Silver Wings

by H. P. Munro

“Looks like it,” Lily replied, tearing her gaze from Helen and her dance partner and slipping onto one of the seats.

  “You girls from Avenger Field?” the waitress asked coming to take their drinks order.

  Lily smiled proudly, “Yes we are.”

  “I think it's just wonderful what y'all are doin’,” the waitress smiled. “What can I get’cha?”

  Marjorie and Lily ordered on behalf of the rest of their friends and settled in to enjoy the music; laughing as Adele's dance partner tossed her high in the air bringing her legs down to his side. Grabbing them under his arm and holding them tight to his body, he released her upper body using her momentum to spin her round his back and flip her back into his arms. They clapped wildly at the dance move as their drinks were placed in front of them.

  Moments later, an out of breath Adrienne collapsed into one of the chairs. “Did you see Adele being tossed like a doll? One of the benefits of being tall is that they don't do that to you,” she grinned, taking a long drink from a glass.

  The occupants of the table changed during the next hour as each woman was asked to dance; there was particular excitement when Marjorie brought back a GI who had whiskey in his possession, which was subtly added to their glasses. During all the coming, and goings, Helen still had not returned to the table, she was still dancing with the GI that had grabbed her on her arrival.

  “He's cute,” Adele remarked, puffing slightly from her last exertion on the dance floor.

  “Hmm?” Lily responded absently her eyes still following Helen's every move.

  “Helen's pick up, he's cute,” Adele clarified, nodding towards the dance floor, she caught the slight flicker in Lily's eyes. “Did you want to hook up with him?” she asked.

  “What?” Lily asked confused.

  Adele shrugged, smiling at the soldier who was hovering to ask her to dance, “I just thought that you liked him. You look kinda’ jealous. Gotta go be thrown around,” she grinned, taking a quick swig of her drink before heading back out.

  “I'm not…” Lily responded to the space vacated by Adele, she tossed her hand in the air looking round at the empty table. “I'm not jealous,” she said to herself shaking her head as she continued to watch Helen dance. Her stomach clenched as the music slowed and the young GI changed his hold to bring Helen in closer.

  “Would you like to dance?” a nervous blond soldier asked.

  Lily shook her head, her eyes full of unbidden tears that she had no control over, “No, sorry, thank you for asking, I'm going to sit this one out.”

  She gave him a small smile, which he returned, he nodded sadly and left Lily sitting watching the dance floor before putting her head back to look up at the ceiling blinking back tears as Helen's dance partner placed a soft kiss on her cheek.

  ***

  The six women fell through the door to their bay, four of them slightly drunk from the whiskey that the GI's had been slipping them.

  “Sshhhh, you'll get us in trouble,” Adele slurred falling onto her bed.

  Adrienne flopped onto her bed lurching forward to remove her shoes, “You'll get us in trouble.”

  The two women started to a laugh loudly.

  “What, what are, are you laughing at?” Lucy asked, pursing her lips and shaking her head as she leaned against the doorframe in an attempt to stay upright.

  “Nothing. They're drunk,” Marjorie answered taking her sister’s arm and guiding her towards her bed.

  “We's not drunk,” Adele hiccupped. “We's jus’ happy s'all.”

  Lily laughed, pulling Adele's shoes off and placing them on the floor. “And tomorrow you'll be paying for being happy,” she grinned, leaning down and placing an affectionate kiss on Adele's forehead.

  “Pfft tomorrow, tomorrow is another day,” Adele laughed.

  Adrienne stood up wavering slightly. “An’ frankly my dear,” she said, waving her arms as if conducting an orchestra, and on time she was joined by Adele, Lucy and Helen who was edging her way slowly and somewhat haphazardly towards the bathroom.

  “I don't give a damn,” they chorused.

  Adrienne nodded emphatically, the effort making her lose what balance she had and tipping her back onto her bed,

  Marjorie, who was attempting to undress her rather reluctant sister, looked up at Lily as snores were now coming from Adrienne and Adele's bed. “You should check on Helen,” she nodded towards the bathroom.

