by Murray Pura
“It’s as much a museum piece as Eddie Rickenbacker’s SPAD. It can’t do anything except look pretty in the sky.”
“We’ll see.” Raven returned the ten to the woman. “Pastor Thor needs a new shirt. This is our contribution.”
“Oh, my.” The woman was surprised. “You don’t like his shirt, Lieutenant?”
“We prefer blue. With coconuts and surfboards.”
Juggler looked at the others. “We do?”
Wizard rubbed his hands together. “Come on. Move along. Let’s eat. Grab a plate and fork and let me at the pig.”
“What’s the rush?” asked Batman. “The pig ain’t going anywhere.”
“But I am. The Hawaiian Rita Hayworth awaits. I need to discuss the Bible with her.” Wizard looked around. “And there she is. The future Mrs. Wizard.” He stopped dead. “Oh, boy. I really am in love. I haven’t seen anything that beautiful in my very long lifetime.”
“You’re only twenty-one.” Batman tried to find out who Wizard was staring at while he heaped potato salad onto his plate. “Where are you looking?”
“Over there. Under that palm tree. She’s talking to Pastor Thor, for pity’s sake.”
“Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.” Batman smiled. “I see her. Whooo. She’s as hot as the sun.”
“Hotter.”
No one else was paying any attention. Harrison and Juggler and Raven were digging into the greens and pineapple spears and people were bunching up in the line behind the group. Finally Juggler nudged Wizard.
“Hey. Romeo. Grab some chow and keep moving. You gotta eat, love or no love.”
“Man. She kills me. I’m dead. I don’t need food. I don’t need anything.”
“Oh, yeah? Glad to hear it. So maybe you’ll leave my mom’s Christmas cake alone when she sends the next batch over from Wisconsin.” He glanced up from the slices of roast pig. “Okay, where is the princess?” He spotted Pastor Thor. Then he gave a low whistle. “Oooo. I see what you mean. I think I’ve lost my appetite too.”
Batman helped himself to a glass of punch. “You know who she is, right? That little slice of sunlight and volcano?” He took a drink and looked at Pastor Thor and his companion. “That’s Thunderbird’s flight trainer.”
Wizard reacted. “What?”
Raven looked up from a platter of rice. “What?”
“Isn’t it? Isn’t that her?” asked Batman.
Her blond hair ignited as the sun dropped into the mountains behind them. Pastor Thor had said something that made her laugh and she tossed her head.
Like a wild mare, thought Raven in surprise.
She wore a Hawaiian skirt with red and pink flowers and a simple white T-shirt with a necklace of small seashells. Her arms and face and legs were gold in the sunset. Now and then she would draw her hand back through her hair and it would spark. Again the pastor made her laugh and she lifted her foot so that only one toe was touching the sand. Then she touched a finger to her lips and rubbed it back and forth slowly while she nodded her head. There was another necklace of seashells on her ankle that caught the last of the sun. It swung with every movement of her leg as she traced a pattern with her toe on the beach. Once she looked toward Raven and his friends. There was a final flare of light and her green eyes burst into flame.
You have tiger eyes.
She put a hand up to shield out the sun. Seeing the men in their uniforms she gave them a smile that made Wizard groan, it had so much strength and beauty.
It opens up your face like a breaking wave curls white and opens up the sea.
She kept looking at them and Wizard put down his plate in the sand and started toward her. “I’m not passing up this chance to meet the Lord’s woman for me.”
“Hey.” Batman chewed and swallowed quickly. “Wait up.”
Juggler gulped his punch and ran after them. “May the best man win.” He glanced back. “You guys coming?”
Raven lifted his glass in a toast. “Enjoy her company. See you back at the jeep.”
Harrison was sitting in the sand, busy with his plate of food. “I’m sticking with Thunderbird, guys. See you later.”
Wizard and Batman and Juggler shook the pastor’s hand and crowded around Becky like a football team going into a huddle. Raven heard her laugh a third time, a sound he realized he’d rarely heard. He turned away, trying to sip at his punch.
