Chapter One
Eva nearly sent her bag of mandarin oranges tumbling all over the farmers’ market floor. Alex was racing toward her, elbowing his way through the Saturday-morning crowd. He rushed along ahead of his father, who was panting and puffing close behind.
“Mom.” Alex pushed back his shock of dark hair to reveal brown eyes that held traces of a determination rare for her laid-back adolescent boy. “You have to see this.”
“Alex. Enough. I’ve told you, son. No.” Eva’s husband, Jack, lunged toward a piece of paper that their son was clutching, but Alex raised it high, holding it way above his father’s head.
“You guys!” Eva pushed her sunglasses on top of her dark curls. “Please!”
Jack wiped a hand across his sweaty brow. The fine lines around his own brown eyes seemed to be etched deeper than usual, and his thick gray hair was sticking up in tufts.
“You need this, Mom.” Alex thrust the piece of paper toward Eva.
“No.” Jack snatched it from him.
“Mom has the right to know. Whatever your stupid ideas are, Dad. Give it to me.”
“She may have the right to know, but it won’t do her any good.” Jack glared at their son.
“Honestly, what is the problem?” Eva said.
“Mom.” Alex’s words rushed and tumbled out. “I met a woman today who flew planes in the war, just like you did.” The look on Alex’s face sent Eva’s thoughts back to her own youth faster than a backdraft rekindling an old fire.
Eva reached out for a plastic chair next to one of the tables in the middle of the market. She sank down. The sound of Alex and Jack scraping back the other two chairs seemed to come from a distance.
“You didn’t mention my name?” Her voice sounded disembodied, and she fought to control her thoughts that wanted to fly to a myriad of faraway places, anywhere but here and now.
“We were waiting to see Star Wars.” Alex dropped his voice a couple of notches. “Me and Denny and a few of the guys. I did mention that you flew planes too.”
Eva brought her hand up to clutch at the red silk scarf that hung loosely around her neck.
Alex took a swipe at the paper and snatched it from his father’s lap. The gleam in his eyes was triumphant.
“Alex.” Jack’s tone was a warning growl.
“Cut it, Dad.” Alex handed the paper to Eva. “There you go, Mom.”
Jack rested his head in his hands.
Eva scanned the paper. Slowly, her hand floated up to her mouth.
“There was a woman handing these out, working the line while we waited for the movie. She told me she flew in the war just like you did.” Alex’s voice ran a counterpoint while Eva read on. “She was trying to get signatures to support the Women Airforce Service Pilots. They’ve got a whole group of them—ex-women pilots like you, Mom—in Washington. Lobbying Congress. Apparently, they’re about to go to a committee hearing. They’re fighting to be recognized as part of the military because they never were during the war. What do you think of that?”
Eva kept reading. Her eyes flew over the words.
“Isn’t that what you were, Mom? A WASP? This woman was very cool, and she said that the WASP wanted to be a part of the force, like in Star Wars.” He chuckled, his eyes lighting up. “She got us all on board. Cool strategy, don’t you think?”
“It’s part of your mom’s old life that she doesn’t like to talk about, Alex. You know that. Leave it alone.” Jack cut in while Eva read.
“Anyways, I told her you flew too,” Alex went on. “It was pretty neat, actually, because Denny and Ralph and the others, well, they didn’t know you’d flown in the war. They all think you’re cool anyways, of course. But the fact that you flew airplanes in the war kinda blew their minds.”
The sounds of the market, people doing their everyday shopping, started to swirl. Eva fought to focus, to listen to Alex’s voice.
“They’ve got the support of the son of the dude who was the chief of the air force during the war, and also Barry Goldwater, who flew with your outfit, apparently—and they are going to congressional hearings now. But they’re struggling.”
“Henry Arnold’s son,” Eva said. “That would be Bruce Arnold. I recall his name was Bruce. Hap’s son is supporting this, you say?”
“Eva!” Jack’s eyebrows shot to the roof.
“Yeah, I think the guy’s name was Arnold. But the woman said most of the congressmen also fought in the war. They don’t believe the WASP should get military recognition.”
“There was a battle over this during the war. But we didn’t win. Obviously.”
“Eva!” Jack placed his hand over hers. “Not now.”
“Anyways, thing is, the woman said that if you were a WASP, they would love to have you join them. You could go to Washington to help. And testify too. You’d be awesome. I got the woman’s phone number. Do you want it?”
“I can’t. I just couldn’t—”
“But, Mom, why not? You deserve that.”
“But I can’t remember—”
“It will help you remember.”
