by H. P. Munro
“So what now?” Matty asked as they walked back to the nurses’ quarters, arm in arm.
Helen took a deep breath, “Now we get on with the rest of our lives.”
***
“I'm sorry what do you mean I can't get back to Vegas?” Lily asked the base flight coordinator.
“We don't have a delivery going out there now for another couple of days and you can't fly yourself back as you're no longer authorized to fly military aircraft,” he shrugged.
Lily huffed trying to control the anger that was rising in her, “So what am I supposed to do, all my stuff is in Vegas and I'm here?”
“You can either wait for the delivery flight and we'll let you ride along on that, or you make your own way back,” he said uninterested, snapping closed the folder and turning away from the woman whose face was starting to flush with rage.
“Fine,” Lily seethed and stormed out of the office, running into Adrienne.
“Whoa,” Adrienne said taking in Lily's demeanor. “Not good news then?”
Lily took several breaths so that she didn't release her rage on her friend, “I can either pay my own way back to Vegas or wait two days to get a delivery flight back down.”
Adrienne shook her head, “What a crock.”
Laughing at her friend's description, Lily growled and shook her head, “Yes it is, so I guess I have to wait. Any ideas on how I can entertain myself for two days?”
Adrienne looped her arm through Lily's. “About a hundred and almost all of them are legal,” she ginned, starting to run pulling Lily with her.
***
Helen hugged Matty. “You stay in touch,” she demanded.
“I will! You too,” Matty replied, fighting back tears as she picked up her case and stepped up onto the train.
Helen stood on the platform, rolling her neck trying to release the tension that had been there since the previous day when their orders had come through. She had tried to contact Lily by phone but the girl that had answered in Vegas said that she was on a delivery flight and would not disclose where. Helen had no idea where Lily was when demobbed.
The guard blew his whistle and the train’s pistons started to move back, and forth, forcing the crank and connecting rod to move, the wheels started to turn slowly and the train belched into life with smoke billowing from the chimney up front. Matty pushed the window down on the door and stuck her head out, shouting over the noise of the departing train.
“Hey, Pocket Rocket. Happy landings!” she waved her hand madly then ducked back into the train.
Helen waved in response waiting until the train was in the distance before leaving the station.
***
Lily entered her bunkhouse, both Rita and Sadie's lockers were empty, and their beds stripped. She let her head fall forward in disappointment it would appear that her delayed return meant that she'd missed both their departures. A note signed by both of them had been placed neatly on her pillow.
Hey L
Sorry we couldn't hang around, but we got the opportunity to get a lift north by an officer going on leave…couldn't pass up the opportunity of a free ride (especially since the Army won't pay for our trip home!)
Keep in contact and best wishes for the future.
Rita and Sadie
P.S. Your friend Helen called the base…she left a message said you'd know what it meant…IWU?
***
Throwing her duffle bag over her shoulder, Lily took a meandering route to the main gate of the base. It felt odd to be walking through the flight line for the final time and to be dressed in civilian clothes. She said a silent goodbye to the planes sitting gleaming proudly in the winter sun, before checking her watch. The base commander generously had offered to pay a cab to take her to the station where she would catch a train to New York. She had tried to get hold of Helen when she had returned but had been told that the she had left Dodge and they didn't know where she headed. As Lily walked towards the guardhouse, the guard on duty saluted her.
“You don't need to salute me Dan,” she said lifting her violin case. “I'm just a musician now.”
“No Ma'am, you'll never just be anything,” Dan smiled. “Your ride’s here,” he added noting her departure down on his clipboard.
“Thank you,” Lily said smiling towards Dan as she walked around the guardhouse. “Take care of yourself, and your…” she stopped mid-sentence as she turned her head round. “Loved ones,” she said absently, her eyes never leaving the figure leaning cross-legged against a red motorcycle.
Helen sat opposite the gate of the base, dressed in blue jeans and a white t-shirt, Aviators blocking out the Nevada sun.
