a late flight in. Or an early one out for that matter. Might make you a few extra dollars.”

  My mind reeled. I knew just where it could go. There was a stretch of bare land where Hal had contemplated putting in another runway, but the airfield was so small, it really wasn’t needed. A hotel though...

  “That’s a great idea,” I said. “Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome.”

  “Well, what about you?” I asked, mustering up the courage to ask some questions of my own. “Is flying a hobby or your life? Are there other things you’d like to do for the army?”

  “If you can believe it—flying for the army is all I’ve ever wanted to do. Since I was five, maybe six. I saw a picture of my grandfather in uniform and knew it was for me. My plan is to keep rising in the ranks and then retire somewhere warm one day. Maybe here. Maybe elsewhere.”

  “And a wife? Kids?” I was glad he couldn’t see my face as I blushed furiously at my own question.

  “Maybe. But neither is high on my list of priorities.”

  “Oh,” I said. “So you don’t have... You’re not...”

  “Married? No!” he said and then threw back his head as he laughed. “Sorry. Did that sound terrible? I’m not against the idea. Not entirely anyway. I’m just not sure it’s for me. I want to travel the world. You know, fly off for a weekend at a moment’s notice. I don’t know if that would be possible if I had a family. Did you think I was married?”

  “I just thought... I often see you eating alone. And you go to the beach by yourself. I assumed you had someone back home. A wife. A fiancée. Something.”

  “I’ve noticed you spend a lot of time alone as well,” he said. “Are you married?”

  “No!” I said.

  “You sound about as interested in the institution as I do.”

  “What gave me away?” I asked.

  He chuckled low and deep in my ears.

  “I know people think it’s odd,” I said. “It makes my mother crazy. She doesn’t understand at all. But it’s never been a goal of mine. I’ve dated, of course...mostly to keep her happy, but every man I’ve ever gone out with expressed, in no uncertain terms, that they thought it was nifty I like to fly, but no woman of theirs would continue to do so if she were to become their wife.”

  “Sounds like you were going out with the wrong men,” he said.

  “I don’t think there’s a right man for me,” I said. “And that’s okay. I like my freedom.”

 
“I’ve encountered a bit of the same,” he said. “The women I’ve taken out expect me to come down from the clouds once marriage is on the table and get a nice desk job. But I don’t like wearing a suit and tie. So, as you can imagine, marriage never makes it to the table.”

  “And rightly so,” I said.

  “I have to say, you are a breath of fresh air, Miss Coltrane.”

  “And you have given me faith in the male species, Lieutenant Hart. Limited faith, but still, it’s more than I had before we took off.”

  We bumped down onto the runway a few minutes later.

  “That was spectacular,” Lieutenant Hart said. “She handles better than I remembered.”

  “She’s a good little plane.”

  “Her pilot isn’t so bad either. I’ll be your copilot anytime, Miss Coltrane.”

  But the moment we disembarked the lightness between us disappeared as we stood fidgeting with our goggles in the early morning sunlight, our eyes glancing off one another.

  “Well, thank you for coming in early.” He gave Roxy a pat. “And for reminding me what a great plane this is.”

  “You’re welcome, sir.”

  He gave me that one-sided grin of his and raked a hand through his dark hair.

  “Can I—”

  “Sorry. I don’t mean to interrupt,” I said, checking my watch. “But I have to go. There’s only one car between the four of us girls and I have it. I need to retrieve them before our shift starts or Mae will have our hides.”

  I swung the parachute from my back and pulled my helmet off, my updo not holding, blond strands tumbling around my face. I tucked them behind my ear and frowned as he held out his hand.

  “I didn’t know about the car,” he said, his brow furrowed. “I’m sorry to inconvenience you. Let me take your things. I’ll let Mae know it’s my fault if you’re late.”

  “Oh, you don’t have to do that. Truly. I—”

  “Your good manners are going to make you even later, Miss Coltrane.”

  “Right. Thank you, Lieutenant.”

  I ran for the car. There was no way we’d make it back in time. Mae would be furious, no matter what Lieutenant Hart said and even though he was her superior.

  “Hurry, hurry, hurry,” I muttered under my breath, waiting for the guards to wave me out.

  We were six minutes late, ducking in and sprinting to the supply room to grab our gear.

  “Nice of you all to show up,” Mae said as we rushed back to the hangar, clipboards in hand. “Your assignments.” She handed us each a small stack of paper.

  I glanced down at the first name on my list. Corporal Harper was a favorite among us instructors. Somehow the arrogance gene so many male pilots boasted had skipped him, leaving a kind and intelligent young man who loved to fly and didn’t care if his instructors were female. He was talkative, curious and always up for one of our shift-ending races.

  Lieutenant Hart was already talking to the recruits, running them through the day’s maneuvers, reminding them of their responsibilities as pilots for the army, and their manners.

  The men dispersed at lunchtime and Ruby and Catherine went to the car to take a nap while Jean and I ate lunch in the break room with Mae.

  “You girls give any more thought to that ferrying program I told you about?” Mae asked from behind the newspaper she was reading. “I hear Ms. Love ain’t allowed to recruit anyone yet, but perhaps you should send her a letter if you’re interested. I’m happy to write you a recommendation—not that I want to lose the two of you, but it might be a good opportunity.”

