by H. P. Munro
She selected a cigarette out of her silver carry case and placed it between her lips before striking a match. While inhaling deeply she shook her right hand to extinguish the small flame, tossing the spent stick into the ashtray sitting beside the typewriter on her desk. She needed this, because she knew that what she was about to do could get her in a whole heap of trouble. She let her head fall back and exhaled slowly watching the smoke swirl around her head. Her thumb flicked against the tip of the cigarette as she contemplated her approach. Having completed her mental pep talk, she ground the cigarette out in the ashtray and stood up, tugging the hem of her short Eisenhower jacket.
Helen lifted her beret and positioned it on her head, then turned and strode across the office and rapped her knuckles brightly against the door.
“Come in.”
She reached for the door handle, tugged down on it sharply and strode into the room.
“Sir.”
Marching swiftly into the center of the room, her footsteps echoed loudly off the tiled floor. She saluted the Major and waited for his acknowledgement.
Major Chiswell looked up, quickly saluting back. “At ease WASP,” he barked. He was uncomfortable with a woman saluting him and even more so when he knew that the woman was the daughter of a three star Army Airforce General. “Richmond?” he asked picking his pen back up and holding it poised above his paper.
“Sir, I'm seeking permission to utilize my skills fully, Sir. I have been here for four weeks and I'm yet to fly, Sir.” Helen felt the rage in her start to flow, overriding her usual respect for authority figures, particularly authority figures in uniform with bars on their shoulders. “I trained for six months to serve my country, doing the same training as the men here, Sir, and I would like to put that training to use,” Helen let out her breath in a rush.
The Major put his pen down and stood up; Helen puffed her chest up and lifted her chin up defiantly. “What do you see here?” he asked pointing towards the gold oak leaf on his shoulder.
“Your rank insignia, Sir,” Helen answered, facing forward unflinching.
“And that is?”
“Major, Sir.”
Chiswell walked around the desk to loom over Helen standing in her personal space. “That's right, WASP. Major. So I make the decisions. I give the orders and if I decide that you're going to fly, you'll fly or if I think that you'll serve your country better by getting my coffee then that's what you'll do,” his voice was a steady snarl. “Have I made myself clear?”
Helen's eyes flashed upwards catching sight of the flushed face above her, “Sir. Yes. Sir.”
“Dismissed Richmond,” he stated.
Helen saluted, spun on her heel, and marched quickly out of the room. As she carefully closed the door behind her, she slumped against it.
“Well, that went well,” she muttered under her breath. She lifted her cigarette case and matches and left the office walking out into the cool air.
She stood at the side of the hangar smoking, her hands shaking with adrenaline following her encounter with the Major. The office door opened and the major strode out towards a waiting jeep. He saluted the driver and climbed into the passenger seat. Recalling what he had said to her, an image of Adele flashed into her mind. Her friend had died training to do this job and how could she hold her head up and honor that sacrifice if he wouldn't let her, something within Helen snapped. She threw her cigarette on the ground and crushed it under her heel, pushing herself off the wall she jogged towards the stand.
“Stewie, is this fuelled?” she shouted pointing as she ran towards the Mustang plane sitting on the stand.
The tall engineer's thick eyebrows raised as Helen ran towards him. He wiped his hands on a rag and nodded, “Just filled her up.”
Helen grinned, “Great.” She climbed up the wing walkway, opened the canopy, and jumped into the cockpit, pulling the canopy closed in one swift action. Quickly, she went through her preflight checks, and primed the engine. Stewie realizing what she was about to do, dove under the plane and removed the wheel chalks just before the propeller started to spin. The plane started to move slowly from the stand towards the runway. Adjusting the microphone Helen called into the tower.
“Control, this is Hollywood. Permission for take-off. Over.”
“Helen, what are you doing?” a female voice in her ear asked.
“Betty, just give me clearance,” Helen barked into the radio, hoping the civilian air traffic controller wouldn't ask too many questions.
Betty stood up and looked out of the window that circled the tower; she spotted the Mustang taxiing along and smirked to herself. She'd seen the mounting impatience in the blonde since her arrival and wasn't surprised at the feisty response to her grounding, “Proceed Hollywood. Fly safe. Over.”
Helen smiled turning her head to look up towards the tower she spotted Betty watching her, she held up a thumb, grinned and sped up towards the runway.
***
Chiswell was sitting in the open Jeep when the buzz of an engine distracted him from the conversation he was having with his driver, he looked over his shoulder and into the air. The source of the noise was apparent, above him was a Mustang, performing a series of rolls, the spins finished and the plane pulled upwards, completing a flawless inverted loop. The plane pulled around until it was flying directly behind the Jeep following the line of the road below. Chiswell watched as it spun one eighty and stayed there, flying upside down. As it flew overhead Chiswell's eyes never wavered from the canopy, spotting blonde hair flowing as Helen flew over him.
“I will kill her,” he muttered as the plane flipped back over and peeled off back towards the base. “Turn the Jeep around,” he shouted smacking the dashboard.
Helen whooped as she pulled the plane back towards the base.