Harrison looked up at him. “They can think what they like, Thunderbird, but she was looking at you.”
“Forget it, Harrison.”
“I mean it. Where her eyes landed was pretty clear to me.” He bent over his plate again. “The smile was for you too.”
“I doubt it.”
“Yeah?” Harrison popped a cherry tomato into his mouth. “When do you go up with her again?”
“Tomorrow morning at seven.”
“Dollars to doughnuts you’re in for a big surprise. When love happens, and God opens the heavens, I want you to remember who told you so. And I want an army breakfast of bacon and beans on the house.”
Raven sat down on the beach next to him. “I’m good for that.”
Harrison smiled. “Glad to hear it. I just hope you remember once she turns you inside out and has you doing hoops and loops over Diamond Head in your P-36.”
“How about I just do a victory roll over your ship instead?”
Harrison shrugged and continued to eat. “Okay with me. So long as it comes with bacon and beans.”
FIFTEEN
Raven was up at three. He ran four miles, did his push-ups, then lay on his back and looked at a sky that was half stars and half dawn.
The old man is a shadow to me, Lord—I can hardly make out his face. All I’ve ever wanted to do is get back at him. Now you’re telling me to forgive him and move on. Not so easy. But I’ll give it a shot if it will make me a free man. I need your help with that. And hers. I just don’t know how to ask.
He was at the Piper J-3 at six. Weeks before he’d started showing up early to get under her skin. Now he admitted to himself a stronger reason had been in play from the first—the pleasure of watching her walk across the runway to him. She moved like a breeze, and her spirit couldn’t be diminished by the cloud cover or his own fears or by the sunrise itself—her beauty and heart was stronger than all of it. Whether she felt his gaze on her each morning he didn’t know. But he did know he had pushed all his feelings for her as far away as he could and denied every one of them. It was time to say something, to make it or break it.
“Hey!”
Her shout came across the airfield to him. She was walking across the tarmac and waving, holding her goggles and leather helmet with the other hand. The sight was as wonderful as ever—her oversized flight jacket, a white T-shirt, pants that were snugger than her usual pair, short hair loose in the dawn air, a smile he hardly ever saw being given to him, pure and strong, like white terns, manu o ku, in the Hawaiian sky.
“Hey.” She was still smiling. “I saw you at the barbeque last night.”
Her smile and friendliness startled him. “Yeah. I was there with some of the guys.”
“Why didn’t you come over and say hello?”
“It looked like you had your hands full.”
She rolled her eyes and laughed. “Did I ever.”
“They were all pretty excited this morning. Every one of them got hot dates with Becky Whetstone.”
“Hot dates? Is that what they told you? Coffee with Batman, breakfast with Juggler, oh yeah, a movie with Wizard. Does it—” She hesitated and dropped her smile. “Does it bother you, Thunderbird?”
“I never noticed you had freckles before.”
She looked up at him, her emerald eyes taking in the sun as it rose out of the ocean. “I don’t.”
“You do. Right over the bridge of your nose. Really small. You’d have to look real close to see them.”
“I guess I haven’t looked close enough.”
“You know…I’m not sure how to talk to you…there’s be
en so much of the other stuff…I’m not sure what words to use…to be sweet and tight…”
“I’m not sure either, Thunderbird.”
He felt an urge to touch her. It seemed to him that something in her was almost compelling him to do that. He reached out his hand and stopped. She wasn’t smiling. But there was no anger in her eyes either. The moment confused him. He reached out again, ready to pull away if she said something. She didn’t. His fingers touched her skin and a shock went up his arm.
“This is nuts,” he said.
“I guess.”
“Is it okay?”
“Yeah, Thunderbird, it’s okay.”
He smoothed back her hair and ran his thumb along her chin and the line of her jaw. Her green cat eyes stayed on him and took on more and more of the fire of sunrise. It seemed like a daydream to him.
“I’ve been a fool, Becky. I haven’t been honest to God or honest to myself. The Lord knows I haven’t been honest to you.”
