Wings (19 page)

“For you, I'd bring home a Starlifter if you wanted me to, I'd even steal one.”

“Now there's a thought. That might soften up your old man. We could use a few new planes around here. Maybe they'd like to give us one or two,” he joked, but he was feeling devastated at the thought of her leaving. She was so much a part of his everyday life, and they had done so much flying together in the past three years, he couldn't bear to think of her going to LA He had never expected anything like that to happen to her.

And neither had Pat. He had no intention of losing his little girl. It was bad enough that Chris had been talking about going to Europe to study architecture for a year or two. But that was still a few years away. This was now. And it wasn't Chris, it was Cassie.

“You're not going anywhere,” he reiterated again that afternoon, “and that's final.” But in her mind, she was still going to make the decision. She talked to Nick about it again, and he could definitely see opportunities for them to take advantage of her, but there were so many benefits to her in the process that he wasn't at all sure it mattered. The money, the fame, the planes, the test flights, the records she could set, the benefits to her seemed almost endless. It would be impossible to turn them down. But he had no idea how she was going to convince her father.

She talked to Billy about it too, and he knew Desmond Williams from the West Coast, though only by reputation. Some people said he was a fair man, others clearly didn't like him. He had offered a job to a girl Billy knew from San Francisco and she had hated it. She had said it had been too much hard work, and she felt as though they owned her. But Billy confided to Cass that she had also been a miserable pilot. For someone like Cassie, it could be the opportunity of a lifetime.

“You really could end up another Mary Nicholson,” he said, citing one of the stars of the day. But Cassie couldn't imagine ever being that famous.

“I doubt it,” she said gloomily. The difficulty of the decision was driving her crazy. She didn't want to leave her home and family, but she also knew that she had very little else to stay for. And if she wanted to fly, Williams Aircraft was the place to be, no matter how many dumb photographs they took of her in her uniform, or how many interviews she had to give. She wanted to fly airplanes. And Williams had the best ones.

“Give it some thought, kid. You may not get another chance,” Billy advised her solemnly, and in their offices, Nick was telling Pat much the same thing. She was a brilliant pilot, and there was nowhere for her to go from here. She'd be hanging around the airport all her life, and flying dusty routes around the Midwest with a bunch of guys who would never fly as well as she did.

“I told you not to teach her to fly!” Pat roared at him, suddenly angry at everyone, Nick, Cassie, Chris, all of them. It had to be someone's fault. And the worst culprit of all was the devil himself, Desmond Williams. “He's probably a criminal… going after innocent young girls, looking to rob them of their virtue.” Nick felt sorry for him. After all these years, and with almost no warning at all, he was about to lose his little girl. And Nick knew how he felt. He hated it as much as Pat did. But he also knew they had no right to hang onto her. She had to fly… like a bird… and it was time for her to soar with the eagles.

“You can't stop her, Pat,” Nick said quietly, wishing he could say how much it hurt him too. “It's not fair. She deserves so much better than we have to give her.”

“That's your fault,” Pat boomed at him again. “You shouldn't have taught her to fly so damn well.” Nick laughed at the reproach, and Pat helped himself to a slug of whiskey. He knew he wouldn't be flying that day, and he was deeply upset over losing Cassie. And he still had to tell Oona about Cassie's visit from Desmond Williams.

And when he did, that night, Oona was shocked. She imagined all sorts of terrible immoral things. She couldn't imagine Cassie living anywhere but home, certainly not in Los Angeles, living alone as a test pilot and a publicity spokeswoman for Desmond Williams.

“Do girls do that kind of thing?” she asked Pat unhappily. “Pose for pictures and all that? Do they wear clothes?”

“Of course, Oona. It's not a striptease parlor, the man builds airplanes.”

‘Then what do they want with our little girl?”

‘Tour little girl,” he said miserably, “is probably the best pilot I've ever seen, including Nick Galvin, or Rickenbacker. She's the best there is, and Williams is no fool. He can see that. She put on a hell of a show two days ago, at the air show. I didn't want to worry you, but she almost killed herself, the little fool, pulled herself right out of a spin no more than fifty feet off the ground. I damn near died. But she did it, and never turned a hair. Did a lot of other crazy stunts too. But she did them perfectly. And he knew it.”

