The Golden Angel

by Gilbert, Morris

  “I’ve got a brown thumb, but Lola’s always been able to make anything grow. Those roses are about gone now, but you see that bed over there?”

  Quaid glanced at a full bed of roses, all bearing the most unusual pinkish yellow combination of color. “I’ve never seen anything like that. What are they?”

  “She bred those herself. We call it the Lola Montez rose. That was her maiden name.” Mark moved over, carefully took out his penknife, and snipped off a flower. He held it, smelled it, and then smiled. “It’s almost as beautiful as Lola.”

  “She is a most attractive woman.”

  Mark glanced up and followed the flight of a hummingbird until it disappeared in the top of a chestnut tree. “I haven’t told you, Quaid, but I’m very grateful for what you’ve been able to do for Erin.”

  “I think you’ve got that wrong, Mr. Winslow. She was the one who saved my life.”

  “Yes, I know about that. But you’ve helped her so much to find her way. She’s just radiant now. We haven’t seen her much since she was a girl, but even then she was . . . I don’t know. Sort of beat down, I guess. She was always embarrassed about doing so poorly in school.”

  “I can’t understand that. She’s so able and smart in every way. Maybe she just didn’t want to learn.”

  “No, it wasn’t that. She just couldn’t learn. Her grandmother and I have found a doctor who works with people who have trouble learning. He’s a neurologist with some new theories about how the brain functions, and apparently he’s helped a lot of people. He just might be able to help her. Erin’s going to see him tomorrow.”

  “I hope he can. She’s a fine young woman.”

  As the two continued their walk down the pathway, Mark was able to draw Quaid out and get him to talk about himself. Mark had dealt with men all of his life and knew them well. He wanted to find out all he could about Quaid Merritt, for he knew that despite what she said, Erin had a special feeling for him. Finally he said, “What do you think about Erin’s success? Do you think it will spoil her?”

  “It’s spoiled a lot of good people,” Quaid remarked. “Are you really worried about her?”

  “Yes, I am. What about this actor fellow? What’s his name?”

  “Derek Wells. I don’t know, Mr. Winslow. She only met him a few times. But you really don’t think that she’d be attracted to a movie star?”

  “I think she’s generally got a barricade up between herself and the world. That fellow Charterhouse hurt her pretty badly.”

  “Charterhouse—the man whose life she saved?”

  “Yes, you didn’t know about him?”

  “No, just that she saved his life.”

  “It was pretty bad. Erin fell in love with him. Barney said he had never seen a girl blossom so. You know how it is with a young girl who has had no social life and suddenly this handsome fellow shows up and gives her all this attention. Well, she fell for him, and it turned out that he was no good. Already had a wife he never told her about. But Barney says she was never the same after that. That’s the real reason she came to America.”

  “I never knew all that, but it’s too bad.”

  The two continued their walk, and the more Mark learned about Quaid, the more comfortable he became with the young man. He knew Quaid had been through some bad times and had made some poor choices in the past, but Mark became confident that at heart Quaid was a good man. He later told Lola, “I believe Erin’s safe with him.”

  ****

  The next morning at breakfast, Quaid broached the subject of Erin’s doctor visit. “Your grandfather tells me you’re going to see a doctor today.”

  “Yes. His name is Dr. Oz. Michael Oz. I never knew anybody named that. I’m going to see him this afternoon.”

  “I hope he can help you.”

  “Oh, it doesn’t seem to matter much now,” Erin said carelessly. “I’m not going to be in a classroom ever again!”

  Quaid knew this woman well enough by now to believe that she was bluffing, that it did indeed matter to her. Her failures had gone deep into her spirit, and despite her success and public acclaim, she was still hurt by two things. He had known about her poor record in school, but now he knew that Stephen Charterhouse had hurt her even worse.

  Not wanting to press her further about the doctor visit, he changed the subject. “All right, you pressured me into this wing-walking thing, so we’re going to do something about it.”