“Thunderbird—”
“I had to step away from my old man so I could see he was standing in front of you. It’s this crazy thing. One minute it’s night and the next it’s daybreak. Light changes the whole world. Have you noticed that? I can see Becky Whetstone.” He stroked his thumb over her lips. “You’re easily the most beautiful thing God ever made. You’re more than the ocean and the volcanoes and the islands. You’re more than everything.”
A soft smile took over her face. “A really handsome aviator once told me I was ugly and scrawny.”
“He was wrong.”
“And he said I was nothing more than a kid.”
“The guy didn’t know what he was talking about. Forget him.”
“I’m having a hard time doing that.”
“Can I help?”
“I wish you would.”
“Hey!” Two of the ground crew drove up in a jeep. “You guys need a hand getting airborne?”
Raven pulled away his hand and stepped back from Becky. “Sure. Yeah. Thanks.”
“We’ll get the wheel blocks and the prop. This is Piper Eleven, isn’t it? We gassed it up last night.”
“Great.”
Raven tugged back the canopy and began to climb into the backseat. He looked down at Becky who hadn’t moved.
“Hey.” He smiled. “You coming?”
She held back. “Do you need me, Thunderbird?”
Raven took off his aviator glasses. “Yeah. I do.”
“Really? Or are we just trying to make up and be nice to each other?”
“I need you.”
She kept her eyes on his. “Okay.”
“Becky.”
She was putting on her helmet and goggles. “What’s up?”
“You really think the guy was a hotshot aviator?”
She sprang up and had her hands on both sides of the cockpit. She looked back at him. “Are you serious?”
“Yeah. After all these weeks. I’m serious. Finally serious.”
“I know he’s a hotshot aviator.”
“You know it?”
“Yeah, Thunderbird. I do.” She jumped into the cockpit and had her back to him. “So now show me.”
“Beck—”
She turned around. “If everything’s changed this morning and it really is a different world, a world where you’re freer than you were twenty-four hours ago and your old man’s out of the picture—” She stopped. Then she reached across the space between them and gripped his hand. “The kind of world where you can have feelings for Becky Whetstone and she can have feelings for you—then show me that world. Show me you care for her, Thunderbird. Do a tight barrel for Becky Whetstone. Just a bit is enough.” She let out her breath in a rush. “I’m scared.”
“Scared of what?”
“Scared of liking you. Scared of getting close to you. Scared I’m making a mistake. Sure I can act bold. Even brazen. But all kinds of things are in my closet, Thunderbird. If you break free I’ll believe in what’s been dropped on us out of the clear blue. I’ll believe it’s happening. And I won’t run.” She paused. “If you break free.”
They took off. Once they were a few thousand feet in the air she waggled the stick and jabbed her thumb at him. He took over the controls. There was a tightness in his chest and a coldness in his mind. His little brother’s face came and went. He could feel sweat slipping out from under his helmet and moving across his forehead. It got under his goggles and into his eyes. With his free hand he pulled back the goggles and wiped it away. Then he closed his eyes, put the goggles back in place, prayed a fast and hard prayer—God, this has to be one of your immediate responses—I don’t have weeks and years—it has to happen now—or I’ll stay locked up forever—and threw the Piper into a dive as steep and sharp as the Hawaiian cliffs. He waited until they were almost in the ocean before pulling up sharply. Becky did not react. As they gained height he put the plane into tight spirals. When he had the air he wanted under him he leveled out a moment before suddenly throwing the Piper to the left as hard as he could. He kept it up, going left again and again, strong and smooth and tight, over and over. Finally he straightened out over Diamond Head, other trainers ahead of them and above them, blinked, and let the aircraft slide to the right. It soon went into a spin. They hurtled downward, everything blurring and colors flashing. He fought out of the spin and put the Piper on its back, flying upside down for several minutes, and flipped it upright as they roared low over Waikiki, people waving their arms as the yellow Piper buzzed the beach. Zooming over the rooftops of hotels, Raven headed inland for the airfield. The gas needle was trembling at zero. They landed in a rush and skidded to a stop.
