Wings

“What are you doing, sweetheart?” her mother asked as she wandered past her into the kitchen. It had been an emotional day for her, and she thought Cassie looked tired too.

“Just listening to see if there's any news about Amelia Eariiart.”

“Not at this hour,” her mother smiled. “There will be plenty of it in the news tomorrow. She's a brave girl.” She was more than a girl obviously, she was a month shy of forty, which to Cassie seemed fairly ancient. But in spite of that she was still exciting.

“She's lucky,” Cassie said softly, wishing she could do something just like Earhart was doing. She would have liked nothing better than to tour the world, setting records, and flying incredible distances over strange lands and uncharted waters. It didn't frighten her at all, all it did was excite her.

And she said as much to Nick the next day, after they'd flown turns around a marker over their secret airstrip.

“You're as crazy as she is,” he said, dismissing Ear-hart's folly with a casual wave. “She's not the great pilot Putnam sets her up to be. She's crashed more than half the women who fly, and ID bet you a dollar that in that Electra of hers she overshoots every runway. It's a heavy machine, Cass, and it's got the heaviest Wasp engine Lockheed would give it. That's more than a handful for a woman of her size and build. This trip is just a stunt to make her the first woman to fly around the world. It's been done by men, and it's not going to do anything to advance aviation, only to advance Amelia Eaihart.” He seemed unimpressed, but Cassie was undaunted.

“Don't be a jerk, Nick. You're just mad because she's a woman.”

“I'm not. If you told me Jackie Cochran was doing this, I'd say great. I just don't think Earhart has the stuff to do it. And I talked to a guy in Chicago who knows her, and he says she wasn't ready, and neither was the plane. But Putnam wants to squeeze all the publicity he can out of it. I feel sorry for her actually. I think she's being used. And I think she's being pushed into some lousy decisions.”

“Sounds like sour grapes, Nick,” Cassie teased, as they shared a Coca-Cola. Their flights together had become a beloved ritual neither of them would have missed for anything in the world. They had been going on for exactly a year now. “You'll eat your words when she breaks all records,” Cassie said confidently as he shook his head.

“Don't hold your breath.” And then he smiled at her, his eyes crinkling in the corners, as they did when he was staring into the sun when he was flying. “I'd rather put my money on you in a few years.” He was playing with her, but he also meant it.

“Yeah, sure. And my father will be taking the bets, right?” They still hadn't figured out how to tell him about Cassie's flying, let alone that Nick thought Cassie was one of the best pilots he knew. But he had promised her that one of these days, when the time was right, they would do it.

The Peoria Air Show was in two weeks, and he was working with Chris, who was as steady as ever, and as uninterested as he had always been. He was entering the air show only to please his father. He was going to try and set an altitude record, though he didn't think he really could. Stunts were not his strong suit, and the hotshot flying still scared him. But they had strengthened the structure of Nick's Bellanca, and put a turbo supercharger on the engine to increase its power.

“I wish I could fly in it too,” Cassie said longingly, and Nick wished the same thing right along with her.

“So do I. Next year,” he promised her, and when he said it, he meant it.

“Do you really think I could?” She looked overwhelmed with excitement. Though it was a year away, it was something to look forward to, even more than college.

“I don't see any reason why not, Cass. You fly better than any of the guys there. It would make quite an impression, dazzle 'em a little bit. Believe me, they need it.”

“There are some pretty good guys at the air show,” Cassie said respectfully. She had seen some great flying over the years, but she also knew that she could fly as well as, or better than, most of those men now. Cassie had seen some terrible tragedies over the years too. It was not unusual to have fatalities at the air show. Oona had finally forced Pat to give it up, because flying stunts at the air show was just too dangerous. But he loved to see it.

“Want to take me back up and give me some cheap thrills?” Nick asked after their lunch. Sometimes they went back up for another spin, if the weather was good and they had time, as they did that afternoon. “You could use a little work on your takeoffs and landings in crosswinds.” They had also been working on takeoffs with power cutbacks.

“The hell I do. My landings are better than yours are,” she disagreed with a grin.