“Alex!” Jack thumped his fist on the table. “Do you not listen to a thing I say? Your mother does not discuss the war. It’s best left alone.”
Eva jumped at the sound of Jack’s fist.
“Have a mandarin orange, Eva. You look faint.” Jack crinkled Eva’s brown paper bag open. He pulled out a fat mandarin and started peeling it.
The fruit’s sweet scent flooded the air. Suddenly, it became hard to breathe, and the sound of an old prop engine throbbed in Eva’s head.
Chapter Two
Eva flicked open the door to the women’s private alert room. She stood for a moment, framed underneath the warning sign that read, WASP Nest! Drones Keep Out or Suffer the Wrath of the Queen!
The North Carolina wind howled, sending the sand drifts surrounding Camp Davis into gritty swirls that tried to burst through the cracks in the makeshift building. Eva shivered. She pulled her standard-issue, men’s size forty-four flight suit closer around her slight frame.
A small group of women pilots sat waiting in the anteroom. Her close friend Helena held a bowl of mandarin oranges. “These are liquid gold, girls! Just when you thought bathtub gin was the epitome of sophistication, I give you this: a mandarin orange!”
She threw one across the room toward Eva. Eva caught it, her whip-fast reflexes kicking in after months of military training.
“Thought it might help while we wait for assignments,” Helena said. “The weather’s wild out there. Even by Camp Davis standards, flying’s going to be tough. And given it’s our first time with the boys throwing spotlights all around our planes, we need all the food we can get tonight.”
Two WASP stood up from another table, ready to go out on searchlight missions.
“Those oranges were for the men,” Helena said. “But I stuck my chin out in the mess hall and convinced them that we deserved some fresh fruit too. We’ve already put in a full day of target towing up and down that beach while the boys shot at our planes. Nina and I came back with bullet holes in the fuselage because some fool missed his mark, and then we had a blown tire on landing, so I thought we deserved a treat.”
Eva peeled the ripe fruit open, its tangy scent freshening the room’s stale air.
When the mandarin eating was done, the other girls headed toward the runway, sending a swoop of icy air into the small room. Eva pulled on her leather flight jacket, grabbed her helmet and goggles, and followed them out.
Eva braced herself against the bitter-cold January wind. She crossed the runway to the waiting A-24. Across the field, searchlights from the antiaircraft guns circled and swooped in the dark.
Eva helped the ground crew do the preflight inspections, then pulled herself up onto the A-24’s wing, swaying against the buffeting wind. She climbed into the rear cockpit.
Helena was already in front. Once Eva was settled, Helena yelled into the wind and the sideways rain, telling the ground crew to remove the chocks and clear the runway. Helena fired the engine and requested permission to taxi.
Eva focused on the glimmering instrument panel in front of her. She watched the speed indicator. Helena lowered the flaps on the wings and took off. She made a gentle fifteen-degree turn. The plane bumped in the wind, rising above the swampy undergrowth and vine-covered trees that surrounded Camp Davis.
“My bed is gonna be awful welcome after this day,” Helena said.
Eva grinned. “Couldn’t agree more. My day was longer than a triple shift nailing rivets.”
“Eva?” Something sharp pierced Helena’s voice.
“Roger.”
“I’m seeing some spatters of oil on the windshield. Keep an eye on the oil-pressure gauge.”
“Sure.” Eva frowned and scanned the instrument panel. The indicators on the planes the WASP were given were sometimes faulty, so Eva knew she could not always rely on the readings. The oil gauge was bobbing up and down. “It’s shifting up and down a little. Are you sure you’re seeing oil, Helena?”
“Hard to be certain in the dark.”
Eva kept her eyes trained on the gauge. Once they’d reached the correct altitude, planes flew above them in a circuit. They were in a holding pattern. Searchlights beamed around them in the dark. The male trainees were learning to operate radar-controlled searchlights to track bombers and indicate targets for antiaircraft guns at night. The lights dazzled the cockpit, searing into Eva’s eyes, just as they would for any enemy crew.
There was a cough in the engine. It started to lose its rhythm, that rhythm any pilot was comfortable hearing. Eva had become attuned to listening for everything that might go wrong with an engine.
“I’m not liking this, Evie.” Helena’s voice crackled through the radio.
The plane bumped hard.
“This isn’t just roughness. The oil gauge is falling now.” Eva ran through options in her head. And only one seemed viable. A forced landing.
“It’s too close. It’s almost redlining,” Helena said. “It’s happening so fast.”