The prop still churning, Becky threw back the canopy and jumped to the ground.
“Get down here, Christian Scott Raven!” she shouted above the prop noise.
He sprang down and she threw her arms around him. “You crazy fool! No wonder Uncle Sam wanted you! You fly like a hurricane!”
Raven felt drained and empty but not too drained to take in the warm sensation of Becky Whetstone’s arms being around him or the scent of her hair or skin or the sweet leather of her flight jacket. His arms brought her in close. Her face with its small freckles and full lips was inches away.
“Becky—” he began.
Her eyes rippled with green and gold. “Go ahead, Thunderbird. I’m trying to live again too. And the only way I know how to do it is to plunge in with both feet and both arms and all of my body and soul.”
“It’s happening fast, Beck.”
“After all the weeks we’ve wasted I don’t think it’s happening fast enough.” She smiled and her lips parted. “Go ahead, Thunderbird. You’re cleared for takeoff.”
“Hey! What was that?” Flapjack leaped out of his jeep, Peachtree at the wheel. “What was all that?”
Raven pulled away from Becky. “Barnstorming.”
Flapjack looked at Becky. “Were you at the controls?”
She shook her head. “From two minutes after takeoff it was all him.”
“You’re kidding me.”
“No, sir.”
“I’m getting phone calls from hotels up and down Waikiki Beach saying you buzzed them. The Royal Hawaiian claims you stripped a flag off its roof and the manager’s howling mad.”
Raven shrugged. “No one got hurt, did they?”
“Not so far as I know.”
“It couldn’t be helped, Flapjack. I was breaking out of jail and I had to keep running.”
Flapjack stared at him. “What?”
“And there was this girl I was trying to impress.”
“A girl? A pretty girl?”
“Pretty’s not a strong enough word, sir.”
“No?” Flapjack looked back and forth between Raven and Becky. “What word would you use?”
“I don’t think there is one word. But dazzling comes to mind. Spectacular. Striking. Fabulous. Superb. Magnificent. Gorgeous. Stunning.”
Becky’s face reddened. “Will you s
top it?”
“If I did it for anyone, I did it for her, sir.”
“You hardly know her.”
“I’d like to change that flight status, sir.”
Flapjack snorted and put his hands on his hips. “You remind me of her old man. We called him Lover Boy.” He shook Raven’s hand. “Well, shoot. If she can pull that kind of flying out of you I’m all for the relationship. You can even fraternize on duty.”
“Thank you, sir.”
Flapjack got back into his jeep. “Some of the stunts I saw were still a little rough around the edges.”
“I’m sure my flight trainer can rub those off.”
“I’m sure she can.” He threw them a salute. “I’ll leave you alone. Your next student’s here in twenty minutes, Whetstone.”
“I’ll be ready, Mr. Peterson.”
“I have a phone call to make to Billy Skipp.”
The jeep drove off.
They looked at each other. Becky reached out and played with the chain that held Raven’s dog tags. “That was pretty impressive, hotshot.”
“It was hard coming back from the hole I dug for myself.”
“I’ll bet. I know a little something about trying to get out of holes.”
His fingers stroked her blond hair gently.
She put her hand on his. “Airfields don’t work for us.”
“I guess not.”
“Do you have any other ideas?”
“When are you off?”
“My last student’s at three. I’ll be ready at four.”
Raven nodded. “I have a maintenance check on my Hawk. And some other chores. But I’ll be waiting here with a jeep at four.”
“Are you sure?” she asked.
“Yeah. I’m sure.”
“You want to go ahead with this?”
“That’s affirmative.” Raven twined a strand of her hair around his finger. “You?”
“It’s not easy. I loved the man who was killed in Pennsylvania.”
“I know.”
She shook her head. “No. No, you don’t know. He was my world. My gift from God. I didn’t want anyone else. After he died I still didn’t want anyone else. I swore I’d never touch another man. I vowed it.”
“What changed that?”