  Erin’s eyes glowed, and she turned to him with excitement, tugging at his arm. “Oh, Quaid, really! What is it? Tell me about it.”

  “The problem has been making it safe for you, so I’ve tried to find something that would be foolproof, as much as things like that can be. So here’s what we’ll do. We’ll modify the airplane. I’ll be in the rear cockpit, and you’ll be in the front. When we get aloft, you’ll climb up out of the cockpit and get onto the center of the wing. But,” he said almost sternly, “there’ll be a metal cable attached to a safety belt. It’ll be invisible from the ground, but it’ll be there. If you slip, you can’t fall more than five feet.”

  “Oh, Quaid, that sounds like cheating!”

  “No, it’s not. Performers in the circus have a safety net underneath, and nobody calls that cheating.”

  “What do I do then?”

  “Rev and I will build two uprights about as high as your waist. At the bottom of them there’ll be two built-in devices sort of like shoes. You’ll slip your feet into them and fasten straps so that you’ll be held by your ankles. You get the picture?”

  Erin nodded. “I’ll be held in place by my feet and a safety strap and leaning against two uprights. What then?”

  “Then you take off your helmet, and the Golden Angel lets her golden locks fly in the breeze.” He grinned at her and said, “That’s about it.”

  “Well, that’s nothing!”

  “Well, there is one more thing. I’m afraid that the extra weight of the parachute pack may throw you off balance when you’re fighting the wind out on the wing. So as much as I hate the idea, I think you’ll have to perform without a parachute.”

  “That won’t worry me,” said Erin. “With all the other safety devices in place, I’ll be plenty secure.”

  “Okay. If you’re comfortable with that, then I thought that once you’re in place I could do a slow rollover, or at least half a one. Then we’ll fly over the field, and there you’ll be upside down.”

  Erin was thinking about that. “I know what! You could do some acrobatics like a loop with me just standing there.”

  “That’d be all right. The main thing is for you to be safe.” He reached out and touched her hair. “I couldn’t have anything happen to my Golden Angel. You saved my life. I can’t gamble with yours.”

  Quickly Erin looked up and smiled. “That’s sweet, Quaid.”

  “Oh, I’m just a sweetie pie. Everyone knows that.”

  The two talked for some time about the wing walking, and Erin was full of suggestions, all of them more dangerous than Quaid was willing to undertake. Finally she said, “When can we do this?”

  “Probably at the next show. But we’ll go practice it after your appointment with Dr. Oz.”

  Erin was excited, but then suddenly a thought came to her. “Quaid, I want you to be careful about Amelia.”

  “What do you mean by that?”

  “I mean she’s not exactly what she seems.”

  “She seems like a very attractive, poised young woman.”

  “Oh, she is! She’s very pretty, and that’s part of the trouble. But, well . . . well, she’s too easy with men.”

  Instantly Quaid’s eyelids pulled down, and he stared at her narrowly. “I hadn’t really caught that.”

  “Oh, I don’t mean she’s a flapper or anything like that, but her parents are very worried about her.”

  “And so are you, I see.”

  “Yes, she likes you a great deal. She likes any attractive man. So just don’t give her any encouragement.”

/>   “You think I’d do that?”

  Erin hesitated. “I think men can be pretty vulnerable where a beautiful woman’s concerned.”

  Quaid studied her carefully. She was very serious, he saw, and he nodded. “I’ll be watching for it, but you don’t have to worry. I’m more worried about you doing wing walking than I am about anything else.”

  ****

  “But I don’t understand, Dr. Oz. What do you call this problem that you’re trying to pin down?”

  Dr. Michael Oz was a rather small man, no more than five-eight. He had thick dark hair cut short, dark deep-set eyes, and a short, clipped black beard. He spoke with a slight accent that Erin could not place. Now his voice was soft as he said, “We call this particular problem ‘dyslexia.’ It comes to my attention that there are many people who do poorly in school but who do well in every other way. I began doing research and have found several doctors and social workers who have been aware of this.”