Outside, the light continued to swoop in eerie circles around them, illuminating the instrument panel and only highlighting the plummeting oil gauge. Out of the corner of her eye, Eva saw a jagged strip of lightning streaking down toward the ocean.
“The cylinder head temperature is rising dramatically.” Eva fought to hide the nerves that pierced her insides like a collection of spikes. “We need to look for a place to land.”
“Going to execute a forced landing.”
If the engine locked up, the propeller would stall.
“Keep your speedometer steady, Helena.”
“Oil is spreading over the canopy.” Helena’s voice sounded small.
The plane skated over a belt of trees, lapping at the tops of them, shearing leaves and branches, metal chafing foliage, sickening, grating, chilling.
“Trying to accelerate and lift, to get beyond the trees to land. How long do you think we have until the engine fails, Evie?”
“No idea. Just keep it steady.”
Helena’s shoulders were rigid in the front seat.
Suddenly, Eva was fighting to breathe. Smoke filtered through the cockpit. A thick, rank odor spread through the air like an unwelcome ghost.
“Oh, Evie.” Helena’s voice was shaky. “Fighting to maintain airspeed. Emergency procedure.”
“Activating emergency ventilation procedures.” Eva reached up. She pushed her rear canopy open. Freezing air blasted and swirled around her. The wind roared. Rain pummeled her face, soaking her lap and the cockpit, saturating the spreading smoke. Eva’s arms shook and her heart thumped in time with the beat of the rain. She had to concentrate. Told herself how she’d flown open cockpit in the rain a thousand times during training out in Texas. Told herself how Helena was a good pilot. Told herself they were not going to die.
Eva forced herself to focus on the procedure that had been drilled into them over and over again.
“Keep the airspeed up to extinguish the fire, Helena.”
“Executing a forced landing as soon as we get beyond these trees.”
The plane heaved and shook like a bag of ball bearings over the forest. Helena fought to lift the ricocheting nose upward.
“We have to assume we could be glider pilots any second now, Helena.”
“Are we gonna make it, Evie?” Helena shouted the useless words.
“You need to come around by three degrees now, Helena.” They had to turn a little to move toward the base and not stay stuck above the trees. Eva forced herself to stare at the artificial horizon, a glimmering, tiny flicker of a beacon in the pouring rain.
“Roger.”
“Maintain altitude now. If you need me to, I’ll take over.” The plane bounced; it might as well have been a balloon filled with air. Eva cursed herself for all the jokes they’d made about planes falling into Dismal Swamp and never being seen again.
The engine froze but the propeller continued to windmill. Eva reached for the throttle and felt it flapping back and forth.
“Please,” Eva whispered into the screaming wind. “Please, save us now.”
In the distance, thunder growled.
“I’ll handle the radios,” Eva said. “You handle the aircraft. Switching to the tower frequency.”
“I’m slowing down a little. Turning off the ignition switch.”
Something dark spread through Eva’s stomach and hung there. “I’m switching frequency to the control tower right now, Helena. Give me one minute.”
Eva’s fingers were slick on the little knob. Rain pelted her hands. Her entire body felt like it was being melted by the rain. “This is Baker Forty-Seven. Mayday, Mayday, Mayday. We’ve lost oil pressure.”
“We’ll scramble the fire trucks and meet you there.”
“Roger.”
Eva fumbled with the controls, switching back to Helena. “Push the nose forward to keep the airspeed up now, Helena.”
The plane bounced upward. Suddenly, the air base spread below them. Eva clutched the sides of the plane.
“Put the landing gear down now, Helena. Unlatch your door prior to landing.” Eva reached out and unlatched hers. She saw Helena still fighting the steering controls. “Unlatch your door!” Eva shouted. “Brace for impact and run on landing!”
Helena yelled, “I have to turn the airplane on an angle!”
Eva saw Helena scramble for her door handle. Eva closed her eyes for one second, nausea surging up through her throat.
Helena pulled the nose up again, turning the plane sideways with the rudder. The plane skipped.
Eva grasped hard on her handle, ready to exit on impact, ready to run.
“Remember to run!” she managed to shout.
The plane crashed and skidded. A second, sickening crack ripped into Eva’s ears. Pain ricocheted through Eva’s body, up her side, searing into her head, tunneling deep into her legs.
She heard the wail of sirens.
She smelled the stench of smoke.
But one thought pushed her to yank on the door handle and get out of the plane. One thought kept her pulling herself across the tarmac, dragging her body along.
She had to save her friend.
“Alex. I told you not to bring this up. Look at her. She’s spaced out again.” Jack’s voice sliced into the air.
