“Just be careful. My father says you were the most famous person from Sacred.”
“First off, I don’t live in Sacred and I don’t consider myself to be from Sacred. Our farm is across the town line. I just went to school here. And secondly, what do you mean ‘were the most famous’? Who else you got?”
Kevin stuck his tongue out back at her. Then, their comedy routine over with, he tapped out the telegram and collected the money.
Done earlier than expected, Aubrey sauntered off down the street and ran into her father going into the John Deere shop. She waited outside while he spoke to a salesman he knew. Despite not officially being from Sacred, her father knew every soul in town. He was the second most famous person from the area, she supposed. There was a war memorial in the centre of town with the names of the fourteen boys who had enlisted, including Johnny Millerson, who’d never come back. Those boys should be regarded as the most famous, she thought. Her father would agree.
“Going to take two weeks. Can you believe that?” her father said when he came out of the shop.
“Lucky thing we have a second tractor,” Aubrey said. “And the Millersons have one too.”
Aubrey felt another sharp pang of guilt. Her father was having problems with the farm, and here she was about to take off on a grand cross-country adventure.
They left the car where it was parked and walked arm in arm down the street toward the Birchmount. As they strolled, Colonel Endeavours greeted several shopkeepers and citizens of Sacred. They all seemed concerned about and interested in Aubrey and how she was making out after her crash.
“I just wish everyone would stop talking about it,” she told her father when they were alone again.
“People were worried about you.”
“Were you worried?”
“Of course. Those flying contests, that barnstorming—they put you in awful situations, made you do foolish things.”
“You think I was being foolish when I crashed?”
“I know all about violent down-drafts. Been caught in a couple myself.” He looked at her sharply.
“Of course, Father. I didn’t mean anything by that.”
He hugged her closer. “You survived. That’s the main thing.”
“And now I’m about to get another plane and do it all over again.”
He cleared his throat. “About that. I read the letter a couple of times, Aubrey. I didn’t read where it says you’ll be flying. It doesn’t say anything about an airplane.”
“What else would they want an aviator for, other than to have her do what she does best?”
“Just don’t get your hopes up. Arthur’s offer doesn’t interest you?”
“It does interest me, but my heart and soul belong in the sky.”
“There’s no future in it, kiddo. In a couple of years no one will care about female flyers. You’re just a flash in the pan.”
“We’re becoming commercial pilots,” she protested. “Soon we’ll be flying people all around the country, and there’s always the mail service.”
“Forget about that, Aubrey. Please. I don’t want you flying through some blizzard up in Alaska.”
“I’m just saying it’s opening up a whole world of opportunity for women. Things are changing. We’ve had the right to vote for fifteen years, Father. Has the whole world collapsed as you predicted?”
“No, not yet,” he said, and pulled her off balance in an attempt to make her laugh.
“It’s true, Father. You’ll see.”
They reached the hotel and saw Arthur seated inside the dining room. He raised his coffee cup at them.
“Think there’s coffee in that?” Aubrey whispered to her father. “I mean, Prohibition has ended; you don’t have to hide it anymore.”
“This hotel is dryer than dirt. It was before Prohibition, and it is now. Don’t know why he chose it.”
“Maybe loose lips from alcohol, him being a spy and all.” She gave him a cheeky grin.
“I wouldn’t go around repeating that. He wouldn’t like it.”
“Right. My lips are sealed.”
Arthur Colins met the two Endeavours halfway and escorted them to his table. He ordered coffees for them. “I have a five-thirty reservation for dinner,” he told them when the waiter had departed.
“That’s fine,” Colonel Edmundson said.
Arthur turned his attention to Aubrey. “Did you get your errands in town done?”
“I did. I ripped off a letter to the magazine, the one that advertises planes for sale. And I sent a telegram to New York accepting their offer. I just have to wait for the details now.”
Arthur didn’t show any disappointment. He just nodded, a thin smile on his lips.
“I think she’s a damn fool,” Edmundson broke in. It didn’t dent Aubrey’s enthusiasm one bit, but Arthur scolded him with a look.
“She can make up her own mind.”
“A job with the government is security, and it’s rewarding,” the colonel went on, undeterred. “You saw what happened to her last time she flew. She almost died.”
Of course, the colonel was talking about the last race Aubrey had entered, not the adventure she’d had recently in Europe. That had never been revealed to him; as far as he knew, Aubrey had entered the race and withdrawn due to mechanical issues. As for the truth, he had no need to know. Aubrey didn’t agree with that, but she had promised Arthur she would not reveal what had really happened over there, to anyone, ever.
“It’ll be all right, Father,” she said. “I’ll be flying from town to town, showing off my gams and flashing eyes at the photographers to sell a few bars of soap. Nothing to worry about.”
“I bet,” Arthur said. “When you crashed, were you attempting to fly across the Rockies?”
“Uh-huh. It was a race—fastest time over the hump. Women only.”
The colonel looked absently out the hotel window and said, “It’s all just a load of guff. Women flyers.” He harrumphed. “They’re just using you to promote their newspapers or sell their products.”
“That’s right, and I’m going to use them to get my next plane. I’m not flying blind in this.” Arthur smiled at her joke. “I know what I’m