“Make your own damn coffee!” she shouted, bouncing up and down in the seat.
***
Chiswell threw the office door open, Helen shot to her feet behind her desk, standing automatically to attention.
“Office now,” he barked not looking at her and marched into his office, he yanked his hat from his head and threw it angrily onto his desk, rubbing his hand over the close-cropped hair at the back of this head. “Give me one reason not to have you arrested or thrown off the base?” he yelled spinning round to look at Helen. “That has to be the worst demonstration of insubordination I have seen in all my years in this man’s army, do you have anything, anything to say Richmond?”
Helen pleaded with her body not to betray her as she faced the major’s wrath; she remained silent hoping that she could keep her face neutral against the assault.
“Well, do you?” the major repeated, his face incandescent with rage his nose practically pressed against Helen’s. “I'm not surprised you have nothing to say. You not only disregarded orders, you flagrantly disobeyed them. That little stunt of yours has got you confined to barracks for the next six weeks; any leave you hoped to get has been cancelled as of now.” He stepped back and put his desk between them. Helen stood and swallowed, praying that he would dismiss her so that she could get out of there.
“Now go make yourself useful, report to Lewis and tell him to get your name on the flight schedule for tomorrow. Dismissed,” he sat down heavily on his seat, the rage having left him. Realization dawned on Helen that the major was letting her fly, she bit at her lip to stop smiling as she fell out and walked towards the door, her hand reached for the door handle when she heard the major say her name, she turned to face him, nervous that he would change his mind.
“Richmond, if I ever see you flying without a parachute again, I'll have you put in the stockade.”
She nodded quickly and shot out the room. The major sat back on his chair and shook his head chuckling to himself, “That woman has balls.”
***
March 1944 – Las Vegas Army Air Field, Las Vegas, Nevada
Lily let out a long breath, pulling the soft leather helmet from her head and running a han
d through her hair. She had only been away from the base for three days but she could feel the change in temperature already, spring was coming. She finished her paperwork then unfastened her harness and pulled herself out of the seat.
Walking over the flight line towards the office Lily waved at Rita, a fellow WASP. Rita jogged up and took Lily's overnight case from her.
“Good trip?” she asked, stepping in time with Lily.
“Three days, three bases, three beds and three planes,” Lily replied wearily summing up her journey.
“Almost as many beds as Sadie managed in the same time,” Rita grinned, nodding wide-eyed as Lily looked at her for confirmation.
Rolling her eyes at the news Lily shook her head, “When will she learn, she gives the rest of us a bad name.” Lily started to unbuckle her parachute as they walked. “Does she realize that her hopping in, and out, of officer’s beds means we get hassle? They think we've all been tarred with the same harlot brush.”
Rita put Lily's case down and held out her hands to help her friend shrug off the heavy parachute. “I'm not sure she's thinking about much,” Rita surmised hanging the chute up.
Lily handed her paperwork in, pulled coins out of a zipped pocket of her leather jacket and slotted them into the soda dispenser, she tugged the knob then reached in pulling out a cool bottle of Coca Cola.
“So what did I miss while I was gone?” Lily asked placing the bottle against the metal opener and thrusting the bottle down, the cap released from the bottle with a small audible hiss. She gave Rita an expectant look as she took a long sip from the bottle.
“There's rumors of some of us being selected for bomber training,” Rita replied excitedly, her blonde curls bobbed around as she spoke, creating a pang of longing in Lily for Helen.
It was late March and it seemed almost impossible to Lily that the time could have gone so quickly and yet it feel like a lifetime since she'd held Helen.
“Are you listening to me?” Rita smiled waving her hand in front of Lily's face.
“Sorry, million miles away there,” Lily shook her head and focused on Rita.
“You know I scored pretty high in navigation in training and I'm pretty sure that Kansas isn't that far away.”
Lily smiled, Rita had figured out that Lily had a sweetheart based elsewhere from the excitement that would flush her face when she received mail; however, Lily never discussed Helen with Rita or corrected the assumption that her sweetheart was a man.
“May as well be,” Lily replied sadly. Rita looked in surprise at the unusually candid response from the dark haired woman. “So, bomber training?” she asked.
Rita opened her mouth to reply but halted at a shout of Lily’s name. Lily looked in the direction of the shout and grinned as she realized that Doris was coming towards her, waving papers in her hand. Rita shook her head knowing that their conversation was effectively at an end.
“Come find me when you're done,” Rita said rubbing Lily's arm.
Lily murmured an acknowledgment her eyes monitoring Doris' approach.
“'You got mail,” Doris smiled handing Lily a small pile of letters. Lily took the papers and flashed Doris a smile full of thanks.
Lily entered her room, tossed the mail onto her cot, and placed her soda bottle on her nightstand. She shrugged off her leather jacket, opening her locker she hung it up then automatically opened her drawer and pushed her clothing to the side, to reveal the framed photo of her and Helen. She traced a finger affectionately across Helen's face.