“Sure, Dad.” Alex’s voice was small.
Jack shook Eva’s shoulders. Eva lost her balance and tipped off her chair.
Gradually, the sounds of the market grew louder and louder. A stall owner shouted about potatoes. The roar of the burning plane receded away into the distance. Eva put her hands out on the asphalt floor of the market. She started to push herself forward, to crawl along the ground. The noises around her came into focus. People talking. Laughing.
It’s not the tarmac.
It’s the market.
“Mom, Mom, where are you going? Let me help you up. I can’t believe you pushed her, Dad. You knocked her out of her chair.”
“She tipped, Alex.”
“I’ll go get the car.” Alex again. “Mom, you don’t need to walk home.”
She felt Alex place his hands under her arms, hauling her up to a chair. In front of her, a glass of water sat perfectly still. Alex held it up. Gently, he guided the glass to her lips.
“She can walk, Alex.” Jack glowered in the background.
“Alex, please stay with me.” Eva’s hand shook as she rested it on the table.
“I’m out of here.” Jack turned and disappeared into the busy street. He sounded as mean as he had when Alex had stayed out too late and broken curfew when he was sixteen.
Alex pulled out a chair and sat down opposite her. “I’m so sorry, Mom.”
“It wasn’t your fault, sweetheart. I just…” She could still hear the prop engine, but it was only faint. “There was an accident back then. I was involved. It came back just now. It was like it was haunting me.”
“You never talk about the war. Are you sure you’re okay?” Alex leaned forward, his eyes running back and forth over her face, filled with love.
“One of my close friends was killed in the accident. I was her copilot.” Her words would come only in bursts.
“Oh, Mom. I didn’t know.”
“I have trouble recalling the details. I tried so hard to remember the accident after it happened, and over the years, I guess I just gave up.”
“That’s so sad.” Alex looked down, darkness haunting his face.
Shadows of her own past seemed to linger between them. Eva’s heart still beat fast with the memory of so long ago.
“Just now, I finally saw something new. I was crawling to the plane, trying to save Helena. I was so worried that I hadn’t done enough to help, that my pilot’s death was my fault.”
“That’s horrible.” He drew a hand up to his face.
Eva looked down at her hands. They sat folded neatly in her lap on her dark-blue skirt. It was the same color as the official WASP uniform, the Santiago-blue fitted jacket and skirt she’d been so proud to receive for her graduation, such a gorgeous outfit to wear after months in flight suits, broken only by beige pants and white shirts for ground school.
Alex leaned forward. “All you’ve ever told me is that you don’t keep in touch with your old friends from the war. That you lost touch.”
“I tried. I wrote letters, and they never wrote back.” Her voice sounded distant, lost now. It was as if she were trying to recall some stray note.
“They must have moved away.”
“We’d all been so close.” Eva felt for the familiar comfort of her scarf and ran her fingers down its soft length. “Eventually, I blocked out the war like it never happened. We were told to pick up our lives and never talk about it. I never knew what really happened that night.”
“Jeez. Mom.” His voice shook, and her heart lurched out to her son.
“This ex-WASP. She told you they were getting together again? Now?”
“She was so great, I wanted to tell you,” Alex said.
“When we joined, they told us we’d be made military. Our leader, Jacqueline Cochran, fought Congress back in ’44. We were disbanded at the end of that year. They wanted the returning men to have jobs. We were all sent home.” Her voice filtered off again.
“Mom, you’ve got to go. The reason they’re fighting again now is because the government just announced that the air force is going to train women as pilots for the first time.”
“Well, it’s not the first time. We already flew air force planes and lived on air force bases back in World War II.”
“Don’t you think that the WASP deserve to be recognized? And don’t you think you deserve some answers about your accident?”
Eva’s heart contracted at the dearness of him, but she heaved out a sigh. “I’ve promised your father. I’m done with the past.”
“Don’t listen to Dad. He doesn’t get it.” Alex’s expression tightened. And Eva saw all the complexities of his relationship with his father in that one look. All the times she’d tried to stand up for Alex, all the times she’d tried to step in and put a stop to the conflict that Jack caused with their son. All the times Jack had turned on her and told her to keep out of it.
“Women died.”
“What, Mom?”
“Women died while flying for the United States. All of them had undertaken military training, and they died doing their duty for their country.”
“The woman today said they’ve got the bill approved by the Senate.” Alex’s voice was soft, filled with the sympathy she knew was imbued in him.
“So it’s gone to the House.”
“The reps are proving a much harder battle, she said.”