“Thought you might need a ride,” she shouted, standing up and indicating towards the bike.
Lily walked forward, dumped her belongings onto the dusty road in front of Helen, and pulled her into a hug.
“I do,” she eyed the motorcycle over Helen’s shoulder, “and the first thing we're doing is buying a car.”
“What!” Helen protested, pulling from Lily’s embrace. She bent down and picked up Lily’s suitcase, “You don’t love my ‘cycle?” she asked, tying the case to the back of the bike.
“I love you and your ‘cycle, what I don’t love is how I can’t feel my ass after twenty minutes,” Lily grinned, happy to be with Helen again.
Helen threw her leg over the bike and settled onto the seat, “If you want I can feel your ass for you in twenty minutes, save you the bother?”
Lily laughed as she picked up her violin case and mounted the bike. “I will take you up on that offer,” she whispered in Helen’s ear, smiling at the shiver that went through the blonde-haired woman’s body. She wrapped one arm around Helen’s middle and relaxed her other arm with her violin case at her side.
Smiling, Helen started the engine, she was about to pull on the throttle when the familiar sound of a bomber drowned out the motorcycle’s engine. They sat in silence watching as the bomber flew overhead towards the runway.
“Can you believe you flew those?” Helen asked her eyes still on the now empty sky.
Lily dropped her gaze to study Helen’s profile. “Sometimes,” she replied, squeezing Helen’s waist affectionately.
Happy that Lily was as comfortable as she was going to get Helen tugged on the throttle. The bike kicked up a dust cloud around them before they set off down the open road.
“Happy landings?” Helen shrieked, over the roar of the engine.
Lily’s smile grew her hair whipping around her face as she shouted her response.
“Happy landings.”
Epilogue
March 8th 2010 – Washington, DC
Lily took a deep breath as she stared at her reflection in the mirror. She touched her fingertips to her face, now weathered with age. The journey to Washington had taken more out of her than she cared to admit to either herself or her granddaughter and the next forty-eight hours would be emotional. While it was lovely to catch up with friends, she would be forced to reminisce and knew that would only cause her to dwell on all that she had lost.
“Abuela, are you okay in there?”
“I’m okay Ellie, just trying to make this old face look presentable,” Lily replied. With one final glance in the mirror, she steeled herself against the emotions the memories would bring. With a brisk nod, she turned and opened the bathroom door, “I’m ready when you are Kiddo.”
“You sure you want to do this? We can always go down later,” Ellie asked, her face full of concern.
Lily smiled wearily, “I’m sure let’s go.”
They exited the elevator and scanned the foyer for Joanne, who rose from her seat when she spotted them.
“All ready to go Mrs Rivera?” Joanne asked as she walked up.
“It’s Lily,” Lily corrected, narrowing her eyes at Joanne.
“Sorry,” Joanne smirked. “Lily, would you like to go into the exhibition now or would you like to relax and have a drink before you go in?”
&
nbsp; “You trying to get me drunk, flygirl?” Lily quipped, winking at Joanne. “I’d rather go in now and drink later.”
They walked into the exhibition hall and started towards one of the boards, Lily looked at the class numbers on top of each board trying to locate their graduation class. When she reached the board, she scanned the photos before leaning closer to one.
“Would you look at me here, this is after I flew solo for the first time. They dunked me in the wishing well.”
Ellie and Joanne moved forward to look at the black and white photo, they both smiled at the broad smiles on the faces of the women in the photo. Standing in the center of the photograph wearing her flight clothing, dripping with water and her hair plastered flat against her head, with a huge smile on her face, was the younger version of Lily; holding out her hands as if shaking excess water from them.
“You were pretty,” Joanne observed.
Turning with a look of disdain on her face Lily raised her eyebrows, “I. Was not ‘pretty’. I. Was. Hot!” she corrected waving a finger in the air, waggling her eyebrows at Joanne.
“Look, there's Grandma,” Ellie pointed excitedly to another female in the picture.