  Nancy Harkness Love. A pioneer for women in aviation. She’d participated in air races, performed as a test pilot and had even ferried a plane overseas. And now, Mae had heard she was trying to put a group of female pilots together for some sort of ferrying program for the military.

  “I have,” Jean said. “I just don’t know if Joe will allow it. It was hard enough getting him to agree to this job. If it weren’t for a wedding to pay for, he’d have said no. And I don’t want to have to commit to a time period. We’re supposed to get married next summer. Who knows how they’ll be about time off. I can’t get stuck halfway across the country from my fiancé when I’m supposed to be saying I do at the altar.”

  “What about you, Dallas?”

  “I’ve given it some thought,” I said, shoving my hands in the pockets of my flight suit. “I might be interested, depending on the timing.”

  “You’d get to travel all over the country instead of just doing circles around these islands.”

  “I like doing circles around these islands.”

  “That feeling will wear off,” she said.

  But there would be rules and uniforms in Ms. Love’s program. More so, it sounded, than here. And having escaped my mother’s strict regime only months before, I wasn’t too keen on jumping back into a situation where I was being regulated. My job under Mae as a subcontracted pilot for the army was a dream. I flew during the day and went to the beach in the evenings, or just curled up on a blanket beneath the lemon tree in our backyard reading a book. And I was on my own here. Truly on my own, for the first time ever. No mother to poke her nose into my business. No father to lean on when things got stressful. No kid sister to complain to. It was just me, making it on my own. Making something of myself.

  “Well, something to keep in mind,” she said. “Shoot, if this war keeps on like it has been, they may ask all of us to give a hand ferrying those planes, here and overseas. And if the war comes here, they may even ask us to fight. I’d happily pick up a gun and fight those Nazi bastards.”

  She left the little room then and I picked up the newspaper she’d left on the table. USS Kearny Torpedoed Off Iceland, the headline read. My heart sank. The war was getting closer.

  Being on the island, surrounded by officers whose lives were dedicated to the protection of their country, rather than at home where the war was barely spoken of in most circles, made me feel a part of the wider world. In Dallas they called it Europe’s war. A clear distinction. It was not ours. It was spoken of in passing mostly. Comments about a news report read or heard, but many had no interest in getting involved. It was “their” problem.

  Here on Oahu, talk of the war was more commonplace. There was still debate over whether the United States should enter or not, but the officers were trained for war—and many were keen to get in it.

  Even in our home the opinion was split. Catherine and Ruby thought it not our place to enter.

  “It’s none of our business,” Ruby had said one day.

  “People are dying just for being who they are,” Jean argued. “For being born!”

  “I just don’t think it’s up to us to save the people of another country. Their own people should stand up and do it.”

  Jean had sighed and thrown her hands up in exasperation. “She just doesn’t want any of her playmates taken from her,” she’d said to me later. “God forbid there be one less oversize dimwit for her to kiss.”

  I’d nodded in agreement.

  Jean and I, two women who above all else loved the freedoms we’d fought to attain and that life had rewarded us, believed that as a country we should rise up and wield our power for the good of those being tormented and killed. Would lives be lost? Yes. Would fathers, brothers and sons once again be sent overseas to give their lives for a war that wasn’t theirs? Yes. But by doing so, lives would be saved, countries salvaged, the world would be stronger for it, and freedom would be a right afforded to every man, woman and child.

  “We’re just two girls whose opinions only began to matter twenty years ago—and even then we’ve got a long way to go. We’re not even allowed to join the military.”

  I chewed my lip as I read the end of the article about the USS Kearny. Eleven men had been killed, a couple dozen more injured. I sighed and folded the paper in ha
lf and set it on the table. Targeting our ships could only mean one thing. Our inclusion was imminent, and the outcome of our country joining would change us all.

  Chapter Four

  The grim news from overseas continued to permeate our daily lives. But we carried on as if we didn’t have a care in the world, playing in the Hawaiian sunshine and going about our simple lives.

  And when we did have moments of fear, the men Ruby and Catherine hung around with were quick to assure us that America was too strong to be worried about being attacked—and too smart to get involved in other people’s business.

  Their ideals left me feeling uneasy and slightly sickened.

  “They can’t touch us,” Don said as he reclined on our little sofa, Ruby at his feet, one Saturday evening in November. “They wouldn’t even dare. Have you seen those battleships out there?” He waved in the direction of the harbor. “They’d have no chance. And right next to the ships is a fleet of planes! Planes with guns! I will admit I’m a little disappointed though. I’d love to get a piece of this war. Get in the action. Show those Nazi bastards where the real power is.”

  He flexed a bicep and Ruby swooned.

  I eased out of my seat at the dining table where I’d been reading and walked down the hall to my bedroom. I hated the way he spoke, arrogant and foolish. I didn’t know how Ruby could stand him.

  I pulled a navy sweater from the closet and slid on a pair of shabby sandals I’d bought when I’d first arrived on the island in lieu of the several pairs of heels my mother had insisted I pack. Grabbing my handbag from the hook on the wall, I glanced in the full-length mirror on the back of the closet door. My hair hung in loose waves around my shoulders and my cheeks were pink from the anger I’d been holding back listening to Ruby’s beau speak.

  After brushing the tube of pink across my lips, I returned to the sitting room. “Anyone mind if I take the car?” I asked.

  “Where are you going?” Jean asked.

  “I’m not sure yet, but I won’t be late.” I fixed Don with a stare. “You can drive them if they want to go out, can’t you, Don?”