  Lily hesitated slightly; with a deep intake of breath, she walked towards the bathroom where Helen was standing attempting to brush her teeth.

  “You okay?” Lily asked closing the bathroom door behind her.

  Helen took her toothbrush out and pointed it to her chest. “I'm okay,” she pointed the brush in Lily's direction. “Are you okay?”

  Lily gave a mirthless laugh. “I'm just fine Helen,” she replied sarcastically.

  Helen frowned stumbling slightly, “Now why'd do you say that?” she asked sadly. “’Cause we both know that we're not okay.”

  Lily swallowed the lump in her throat that threatened to choke her, “We're fine Helen, just hurry up and get to bed.”

  “See, I think you're lying,” Helen slurred. “I think, I think that you're angry with me,” she lifted her shoulders up to her ears and held her hands out. “For what, I, I don't know, but you're mad,” she creased her face up into an over exaggerated scowl.

  Lily cocked her head to the side and took a step forward. “You want to know what's wrong with me?” she asked, biting her top lip.

  “Yesh,” Helen replied, blinking furiously trying to focus on Lily in her new closer position.

  Shaking her head Lily asked carefully, “Did you have a good time tonight?”

  Helen looked confused, “Yes…I had a lovely time thank you.”

  “You enjoyed being pawed by that soldier?” Lily's pent up frustration and jealousy finally finding a vent. “Enjoyed being in his arms? Enjoyed him kissing you?”

  The confused look on Helen's face grew. “He’s shipping out next week, hell he could be dead in a month,” she added swaying as she spoke. “It didn’t cost me anything to be nice to him. He only kissed my cheek Liliana.”

  Helen felt her own anger rise, “And he wasn't pawing me and what business is it of yours if he was?”

  “You're right,” Lily shook her head. “It has nothing to do with me. I'm glad you had a good time and stop calling me Liliana. It’s Lily!” She turned on her heel and walked out of the bathroom, yanking the door closed behind her as she left.

  Helen stood still wavering slightly from the effects of the alcohol she'd consumed, she put her toothbrush back in her mouth. “Wha’ the hell jus’ happened?” she muttered to herself, slowly brushing her teeth, her fugged brain unable to decipher the meaning behind the conversation.

  ***

  Helen gingerly opened one eye instantly regretting it as the bright light in the bay made her blink rapidly, her face contorted at the action. Slowly, her other eye opened and the room blurred into focus. She turned her head carefully to the side, her brows furrowing in confusion at the empty made up bed beside her. If Lily was up before her then she knew she was in trouble.

  She raised herself up onto her elbows and looked across the bay. There were groans and snores coming from the other occupants depending on where they'd gotten to in their waking up process. Adele's bed was empty. However, Helen recognized the woman's snores, which appeared to be coming from the floor between Adele and Lily's beds.

  Giving herself a small headshake and groaning at the resultant pounding it caused, Helen slowly planted each foot onto the floor and sat up. Looking over towards Adrienne, the red-haired woman appeared to be in a similar predicament to Helen. She was sitting on her cot, her hands flattened against the mattress at her sides. She gave Helen a bleary-eyed half nod of acknowledgement. Helen turned her head gradually towards Marjorie and Lucy's cots. Like Lily's bed, Marjorie's was empty and made. However, there were two dirty soles of feet where Helen usually wo
uld see the top of Lucy's head. She opened her mouth to speak and closed it again releasing a breath, as her brain could not seem to find the correct combination of synapses to allow words to form.

  She was contemplating attempting to stand, when the bathroom door opened. Lily and Marjorie emerged fully dressed, banging the tin ice buckets used by the bay and singing a WASP marching song loudly at the tops of their voices.

  Lucy sat bolt upright instantly, her hands flying to grip her head as if holding her skull together. Adrienne lifted her pillow and weakly tossed it in the general direction of Lily and Marjorie who were now parading up and down the small walkway between their beds. Helen cast them an unimpressed look through her still half-closed eyes and stood up shakily.