“Does he want her to fly stunts?”

“No, just to test planes, and set some records if she can. I read the contract, and it sounds fair. I just don't like the idea of her going away, and I knew you wouldn't either.”

“What does Cassie want?” her mother asked, trying to take it all in, but there was a lot to absorb in a short time. And they all knew that Cassie had to make a decision before morning.

“I think she wants to go. She says she wants to go. Or she says she wants the freedom
to
decide her own fate.”

“And what did you say?” Oona asked with wide eyes, and her husband grinned sheepishly.

“I forbade her to go, just like I forbade her to fly.”

“That didn't get you very far,” Oona smiled, “and I don't suppose it will this time.”

“What should we say?” He turned to his wife for advice. He relied on her judgment more than he realized, and sometimes more than he wanted to. But he trusted her, particularly about their daughters.

“I think we should let her do what she wants. She will anyway, Pat, and shell be happier if she feels she can make her own decisions. Shell come back to us, no matter how many planes she flies in California. She knows how much we love her.” They called her into their bedroom then, and Oona let her father tell her what they had decided.

“Your mother and I want you,” he hesitated and glanced at Oona for a second, “to make your own decision. And whatever you decide, we're behind you. But if you go,” he warned, “you'd better come back, and damn often.” There were tears in his eyes when he hugged her, and she clung to him and kissed her mother, who was crying.

“Thank you… thank you…” She hugged them both, and sat down at the foot of their bed with a sigh. “It's been a hard decision.”

“Do you know what you're going to do?” Oona asked. Pat didn't dare ask her, but he already suspected what Cassie had decided as she nodded and looked at them with a shiver of excitement.

“I'm going.”

But leaving them was harder than she'd feared. She met with Desmond Williams at the Portsmouth the next morning, and signed the contract with him. She had black coffee and toast, she was too nervous to eat anything else, and the details of what he was telling her were so exciting that she kept getting confused. They were going to arrange a flight for her from Chicago to Los Angeles. There was an apartment, a car… uniforms… a chaperone when they felt she needed one… a wardrobe… escorts, a weekend place in Malibu she could use. A plane for her personal use, whenever she wanted to fly home. And the kinds of planes she had always dreamed about flying.

Her schedule began in five days. There would be a press conference, a newsreel, and a test flight of a new Starlifter right off the bat. He wanted her to show America just how good she was. But first he wanted to show her what his planes could do. He was going to spend the first two weeks with her, mostly flying.

“I can't believe it,” she said to Billy as they lay in the sun on an old unused piece of runway later that morning.

“You sure did get a big break,” he said enviously. But he was happy here, and for the moment he had no desire to go back to California.

“I'll be home in two weeks for a visit, no matter what,” she promised him and everyone else.

Her parents gave a big dinner for her the night before she left, with all her sisters and brothers-in-law, their kids, Chris, Nick, and Billy. Bobby wasn't there of course, although she had seen him two days before at Jim Bradshaw's wake. He had been talking quietly with Peggy, and holding one of her babies.

But it was Nick she stood next to all night, whom she couldn't bear to leave. She derived so much comfort and support from him, and had for
so
many years, that now she didn't know how she would survive without him.

The next morning everyone was at the airport when she left. Nick was flying her to Chicago in the Vega, and after she kissed her mother and sisters and Chris goodbye, she went over to her father. They both had tears in their eyes as he looked at her. He wanted to ask her to change her mind, but he would never do it.

“Thank you, Dad,” she whispered into his neck as he held her close to him.

“Be careful, Cassie. Ray attention. Don't ever get sloppy in one of those fancy planes. They won't forgive you for an instant.”

“I promise, Dad.”