“Hey Hollywood,” she said softly, before replacing the clothing on top of the photo and unzipping her zoot suit. She pulled her arms out of the overall letting the top half drop to her sides and loosened her black tie, slipping the knot over her head. Opening the top button of her blue flight shirt, she picked up her half-full soda bottle and flopped onto her bed. Drinking from the bottle her free hand sorted through her mail, she recognized her sister’s spiky handwriting style, Adrienne's looping letters, Lucy's neat print, finally finding the handwriting that looked like a spider had fallen into an ink well and crawled over the paper while doing a small jig. She was about to open it when the next envelope sparked curiosity. She picked up the brown envelope with her name typed neatly in the center. She balanced the soda bottle between her thighs and slipping her finger under the seal she opened the envelope and pulled out the papers. Lily took in a deep breath, puffing out her cheeks as she read that she had been selected to attend Bomber School and was to report to the training base in Florida in two weeks’ time. She was flattered to be chosen but also nervous. She knew that Bomber School meant flying B26 Marauder's which had the worst reputation with pilots who had nicknamed it with a range of names from 'Flying Coffin' to 'Widowmaker' she let her breath out slowly putting the letter to one side and picked up Helen's letter deciding to distract herself with her favorite blonde.
She opened the letter and unfolded it carefully ready to read what Helen had been up to. Like most serving personnel, they were always careful in their letters not to give specific details of what they were doing in terms of the planes they flew but they also had to fight with the balance of missing each other and wanting to express that while not exposing the nature of their relationship. Lily found it a difficult line to walk when she wrote meaning her letters were usually short and filled with hints towards what she couldn't say. Helen's letters on the other hand were full of stories from the base.
Dearest Liliana
Greetings from your favorite machine-gun fodder! Things have been hectic here recently now that I'm flying. I'm not just doing training flights, they have me doing test flights for the mechanics as well…my feet barely touch the ground. Remind me to tell you some of the hair-raising stories of that when I see you!
I've finally been allowed off base, seems the major isn't one to hold a grudge. He maintains that I'm less of a danger in the air than in the office, apparently my coffee making abilities could be the Allies’ secret weapon. He reckoned that if we served up my coffee to Hitler the war would be over in no time…not sure how to take that!
Matty has settled in, have to say it's nice to have another fly girl on the base. Now that I'm off the hook with Chissy (As I like to call him ) we went to the movies on Saturday and saw 'Four Jills in a Jeep' movie wasn't much to write home about, but Alice Faye sang. I thought that you’d enjoy the song. Now I might get some of the words wrong but I think it went something like…
“You'll never know just how much I miss you
You'll never know just how much I care
And if I tried, I still couldn't hide my love for you
You ought to know, 'cause haven't I told you so
A million or more times?
Have been thinking (a lot!) about your pre-flight instruction technique, your handling of the wobble pump in particular along with your take off is something that impressed me -and something that I long to put into practice. I look forward to being your co-pilot again soon.
IWU
Helen
Lily let out a frustrated growl and smacked her hands down on the hard mattress, her head thumped against her thin pillow. She raised her hand and re-read the final paragraph again before kicking her legs rapidly against her bed.
“Someone having a temper tantrum?” Rita remarked from the doorway.
Lily looked up, surprised at the voice. “Something like that,” she replied sitting up and stuffing Helen's letter back into its envelope. She stood up and straightened her shirt. “I have to report to Florida in two weeks,” Lily announced, masking her concern at being chosen. Rita jumped slightly in celebration, hopping forward to hug Lily.
“Congratulations!”
Lily returned the hug, then pulled away and picked up Helen's letter to stow it with the ever-increasing collection of correspondence from the blonde.
“What am I going to do without you for six weeks?” Rita mused.
“Try and keep Sadie's knees together,” Lily joked about her roommate
and her nocturnal habits.
“How ‘bout you give me something easier! Like World peace,” Rita replied dryly, sparking a guffaw from Lily. “I came to see if you wanted to eat, mess will stop serving soon.”
Lily's stomach growled in response.
“I guess that's a yes,” Lily smiled, quickly grabbing her tie and Eisenhower short jacket and dressing as they walked.
***
Lily was woken to a thud on the head.
“Morning, sunshine,” Sadie sang.
Grumbling a response Lily sat up and checked her watch, not believing that the night had passed already. Wearily she got out of bed and padded behind her roommate.
Sadie stood in front of the mirror, pulling at the skin her eyelids. “All the squinting because of the sun is giving me wrinkles,” she complained, pouting her full lips. As quickly as the pout appeared it left her face again replaced with a large smile, “We're flying short haul together again today.”
For the past two days the three WASPs had been delivering utility planes to a nearby base. Lily tried to match Sadie's smile and enthusiasm for the trip but two days of doing the same hour-long flight before boarding another plane home to repeat the process several times a day, was starting to bore her.
Rita entered the small shared bathroom, wash bag in one hand the other rubbing sleep from her eyes.
“How exciting,” she yawned.
“It is ‘cause today we're going to spice it up,” Sadie trilled hopping onto her toes.
Lily and Rita exchanged slightly worried glances at what the blonde's plans to 'spice' up their day would bring.
