Sky Queen

by Judy Kundert

  “That’s a good girl. I was just joshing you. I knew you had an early check-in. If you’d gone, I’d think you were violating the 8-24 drinking rule. Now, where are you headed?”

  “Flight 210 to LAX.”

  “Okay. You’re checked in, but you have an appearance check with a supervisor.” He paused, stood up, and leaned over the counter to give her a quick review. He gave her a peace sign. “You look fantastic. Have a safe trip.”

  Katherine released her breath. “Thanks. See you soon.”

  On the way to her supervisor’s office, Katherine trod on the opposite side of the weigh-in scale. She slipped two fingers inside her skirt waistline and sighed. I’m okay with my weight. Regulation hair length, nails painted, uniform neat, girdle on, hose check, and shoes polished. Katherine sighed. I should pass with flying colors. Katherine stopped outside the supervisor’s office, waiting for her to look up from the papers on her desk.

  Like a master drill sergeant, the supervisor stood aloof and curled her upper lip as she surveyed Katherine. With a casual hand wave, she lifted her head and walked over for a closer review. “Please stand and turn around.” Katherine turned and smiled.

  The supervisor nodded. “Well, you’re okay with the regulation appearance stuff. And I don’t think you need a weight check. You look fantastic. Sign my review report. And please sit.”

  Katherine sat across from the supervisor to sign the report.

  “What’s that?” the supervisor asked, pointing at her wings.

  Katherine reached up and touched her wings and exclaimed. “My stewardess wings.”

  “No, no. Something is sticking out from behind your wings under your blouse. Let me see it.”

  Katherine’s body chilled. Her hands shook. I can’t show my precious Thunderbird. It’s not regulation. I don’t want to get busted. She rubbed her wings. “It must be a reflection. There’s nothing there.”

  Her supervisor leaped across her desk, staring right at Katherine’s neckline. “You’re hiding something. Pull it out.”

  Katherine tugged at her necklace and took time pulling it up and out from under her wings. The turquoise protector flew over Katherine’s blouse neckline and glared at the supervisor.

  The supervisor waved her hands toward the amulet. “Take it off right now. You can’t work your trip wearing it.”

  The amulet wasn’t just another piece of costume jewelry. This particular necklace united Katherine to everything in her being. Her body quivered, and her voice cracked. “It’s a gift from my Chippewa great-grandmother. I’ve worn it on every flight. It gives me protection. No one sees it.”

  The supervisor’s face went from porcelain to crimson. Her voiced lifted to the ceiling. “No one sees it. I saw it.” She pounded her hand on her desk. “You know the rules. No crosses, no Star of David, and no lucky charms such as yours.”

  Turning points in one’s life appear out of nowhere. After the signs and her mother’s message, Katherine knew at this moment; she had to stand for her destiny. Being a stewardess was a grand tour on the way to her true calling. Katherine leaned forward, inches away from her supervisor’s dark accusing eyes. “If I don’t take it off, what will happen?”

  The supervisor leaned back, straightened her back, and shuffled papers. “You will be given two weeks off without pay. And when you return, you can’t wear that necklace.”

  Katherine’s mind rushed, and her heart pounded. She saw two streams flowing in opposite directions. One stream rushed into a lush green meadow that had no end. The other drifted over dry, barren soil. “Okay. I’ll take the two weeks with no pay.”

  Her supervisor pursed her lips. “And you’ll return to work without that necklace?”

  Katherine looked up at the ceiling and returned to give her supervisor a forceful stare. “I’ll take the two weeks to think about it.”

  36

  FREEDOM PRANCED IN THE AIR. A canopy rainbow glowed. Imaginary rose petals surrounded Katherine’s mind as she walked from the supervisor’s office to the O’Hare Airport shuttle bus. Today, it was her chariot with twelve white horses instead of a big tin can full of people. Katherine fought the urge to take off her hat and throw it in the air. The test had appeared—her necklace—and Katherine hadn’t backed down. Soaring Eagle and his partners had cleared a path for her. Someone always told her that you’d know when things were right.

  Is this my last journey on the expressway as a stewardess? She wondered. What roads will I take? And where will they lead me?