Joanne moved her head forward to the figure that Ellie was pointing at, she looked in confusion between the two women standing beside her and the image of a fair-haired woman with dimples. Catching Joanne's look of bewilderment Ellie chuckled slightly, “Sorry, I forget that people don't know about our rainbow nation family as my mother calls it. This is Grandma Helen. I'm named after her.”
“My wife,” Lily said, a soft smile on her face, her eyes misty and distant as she looked at the face of Helen.
“Your…?”Joanne looked surprised, her eyes wide open, her mouth turned downwards as she nodded slowly, finding her assumptions about the former WASP being stripped away slowly. “Okay.”
Lily turned and smiled, “What, you think your generation invented sex and sexuality? I'll have you know...”
Ellie pointed to the picture again eager to stop one of her Abuela's famous rants, “And there's Aunt Addie.”
“Did someone say my name?”
They turned towards the voice; sitting in a wheelchair behind them was a smiling woman whose blue eyes twinkled with delight at seeing her old friend. “And it's Great Aunt Adrienne to you, young Helen,” she corrected, holding her arms out for Ellie to enter.
Giving her great aunt a careful hug Ellie laughed, “I know but Grandma Helen said I was never to call you that, ‘cause it pandered to your superiority complex.”
Adrienne tossed her head back and laughed, the action causing her to start coughing. She placed the handkerchief bundled in her hand to her mouth and waved at the tall caramel-skinned woman in her sixties, who moved to her side to assist.
“I'm fine. Don’t fuss,” Adrienne frowned once she regained her composure. “Lily, it's good to see you, it's been too long my friend.”
Lily gave her a sad smile, “Two years.”
Adrienne sighed and nodded her eyes starting to fill with tears.
“That long?”
Both women drifted off reflecting on the last time they had seen each other and the time that had passed.
Joanne nodded a greeting to Jennifer who was standing behind Adrienne's wheelchair, holding onto the handles.
The tall woman with Adrienne studied the photograph they had been looking at. “Will Lucy be coming, Mom?” she asked, spotting the smiling woman in the photograph standing beside her sister Marjorie.
“She should be, Adele, she wrote to say her Peter Jnr was going to bring her. She likes to come to these things now Marjorie is gone,” Adrienne nodded.
Joanne picked out Adrienne in the photograph, turning and giving the older version a quick glance over before comparing her to the stunning looking woman in the photo.
“Who's that?” she asked pointing to a small woman, standing with Adrienne's arms looped around her neck.
Smiling both Adrienne and Lily answered as one, “That’s Stotty.”
Adele placed a comforting hand onto her mother’s shoulder, “I'm named after Stotty.”
“That photo was taken in, what? The August?” Adrienne asked Lily who hesitated trying to calculate in her head before nodding in agreement. “And Adele died at the start of December.”
Jennifer peered over the top of Adrienne to look at the photograph, “What happened?”
“Midair collision with another cadet,” Lily answered looking at the smiling image of Adele. “She was a character and a half,” she laughed.
Adrienne nodded. “She was twenty three when she died. So young,” she said sadly.
Adele patted her mother’s shoulder. “Why don't we see what other photos are here,” she said brightly, trying to raise the mood.
They walked around the display with Adrienne and Lily telling stories of their training, they reached a photograph taken of them standing beside a B-26.
“You flew those?” Joanne asked in admiration, reading the panel beside it with the statistics of the bomber.
“We sure did,” Adrienne grinned. “Some of us even had sex in it,” she looked pointedly at Lily.
“Abuela!” Ellie gasped as the others laughed at the comment.
Lily gave a half shrug, unabashed at Adrienne's remark, “What! It was good sex. Your Grandma Helen never complained.”
Ellie placed her fingers into her ears and started to hum, she cautiously removed one, “Has she stopped?”
Adrienne pulled on Ellie's arm, “At least you didn't have to sleep near them. They did it one night in the bay when they thought we were all asleep.”