  “What is it? Is it dangerous?”

  “Oh no, not at all,” Dr. Oz said quickly. “Don’t be alarmed. What it means is that it has something to do with the process of seeing.”

  “But I have perfect eyesight.”

  “Not at all uncommon for people with dyslexia. It’s a matter of perception, Miss Winslow. For instance, when people who don’t have dyslexia look at a sentence, they see the words in perfect order. But a victim of dyslexia will not perceive it that way. They might, for example, see the last word coming first in the sentence. You’ve always had difficulty reading, I understand.”

  “Yes, I have.” Erin thought back over the years. “I always did well with numbers and with things like geometry, but anything that required reading, like history or stories, was hard for me.”

  “I think we’ve hit on the source of your problem.” Oz went on gently, “It’s caused you a great deal of distress, hasn’t it?”

  “Well, yes, it has. I was always last in everything in school, anything that required reading, anyway.”

  “The tests I’ve given you have pretty well proven to me that this was your problem. It’s not stupidity, Miss Winslow. It’s just that you have this problem with perceiving words.”

  “Is there any cure?”

  “Not exactly a cure. There are things that can be done to make life easier, but usually those things are for people who are still suffering. Young people in school, for the most part. But it ought to help you a great deal knowing at least that your problem isn’t intellectual.”

  Erin smiled and said, “I do feel so much better knowing this, Dr. Oz. You have already helped me a great deal.”

  “Then,” Oz said, “I feel that my purpose as a doctor has been fulfilled.”

  ****

  The engines were roaring after the mechanics had warmed them up. Rev came to Erin and said with a worried look, “I think we were doing fine without all this wing-walking stuff.”

  “It’ll be all right, Rev.” Erin patted his arm. “I’ll be safer up there than I am in the cockpit. After all, when I’m in the cockpit, it’s only the safety belt that keeps me in. But when I’m standing up on top of the wing, I’ll be held in place by a safety cable, by those boots, and by those rods pressing against me.”

  Rev had given up arguing with her, and indeed they had gone over and over the routine. While still on the ground, Erin had attached the safety belt with a swivel to the steel cable, which in turn was attached to the fuselage. She had climbed up carefully, using handholds in the form of metal U-shaped bars; then when she had braced herself against the two uprights, she had bent over and put her feet into the restraints and tightened them as much as she could. They had worked long and hard on this contraption; they had even attached the boots upside down to a girder in a warehouse. Then they had hauled her up to the boots and thrown a rope over a girder. Quaid had held her while Rev pulled at the rope. She had risen in the air and swung there helplessly, laughing. “See,” she had cried, “I can’t fall.”

  She went over and found Quaid waiting for her by the plane. Rev had put her through this at least twenty times, but now it was time for the real thing. “Don’t worry. It’s going to be great.”

  “Don’t forget that safety cable,” he said. “And be sure you tighten the boots as tight as you can.”

  “All right, don’t worry about me,” she said. “You and Rev have done a wonderful job.”

  Quaid shook his head. “Let’s go, then.”

  Erin climbed into the cockpit and fastened her safety belt, then they took off. When Quaid went up to two thousand feet, she turned around and nodded. “I’m ready,” she shouted.

  Reluctantly Quaid nodded, and Erin turned to face the propeller. She fastened the cable to the leather belt around her waist and then loosed her safety belt. Carefully she grasped the uprights in front of her and pulled herself out of the cockpit. The wind whistled over the surfaces of the wing with a sibilant whisper, and it caught at her as she stood up. She had been prepared for this, however, and moved very slowly. The uprights were placed no more than fourteen inches apart with the boots in the middle. Holding to the uprights, she bent over to avoid the full force of the wind. Quaid was flying as slowly as the airplane would operate as she stuck her right foot and then her left into the bootlike restraint. Bending over, she tightened the straps and felt them close around her feet and ankles. Carefully, still holding to the uprights, she tried to tug her feet out, but they held fast.