  “Katherine!” Emma Jean squealed from her seat two rows back. “Darlin’, what’s up with you?” E. J. patted Katherine’s hand. “This must be kismet. I wanted to call you when I got home.” Emma Jean held her hands in fists in front of her and produced a closed-mouth smile that looked like she had a world of words to spell out. Then, she thrust her left hand in front of Katherine’s nose. A diamond as big as the end of Katherine’s nose glowed. “I’m getting married!”

  Katherine paused to breathe. What news to share. Emma Jean had been her best friend since she’d started flying out of Chicago. Now her friend was moving on. Just like her. “Wow. I’m thrilled for you.” Pausing again to gather her thoughts, Katherine turned and hugged her friend. “I want to know all about him and your wedding plans.”

  “Can we meet tomorrow morning at the Third Coast? I’ll tell you then! Okay?”

  “I won’t sleep tonight. Can’t you tell me anything right now?”

  Emma Jean stretched and sat with a smile that looked like Katherine’s imaginary rainbow. “No, you must hear the story in one sitting..”

  “Oh, I’m so excited for you. Only my Emma Jean deserves a fairy-tale romance.” Katherine decided not to tell Emma Jean about her two weeks off. “I have some news to share with you too. Mine’s not a fairy tale, but for me, it’s just as thrilling.”

  Emma Jean turned toward Katherine, smiled at her face, and surveyed it for clues. And then she lifted Katherine’s left hand. “Well, Darlin’, what else is there but fairy tales?”

  “Oh, golly, there’s a lot out there. And I’m ready for it.”

  Waiting for Emma Jean, Katherine contemplated the Third Coast and its crowd. Stale mustiness filled the air. Nothing in this place had changed in the two years since she and Emma Jean had started their friendship. This coffee shop was where they met and shared their life adventures. As rookie stewardesses on their first flights out of stewardess school, they’d bonded like a perfect yin and yang: Katherine a freedom horse running with the wind, Emma Jean an elegant swan floating on a lily pond. The past two years gave Katherine a friendship with favor, love, and adventure in a new world. Anaïs Nin’s words on friendship fit Katherine’s magical journey: “Each friend represents the world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born.”

  A flood of memories prompted a sliver of a tear to slip down Katherine’s cheeks. A familiar laugh jolted her. Emma Jean stood at her table and placed a pink floral gift-wrapped package on the table in front of Katherine.

  Katherine bolted up. “Boy, am I going to miss my sweet southern lady.”

  Emma Jean kept her friend close. “Oh, Darlin’, I already bawled my heart out. Please come and visit Andrew and me in Charleston.”

  Katherine pulled back from her friend to admire her glow. She motioned for her friend sit down. “Now you, I can’t wait to know all about Andrew from Charleston.”

  Emma Jean leaned back and held her head high. “Oh, my dream came true all in one person. Mama asked me to visit home for her Charleston Garden Club show. I think I told you about Mama’s love of gardening. That’s the week you had a different line of flying. I tried to call you, but you were never home.” She winked at Katherine. “Is it that fella I saw you with on the street a while ago? I almost wrote you a note to ask you if he was your special man.”

  Katherine leaned forward. “We’ll talk about that later. Tell me all about Andrew!”

  “
Oh, Darlin’, I’ll miss your northern impatience. We Southerners go too slow.” Emma Jean pointed to the wrapped gift. “Open it!”

  “Emma Jean, I didn’t know we were exchanging gifts today. I don’t have a gift for you.”

  “I don’t expect a gift. You’ve already blessed me with a new way to look at life. What you gave me was experiences that I will laugh and cry about for many years.” She put her fingers to her lips. “One thing, for sure, when you meet Mama and Papa, never mention the Playboy party. Mama will faint. Papa would still horsewhip me.”

  Katherine laughed and unwrapped the gift. “Okay. My lips are locked, and the key is missing. Don’t you remember all our museum tours and art lectures? I’ll tell your Mama and Papa all about them.” She winked at her friend. “I’m good at writing stories.”

  Katherine folded the wrapping paper and examined the gift: a gold-engraved, leather-bound, illustrated volume of the Rubaiyat by Omar Khayyam. She held the volume to her chest and closed her eyes as memories zoomed past her mind. This book symbolized her friend and their friendship.