Lily looked shocked as in the almost seventy years since it had happened, Adrienne had never before let on that she had heard them.
“Ask Lucy, she was the one that heard them in the bay. When you’re at it ask her about the noises from the room in Atlanta,” she added ignoring Ellie's obvious discomfort.
“I might skip that discussion,” Ellie replied shaking her head.
Adrienne laughed, “Lucy didn’t know what she heard, thought it was just Helen having one of her nightmares. Hell she didn’t even know what a lesbian was until that tennis player in the eighties. She just thought Lily and Helen lived together as friends.”
Both Adrienne and Lily laughed loudly as they recalled the look on Lucy’s face as realization as to the true nature of Lily and Helen’s relationship hit her.
Wiping tears of laughter from her eyes, Adrienne continued, “She’s one of nature’s innocents our Lucy, God knows how she didn’t work it out, they were so cute together. You know your Abuela slept through every reveille every morning, the only thing that woke her up was a smack on the head or when your Grandma had a nightmare.”
Lily smiled wistfully, “She needed me, I could never sleep through that.”
They continued taking in the display,
Lily walking beside Adrienne's wheelchair, every now and again a hoot of laughter could be heard from the women as they repeated a memory. Joanne fell into step beside Ellie.
“So two grandmothers? You failed to mention that earlier.”
Ellie gave a small smile, “I thought it would be more fun for you to find out this way. My mother is Lily's niece. Her father died three weeks before the end of the war, and her mother died the following year from cancer. She was four when her mother died and my uncle was two. Lily and Helen took them in and raised them, so they're the only grandmothers I've known from that side of the family.”
“What happened to your Grandma Helen?” Joanne asked carefully, trying to make sure she was out of earshot of Lily.
Ellie swallowed hard, “She died two years ago, peacefully in her sleep.” Her eyes filled with tears as she discussed her grandma.
“Only thing she ever did that was quiet,” Lily added, walking up to them catching what Ellie had said. “She died a month after we got married, after sixty five years of being together and raising a family, I made an honest woman of her. F
inally the world was ready for us.” She squeezed Ellie's hand, “I think I'll have a little lay down before the dinner this evening.”
Ellie nodded, “Okay, I'll take you upstairs.”
“No, I'll be fine. You stay here and tell Richmond here about your grandma and how she almost got herself killed a half dozen times,” Lily smiled at Joanne. “Ask about when she got arrested. Thank you for your assistance today,” she switched her walking stick to her left hand and held out her right for Joanne to shake.
Joanne shook it. “Thank you,” she replied and honestly meant it.
Lily gave her a brisk nod, winked at Ellie, then made off towards the exit, waving to Adrienne, Adele and Jennifer on her way.
“So what happened to them after the war?” Joanne asked, watching the elderly woman walk across the conference room.
“Ummm,” Ellie said taking a deep breath. “They moved back to New York which is where Abuela was living before. She was a violinist in the Philharmonic Orchestra there, my cousin plays cello there at the moment,” she added. “But Grandma couldn't get any jobs flying, they wouldn't hire a female pilot, so she drove a chequer cab for a while, but Abuela said that while she could fly like a dream and ride a motorcycle like a racer. She was a God-awful driver.” Ellie laughed, recalling the times that her mom had told her about her grandma's driving prowess. “Then when they took in my Mom and Uncle, they moved to Florida for a while, when my great grandparents died they sold the family businesses there and moved to California and set up their own aerial firefighting company. My brother runs it now and that's where they stayed.”
Ellie finished stopping in front of another image of her grandmothers, this one was a rare color photo. Taken sitting on long wooden benches outside a building, Lily was laying on the bench a book held loosely in her hands, her head resting on Helen's thighs, both of them were in their zoot suits, sleeves rolled up past their elbows, squinting in the sun, wide smiles on their faces.
“If I find someone that I love, and who loves me, the way they did. I'll be doing well,” Ellie mused, her fingers tracing the outline of her grandma's face.