  Now she straightened up and felt the braces against her calves. Reaching up, she unloosed her helmet and let her hair fly out behind her. She held the helmet in one hand, trying to remember that she’d have to find someplace to put it during the actual act. She kept her eyes almost shut, and holding her hands out and arching her body, she felt a sense of exhilaration. The plane flew steadily for a while, and then she felt it slowly begin to roll. It was no trouble at all for her. She was so fastened to the plane that all she had to do was keep her body stiff. Her legs were spread to give her better support, and as the plane rolled over and continued upside down, she gave a long cry of pure joy.

  Twisting around, she held her hair away from her face and looked at Quaid. Actually she was looking up at him, and she saw that his gaze was fixed on her. She smiled and waved, and she saw relief come over his face. He completed the roll and then proceeded to do several other relatively mild stunts, including an outside loop.

  Finally he called to her, and she freed herself from the straps and moved cautiously down into the cockpit. She fastened her safety belt and waited until he had brought the plane in for a landing. As soon as she was on the ground, she grabbed Rev, who had run anxiously to the plane. “It was wonderful, Rev! You ought to try it.”

  “Not me,” Rev grinned. “But it sure did look good. It’ll be a hit.”

  ****

  Indeed, the wing-walking act was a big hit. They performed the stunt at the next scheduled air show, which took place, once again, in New York.

  The cameras were on the Golden Angel that day, with one photographer even coming alongside in another plane and filming the whole thing from the air.

  After the show and an energetic interview with the reporters, Erin turned to go change her clothes. When she got to the dressing room, she was shocked to see a familiar figure.

  “Derek!” she cried and ran over to him. She held out her hands, and he took them, smiling broadly.

  “How’s my Golden Angel? I don’t have to ask, though. You were great.”

  “Did you just get in?”

  “Came in yesterday. I’ve got to talk to you, Erin.”

  “Why, of course. Would you like to come out to my grandparents’ place?”

  “Let me ask you something first and then we’ll see if there’s any need for me to stay.”

  Erin was puzzled. “Why, of course I want you to stay. Everyone’s eager to meet you.”

  “I don’t know if they will be after they find out why I’ve come to New York.”

  Erin was completely
baffled. “What do you mean?”

  “I’m going to do a picture. I’ll be the producer, the director, and the star. I want you to be in it—not the lead, just a bit part.”

  “Me! But, Derek—”

  “I know. You’re no actress. That’s not a problem in Hollywood.” He made a small grimace of disgust. “It’s going to be about aviation in the air war over France. I want Quaid in it, too, and your friend Rev. I’m putting everything I have into this. If it flops, I’m broke with a flop on my hands.” He studied her thoughtfully. “I know you can do it, but you have to want to.”

  “Derek, I can’t answer right now.”

  “I know, but that’s why I’ve come. I’ve got three days, and then I have to get back to California.” He reached out again and held her hands tightly. “I think it would be lots of fun, Erin. Please consider it.”

  Erin Winslow could not think clearly. He seemed to be opening a door for her, but what that door led to she could not, for the moment, understand. She excused herself, then slipped into her dressing room. Once inside, she stood stock-still and wondered aloud, “What does all this mean?”

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  The Hound of Heaven

  “Quaid, I don’t see why you’re so upset about the offer I got from Derek.”

  Quaid turned from inspecting the rudder of his aircraft and put his eyes on Erin. He had kept to himself for two days, and now an expression of some emotion that Erin could not identify was in his eyes. He was holding an oily rag in one hand and a pair of pliers in the other. Slowly he worked the pliers as though he had not heard, but then he said, “I just don’t like it.”

  “But why don’t you like it?” Erin demanded. The entire two days since Wells had made his offer had been difficult for her. She felt she was being tugged in two directions at once, and now as she stood there, she found herself unable to express this in words. “It’s a wonderful opportunity,” she said. “Even the small part that Derek offered me would be great publicity, and you’d be involved in the flying scenes.”