“How long did you talk to her?” In spite of everything, Eva felt warmth flicker through her insides.
“The line for tickets was very long. It’s a very big movie, Star Wars.”
“Oh, Alex!” Eva caught his dancing brown eyes with her own.
“Go for it, Mom. For you and Granddad.”
“Granddad?” Eva’s voice came out solid and strong now.
“Granddad.” Alex was firm. “He used to tell me how you loved nothing more than to fly when you were young. That Grandma tried to convince you not to fly for the air force, but you were headstrong and you wouldn’t listen to her. He would want you to fight. I know it.”
“Oh, I was a bit determined back then.” Eva chuckled.
Alex dropped his voice. “Sounds kind of familiar.”
For a brief moment, Eva shared a smile with her eighteen-year-old boy.
“Dad will be here in two minutes. I have to ask, wouldn’t they tell you about your accident?”
“The WASP records have been hidden for over thirty years.”
“You’ve got to go to Washington. Promise me you’ll go.” His eyes searched her face, his expression so vulnerable that Eva’s heart wanted to break in two.
“I’m saying, supporting some movement to militarize women pilots is not a good idea.” Jack stood framed in the doorway of their bedroom in the house in Hancock Park. They’d lived there all their married life, and they’d raised Alex there. Alex would most likely move out when he went to college next year, but for now it was still their familiar nest, even though it had become riddled with arguments during the last three months over Eva’s decision to go to Washington and help fight for her sisters in the WASP when the bill went to Congress. Eva folded the last sweater from the pile of clothes on their bed, its everyday pale-green quilted cover smooth as always. She zipped up her small red leather suitcase.
“I doubt I’ll be gone long.”
“Look how crazy the past makes you. You space out, have these episodes where you just sit and stare. You don’t need that. Stay home.”
Eva sighed. “Jack, for over thirty years, I’ve done what you said. For the first time, I’m doing what’s right.”
Jack took a step toward her. He placed his hands on her shoulders, standing over her.
Eva took a step to the side. Mimicking her, he took a step too, blocking her way.
“Really? You’re going to stop me?”
“You gave up flying. I gave up acting. That was the deal. I’ve kept my side of the bargain.”
Eva looked up at him. She focused on the expression on Alex’s face when he had urged her to go, remembered the unfathomable determination that she’d so admired in those fellow WASP of hers, remembered that girl who’d marched out the door with her suitcase in her hand and a whole pile of confidence back in 1943.
Eva felt her lips forming a strong-willed smile. “I’m not going flying. Yet.”
Chapter Three
THE COMMITTEE: Mrs. Forrest, can you give us a summary of the Women Airforce Service Pilots during World War II?
EVA FORREST: During the Second World War, 25,000 women applied to be members of the Women Airforce Service Pilots; 1,830 were accepted, and 1,074 passed flight training. We filled the need for more pilots to do noncombat duties at home, freeing up the men to fight overseas. We flew over sixty million miles for our country, bombers and fighters and every other type of plane. We started in 1942, and for the next two years, we ferried planes across the country from factories to airfields. We towed targets so that young men could learn to shoot at enemies. We test-flew new airplanes and planes just back from repairs. We served as flight instructors for the military, and we test-flew radio-controlled planes. Thirty-eight of us were killed in the line of duty. Men weren’t the only pilots in World War II. There was a group of women, us flygirls, who were ready and willing to do our part too.
Eva stretched her legs across the sofa in the little house in Burbank, resting her feet in Harry’s lap. Nina sat on a cushion on the floor. Benny Goodman played on the gramophone, and every now and then, the crash of Eva’s mother’s pots and pans rang from the kitchen in back.
“You could teach me to fly.” Eva nudged Harry with her foot. “After all, you’re a certified instructor. I know we’re friends and all, but you’d be a grand teacher.”
Harry took a sip of his beer, tipping his blond head backward in that slow, sexy way that Eva loved, not that she would ever confess as much to him.
“Every time I take you up, Evie, you’re the pilot. You take control of the plane. So why bother with your certificate? You’ve already done hours and hours of flying with me. I know you haven’t taken off or landed a plane on your own yet, but you’re on your way to being a very good pilot already. You’ve logged up good hours so far, just by being up there with me.” He tapped her leg with his tanned hand.
“I’ve heard talk of a callout for women to take over ferrying airplanes so the men can go off to war,” Eva said.
Harry stayed st. . .
We hope you are enjoying the book so far. To continue reading...
Copyright © 2024 All Rights Reserved
Please log in to recommend or discuss...