  “Darlin’, this is so you can remember me.”

  Katherine placed the book on the table and sighed. “Emma Jean, I hope we stay in touch, even after you return to your southern roots. Now, give me the full story about Andrew.”

  The sparkle in Emma Jean eyes competed with the glow from her four-carat art deco engagement ring. Emma Jean looked at her watch. “This will be the short version since I have a hair appointment at Bonwit in thirty minutes. I went with Mama to the lunch before the garden show where we met a lady friend of hers and her son. That was Andrew. I knew him from other Charleston events, but he’s five years older than me. But every time we’d meet, I would talk with him while we sipped delicious Southern Breeze punch. The more we drank, the more my heart flipped.

  “Well, he never asked me out since I was too young for him. Now that silly girl little is gone, and Andrew saw me as a woman. He said he’d liked me all these years but wanted to be proper and knew my parents would not approve of him as the older man. But, oh my, it was like the Fourth of July fireworks blast at Patriots Point when we had our first date at the Harbor Club. The electricity between us could have lit up the whole waterfront. After that, we had breakfast, lunch, and dinner together for a week.” She paused and smiled. “The final night before I went home, we went back to the Harbor Club. Guess what?” She clapped her hands and dropped them on her lap. “Over she-crab soup, he pulled out his grandmama’s ring and asked me to put my hand beneath the table, and he slipped this ring on my hand.”

  Katherine’s eyes moistened. “A true romance story. Your dreams come true!”

  Emma Jean put her hands to her lips. “Oh, dear, we can talk later. I can’t miss my appointment. But I want to thank you for showing me about being more than just a wife. I’m not going to work, but I am going to be a major volunteer for the Charleston Junior League. I’m going to give back to others. And you, my dear friend, inspired me.” Emma Jean looked at her watch. “Oh no, I have to go, but you had something to tell me too.”

  Katherine didn’t mind relinquishing her time. Her friend’s news meant more to her, and it would take too long to explain her mission to Emma Jean, “Oh, my story can wait. When you have time, I’ll catch up with you. Your news is so out of sight and mine is, well, I’ll tell you later.”

  Katherine waved at her friend as she walked out of the Third Coast and on to a new horizon. Would she ever tell Emma Jean about the turns in her life? Probably not, since Emma Jean would only pity her for not getting married and living happily ever after. She just smiled and sighed. I don’t need to give anyone an explanation. I’m the only one who needs to know the truth.

  37

  THE SUMMER BREEZE RIPPLED the treetops to create natural air-conditioning at the Ravinia Pavilion where Neal would soon meet her with a picnic. Katherine wondered if she’d get chilled in her spaghetti-strap linen blouse.

  Neal greeted her with a big kiss and gave her a hug that warmed her. “I found us a perfect place on the lawn.” He took her hand and led her toward to the festive picnic spread. Katherine beamed at the inviting picnic feast: a plaid outdoor mat covered with delectable food, including fried chicken, bean salad, fruit and cheese, and a variety of chocolates. There was also chilled wine, a loaf of bread, and flowers. “How was your flight?”

  Katherine coughed and looked away. “Oh, fine.”

  Katherine didn’t want to think about work. Instead, she recalled that last night she’d reread a Rubaiyat quote: “A book of verses underneath the bough, a flask of wine, a loaf of bread and thou, beside me singing in the wilderness, O wilderness were paradise now.” I can hear Emma Jean whispering, “Now you know what I meant for you to do with your life.”

  Neal guided her next to him on the blanket, poured a glass of wine, and offered a toast to Katherine: “To a fun summer night.”

  Katherine clicked her glass against his glass. “I love The Associations. Thanks for inviting me.”

  Neal smiled and gave Katherine a thumbs-up. “Yep, The Associations and The Buckinghams, those are two things that we share.” He paused and smiled. “The first time I stopped by to visit Charlotte, you had their song ‘Kind of a Drag’ playing. And you mentioned that you met Carl Giammarese, their guitarist, at Butch McGuire’s.” He leaned over and tickled her rib. “I was jealous of Carl.”