“I wish I believed you,” he smiled, “damn female pilot.” He was laughing then through his tears, and gave her another bear hug and then sent her off with Nick. Chris and Billy were waving from the runway too, when they took off, and Cassie heaved an enormous sigh. It had been harder leaving home than she had ever dreamed, and all she could think of were the people she was leaving there, instead of the places where she was going. And as she turned to look at Nick, her heart felt heavier still. She wanted to hold onto every moment she had with him.

“You're a lucky girl,” Nick reminded her on the way up, to take her mind off her family, who were still waving at her, “but you deserve it. You've got what it takes, Cass. Just don't let those city slickers use you.” Desmond Williams was indeed pretty slick, but he also seemed both fair and honest. He had made no bones about what he wanted from her. He wanted the best pilot in the world, the best-looking, best behaved woman he could find to represent his product, he wanted new records set, and his planes unharmed and well viewed by the American public. It was a tall order, but she was capable of filling it for him, and he was smart enough to sense that. She was the best pilot he had ever seen, and good-looking too, and for him, that was a beginning. For Nick it was an end. But he was more than willing to sacrifice himself for her future. It was his final gift of love to her. First flying, and then finally, her freedom.

“Don't let them push you around,” Nick reminded her; “you're a great girl, and if they're too tough on you, tell them to go to hell, and come straight home. All you have to do is call, and I'll fly out to get you.” It sounded crazy, but it was actually reassuring.

“Will you come out to see me?”

“Sure. Whenever I have a run out there, I'll take a little detour.”

“Don't give the California runs to Billy then,” she reminded him, “be sure you do them yourself.” He smiled at her admonition. She was suddenly looking very nervous.

“I kind of thought you might like to see more of him,” Nick said, speaking of Billy as nonchalantly as he could, which meant not very. “Was I wrong?” He was relieved at what she had just said. But he had already begun to suspect that Billy was a friend and not a romance, just as her father had predicted. But it was nice to hear her confirm it. What he wanted from her was celibacy and total adoration, and he knew how crazy that was. One of these days she'd have to find a husband, and have kids, and he knew it wouldn't be him, but he wished it could be.

“Billy and I are just friends,” she said quietly. “You know that.”

“Yeah. Maybe I do.”

“You know a lot of things,” she said wisely. “About me, about life, about what matters, about what doesn't. You've taught me a lot, Nick. You've made my whole life mean something to me. You've given me everything.”

“I wish I had, Cass, but I haven't done all that well myself. And no one deserves it all more than you do.”

“Yes, you have given me everything,” she said, her admiration obvious, her love for him even more so.

“I'm no Desmond Williams, Cass,” he said honestly. He had no pretense about him.

“Who is? Most people aren't that lucky.”

“You might be one day, Cass. You might become
someone
really
important,”

“From being in newsreels and getting my picture taken? I doubt it. That's show-offy stuff, it's not real. I know that much.”

“You're a smart girl, Cass. Stay that way. Don't let them spoil it.”

They landed in Chicago after a little while, and he walked her to her plane, carrying her bag for her. She was wearing a navy blue suit that had been her mother's. It looked a little out of date, and it was too big for her, but it was hard to make Cassie O'Malley look anything but lovely. At twenty years of age, she took your breath away, with her shining red hair, her big blue eyes, her full bust and long legs, the tiny waist he loved to put his hands around when he helped her to the ground. But she was looking up at him now, like a child, and all he wanted to do was take her back to her mother. Her eyes were filled with tears, but she wasn't crying for them, she was crying for him. She didn't want to leave him.

“Come and see me, Nick… I'll miss you so much.…”

“I'll always be there for you, kid… don't you forget that”

“I won't,” she sniffed, and he put an arm around her and held her. He didn't say anything else to her. He just kissed the top of her head, and walked away. There was nothing else he could say, and he knew if he did, his voice would betray him, and he'd never leave her.

11

W
hen the flight from Chicago landed in Los Angeles, there were three people waiting to meet her, a driver, a representative from the company, and Mr. Williams's secretary. Cassie was a little surprised to see them. He had told her she would be met at the plane, but she hadn't expected to be met so officially, or by so many people.