  Marjorie and Lily stood beside the door and finished their rousing chorus of one of the songs sung during drill. They surveyed what remained of their bay mates. Helen was standing albeit she hadn't moved since getting to her feet and was swaying slightly. Adrienne was sitting cursing them under her breath, Lucy was still gripping the sides of her head as if her life depended on it and there were loud snores coming from the floor from Adele.

  “Well, that didn't work,” Lily muttered to Marjorie, who grinned in response.

  “Ladies, the bugle has been and you have two minutes to drag your sorry asses into the bathroom and try and disguise the fact that you smell like a distillery,” Marjorie shouted loudly as she walked towards Adrienne and gave her a gentle shove from behind to encourage her to move.

  Lily walked over to the slumped figure beside her bed; poking her toe against Adele's arm. “Stotty! Wake up,” Lily shouted. Not getting any response she leaned over and pinching her nose shouted, “Mountain Momma this is Tower, you have permission for take-off.”

  Adele sprang awake, “Whaa?” She looked around; her eyes not focused on anything as she brought the palm of her hand up to her face and ran it down dragging the skin with it causing her face to distort. “I'm up,” she muttered, looking at her position on the floor in confusion.

  Lily straightened up laughing and noted that Lucy and Adrienne had now made their way to the bathroom. Helen, however, was still standing with a look of concentration on her face.

  “Helen…you need to move,” Lily said gently walking over towards her friend and gripping her by the shoulders and maneuvering her towards the bathroom.

  Helen allowed Lily to guide her, she'd been watching Lily try to rouse Adele and there was something playing in the blonde's mind; something that was there but that she couldn't quite get access to. She knew it involved Lily but frustratingly it seemed to be out of her reach.

  ***

  After a subdued breakfast, the girls were sitting in rows facing each other in a classroom, small wooden boards separating them. Glancing over the top of the board Lily couldn't help but smile at the red eyes looking back. They had plugged their four worse for wear friends full of coffee. However, no amount of caffeine was going to help them through two hours of Morse Code training.

  They sat scribbling the translated messages transmitted by the instructor at the front of the class, their hangovers worsening at the incessant beeping and concentration required to make sense of the noise. Every now and again Lily's stomach would flip as she looked up and caught blue eyes looking thoughtfully at her.

  When she had eventually gotten into bed the previous night, she had tried to process her emotions and had realized that she was being unfair to Helen. It wasn't Helen's fault that she was confused about her feelings towards the other woman. Lily had decided to stop projecting her anger and frustration and just accept that she was confused. She'd had had a friend in the orchestra who had gone to an all-girls school and she'd mentioned once that it wasn't unusual to grow attached to other females in that sort of environment. So it seemed to Lily that what she was experiencing wasn't unheard of, she just needed to get beyond it and not destroy the friendship she had with Helen in the process. She made up her mind to apologize to Helen for her recent behavior when she got the chance.

  However, that chance was not coming any time soon. As if to compound their wretchedness, their schedule then had them in the Link trainers for an hour.

  “I'd go back to Physics class and Math like a shot,” Lucy whimpered as they walked towards the classroom that housed the mechanical beasts that simulated flights to allow them to practice instrument flying.

  “I have no idea what I wrote during that class,” Adrienne remarked from behind her sunglasses.

  “Can y'all still hear the beeping?” Adele asked waggling her finger in her ear.

  Marjorie and Lily shared a smug look. “Well you now know why they call it the demon drink,” Marjorie sang as she skipped ahead of them. “And just think now you have a whole hour in the dark being spun around.”

  “Just breathing in the hot stale air inside the Link,” Lily added. “Hot stale alcohol-fumed air.”

  The four hung-over women groaned as they entered the room lined with the wooden boxes painted in the blue and yellow colors of their trainer planes. They each walked to a Link, climbed inside the small compartment, and waited for their instructor to speak to them. After receiving their initial instructions, the instructor closed the small side door and lowered the lid on the Link plunging the occupants into darkness; the only light coming from the instrument panel in front, which seemed to lurch forwards in the gloom. The women put on their headsets and waited for the first radio waves to be sent to allow them to respond and fly the plane blind.