  Katherine’s cheeks burst into a red glow. She gave him a wink and lowered her head.

  He paused and sipped his wine. “Hey, I’m leaving for D.C. in a few weeks, as soon as I find out that it’s a sure thing with the Justice Department. I will miss you. Can you bid flights to D.C.? I hope often.”

  Katherine wrapped her arms around herself. Her outer chill competed with the arrows bouncing against her stomach. Katherine rubbed her neck and nibbled on a cuticle. What a coward I am. I couldn’t tell Emma Jean or my parents the saga of my two weeks’ suspension. Why can’t I tell Neal? Will even my parents think I did something wrong? She wondered. It was her doing. She’d stood up for herself. Now, she may not have a job. If she went back to work and didn’t wear her Thunderbird, what would she do? Maybe Neal will understand.

  “Well, to be honest with you, I might not be a stewardess any longer.” She paused and pursed her lips. She saw her younger self reporting to her parents that the principal had sent her home from school for misbehaving. But she hadn’t misbehaved; she’d acted with honor and dignity. She told Neal the whole story.

  “Wow,” he said when she’d finished. “You jumped! Good for you. It won’t be long before your wings take you up and away.”

  Katherine’s brow wrinkled. “Sure, it’s good, but how will I pay my rent and buy food? It’s frightening when reality plopped in my lap. When I was a high-flying stewardess, I could talk big and dream grand, but …” She pointed at a dark solo cloud. “Now what?”

  Neal smiled. “What happened to that dynamo?” He paused and pretended to look under the blanket. “You know her—the one who’s going to help the Chippewa tribe?”

  Katherine shrugged. “I took Mom’s words as my action plan. My common sense told me that’s all I could do. My friend, Emma Jean, is engaged. She had a solid plan. I completed that course at Northwestern and got an A.” She paused and smiled.

  Neal hugged her. “Congratulations. Maybe you want to transfer from Beloit College and finish at Northwestern?”

  Katherine sighed. “Northwestern is an excellent school, but for now I’ll finish my long overdue term paper for my anthropology class for my Beloit professor. I’ll ace it, and then what?”

  “I guess that’s your quest, to answer that very question.” He rubbed his chin. “Do you expect me to propose to you? Is that why you didn’t want to move in with me?”

  Katherine rolled her eyes and shook her head. “No! No! I’m just philosophical with the decisions that we make and the results.”

  “Okay, let’s be logical about your decision. First, you have two years of
college completed. Right?”

  Katherine nodded. “Yes.”

  “And you’ll have two more years to complete to get a degree in anthropology, right?”

  Katherine tapped her fingers on the blanket. “Yes, but where will it take me, even if I dig in to finish my studies? What are my options? Go home and work in Dad’s office as his secretary and slink through life?” Her hand trembled as she picked up a chicken leg and nibbled a bite. “Today, I scanned the Help Wanted ads in the Tribune for choices listed under women. First time I’d ever looked at the Help Wanted ads. I had no idea they were segregated according to sex. I could apply for a job as a posting machine operator, bookkeeper, or even a bridal consultant. Nothing else.” She took another bite of her chicken leg and stared at Neal. “The airlines were the pinnacle of discrimination against women. My dad even laments about their violation of the Civil Rights Act with respect to age discrimination. Don’t get me started.” Katherine paused and released a big breath. “You’re a lawyer, you know about that stuff.”

  Neal scratched his head and squeezed her hand. “Yeah, but you can overcome that detail. I wonder, where is the real Katherine? The one that’s full of dreams, inspiration, and talent.” He shrugged for her. “You’re a defeatist.” He paused, squinted, and peered behind her back. “Yep, I figured as much. No backbone!”

  Katherine laughed and rolled over on her back, fighting the urge to fall into his arms. She moved around, clutching at her back. “Guess what. My backbone is stiff and vigorous and ready for action. I needed that elbow nudge. You have a talent for unwinding twisted thoughts.” She leaned over and fell into a long kiss and an embrace with Neal.

  Neal leaned back and held her shoulders to look right in her face. “It’s good to have you back. Now you can make real plans. For starters, think about moving to D.C. with me where you can find the perfect career.”