  After an hour of the electrically operated simulators tossing and turning them, their Link time was up. The instructors opened the lids revealing in some instances some rather green looking faces and provided the cadets with their charts, showing the course that they had 'flown', and going over where errors had been made and what actions would have corrected them.

  Helen felt surprisingly better following the Link training. Whether it was having to concentrate so her brain ignored the physical discomfort her hangover was putting her through or the fact that the heat that built up in her simulator meant that whatever alcohol was still buzzing around her system was immediately sweated out, she wasn't sure. However, some of the others hadn't faired so well; the moment they had cleared the classroom the Addies sloped off to find a quiet area to gracefully throw up.

  After lunch the effects from the previous night were starting to lessen which was probably just as well as the women were now sitting on the flight line waiting for their turn to ‘shute’ up and go up in their new nemesis the BT 13B Vultee Valiant, or ‘The Vibrator’ as it was more commonly known as by cadets. Having passed their army checks in the PT planes, they had now advanced to the more complicated and powerful BT. They'd had a week of flying it so far and the more complex instrument panel meant more pre-flight check; it felt as though they had about a million things to remember before they'd even left the ground.

  Checking the instructor list Helen groaned inwardly she was with Stark again; the little man seemed to take great delight in finding fault with her flying. She had a range of bruises on the inside of her thighs from where the annoying little weed would rattle the stick back, and forth, hitting the sensitive area of her legs when annoyed with an action she'd taken.

  “Hollywood, you and me again,” Stark yelled from the door of the hangar.

  Helen pulled on her parachute and started to run so that the instructor would be less pissed with her before she had even gotten near the plane. They walked over in silence towards the plane and just before Helen climbed up onto the wing walkway. Stark said the same as he did each time they went out, “Try not to kill me.”

  She rolled her eyes, climbed up and slid open the canopy, settling into the bucket seat she adjusted her position so her parachute was in place.

  Once she heard Stark settle in his seat behind her she released the control yoke and secured it with the spring clips then fastened her shoulder and safety harness giving it a quick tug. Helen checked the carburetor heat, the oil co
oler shutter and the mixture, before pumping the wobble pump handle, priming the engine. She cracked the throttle and turned the ignition switch, she used her foot to move the starter switch pedal then flipped the starter switch. The plane started to hum as the engine grumbled into life and she worked the wobble pump to smooth the engine. As she waited for the oil temperature to rise she radioed in to the tower to check that she had permission to taxi.

  Once settled on the runway she completed her take off final checks. Stark's voice came into her ear, “You keeping your canopy open Hollywood?”

  “Sir, yes, sir,” she responded. “Like to feel the wind in my hair,” she lied; the desire to leave the canopy open had more to do with her wanting to wash away any residual cobwebs from the night before. She cranked the flap handle and slowly advanced the throttle, the difference in the BT to the smaller lighter PT places was marked. The Vultee accelerated much faster along the runway giving her less time to prepare for the actual take-off.

  She curled her hand around the pistol grip of the stick as they trundled along the runway. The tail started to lift and the plane started to feel lighter as it started to defy gravity, she applied a little backward pressure to the stick, and the nose of the plane lifted skywards.

  As they cruised, gaining altitude, Helen looked out of the side of the plane down towards the cotton fields below and listened for Stark's instructions. As he yelled ‘Stall’ through the radio, she immediately took the necessary actions to place the plane into a controlled stall; pulling the stick back and climbing for what seemed an eternity into the clear blue sky. When the canopy started to shake indicating that the plane was about to stall, she released the backward pressure and allowed the nose to drop leveling off.

  “Good Hollywood.”

  Helen raised her eyebrows, that’s a first, she grinned to herself waiting on her next instruction.

  They performed a series of loops, snap rolls and a half-roll reverse and were just completing a spin recovery when Helen felt her harness loosen during the spin, her eyes widened as the clasp released while she popped the stick to recover. The negative g-force propelled her out of the cockpit. Her headset ripped off, taking her helmet with it. The last thing she saw of the plane was Stark's wide eyes and open mouth as she spun out into the Texan sky.