“No, not yet.”

“Well, do it now!” commanded Trent.


The mess filled and emptied, and the buildings darkened as curfew grew near. Trent stood in the doorway of his quarters and watched the lights of the planes up for night training. He searched in between to see one that was flying dark. The plane Liddy was in didn’t have night-fly equipment. If she came in before morning, the other pilots wouldn’t see her, and it would be a scramble in the tower to clear a spot for her.

A trainee had never gone missing since he reported to Avenger. But what was racking him now was more than concern for someone under his command. A weight filled his chest and everything went gray. He spent the night in a chair with a view out the window, and he waited for the phone to ring and feared the moment that it would.

Liddy’s baymates had all been called in to report on their missing squad member. Surely, Liddy would be booted if they told why she had left formation, so they agreed that they would all say that she was gone before any of them had noticed. But they were pretty sure that Major Trent and Captain Charles didn’t believe them. If they did, their story made them all look like a bunch of idiots, but they didn’t care. No one slept; instead, the women lay in their beds worrying. In the dark they listened to the planes buzzing overhead, hoping one of them was Liddy.

“We should have told the Major and Captain Charles the truth,” sobbed Bet. “It might have helped them figure out where she is.”

“It wouldn’t make any difference, Bet. We told them where we were when we saw her last, none of the rest is gonna help them find her.” Louise tried to keep the concern from her voice.

“But maybe they could have tracked down the Navy squadron, and they might know something.” Marina wiped her wrist across her nose.

“What? Call out the whole Navy?” asked Joy Lynn, “Ask if they know what happened to the hot fly girl that was junkin’ around with one of their squadrons? I didn’t get any plane IDs. Did any of you?”

A silence hung in the air. Doubt made his rounds to their beds and told them they had made a big mistake.

“Look, if she comes in, it’ll be better for Liddy that we kept quiet,” said Louise.

“If?” Bet and Marina cried out together.

“When, I mean when,” assured Louise, “Look, she’s fine, I can feel it.”


When morning came, word had spread across the base that Liddy hadn’t come in and the worst was assumed. Bet couldn’t get out of bed to go to calisthenics or the flight line, and her friends said she was sick to keep her from being pink slipped. It was mid-afternoon when a truck drove through the front gates and Liddy climbed out. Marina came and told Bet, who ran across the base in her nightgown.

Major Trent was on the phone when Liddy burst into his office. Tired and dirty, her body and mind wrung out, she held up a pink slip. “Thanks for the homecoming.”

“Excuse me, sir, I’ll need to call you back.” Trent hung up the phone and stood up behind his desk. “You left your squad. And if you emergency land, you call for a pick-up.”

“Your plane is fine. I landed it clean.”

“This is not about the plane.”

“What’s it about then?”

“It’s about following orders.”

“The electrical went haywire. My radio and instruments went dead. I was in the middle of nowhere by the time I tanked out.” Liddy tossed the pink slip on the desk. “Phones were a little scarce.”

“You should have waited with your plane, Hall, that’s procedure.”

“And I’d still be waiting. I saw a ranch before I found a place to land. I walked and was there by dark, but they didn’t have a phone, but I did get a ride.”

“There have been planes up since last night looking for you. Your plane was located two hours ago, plane and no pilot. A crew has already gone out to retrieve it. You should have waited through the night if you had to.”

“I waited… but then I…What if it had been days before I was found?”

“Staying where you land is the safest procedure for the pilot and the plane. Staying with your squadron would have avoided the situation altogether.” Trent clenched his jaw and stared at her. “You could have been out for this. Why did you leave your squad?”

Liddy knew she couldn’t tell the Major the reason she had left formation, and she couldn’t lie to him. The cockpit striptease would get them all pink slipped or worse, most likely worse. Liddy froze.

“Hall?” Trent waited for Liddy to answer. He wanted her to answer, but she didn’t. “You left your squad. You landed and you didn’t stay with the plane.” His voice and his face were so hard. Maybe it was anger, hurt or disappointment. She couldn’t read it. It never occurred to her that it might be fear. “You will not pick and choose the procedures, regulations or orders you will adhere to. Those are not your planes out there. This is not your playground. This is the Army.”

“Yes, sir,” she said it softly, averting her gaze to the window as she fought back tears.

“Maybe this isn’t the place for you.”

Liddy looked up at him. “What did you say?”

“You heard me.”

Her eyes burned and filled with tears. She lifted her chin and looked straight into his eyes. “Maybe it isn’t.” It certainly wasn’t the place she wanted to be at that moment. She wanted to be anywhere other than Avenger Field. Her heart hurt and fired up with anger, frustration and sadness all at once.

“You’re dismissed, Hall.”

Liddy grabbed the pink slip off the desk and left.


When Liddy entered the bay, the girls sat somberly on the beds, waiting for the news. She was holding the pink slip and all eyes zeroed in on it. She folded it neatly and tossed it in her locker. “Control yourself, HPs, you’re overwhelming me with your excitement.”

“Liddy, I’m sorry, this was all my fault,” said Bet. “What happened?”

“I lost my radio and instruments. I didn’t know how far I’d flown off course with the Navy boys and then my fuel clocked-out. I’m here. Am I the only one who’s happy about this ending?”

“I need you to stay here, Lid.” Bet sniffled through her raw nostrils.

Liddy sat next to Bet on the bed and wrapped her arm around Bet’s shoulders. “I’m not going anywhere. Pink really isn’t my best color you know.”

“That’s too bad, because you almost have enough of it for a nice dress,” said Joy Lynn.

The issuing of pink slips and washing-out seemed to be happening more and more frequently. Increasing difficulty of the training and the level of exhaustion were a combination that didn’t foster success. The baymates moved to the head of the class at the last graduation, but the weeks ahead looked like months to them.

“Sometimes I think washing-out would be a blessing, and then I’d get some rest.” Marina curled up on the bed.

“Give us rain,” Louise called out to the sky and she and Joy Lynn linked arms and did a rain dance up and down the bay.

“A good storm would ground us, wouldn’t it?” asked Bet.

“Maybe the Fifinella can help us out.” Marina rolled onto her back and opened the student newspaper that was lying next to her, “Says here that the ‘foot high, curled horned little Gremlin that sits on top of the archway to the base has been known to be responsible for all kinds of aid and mischief’.”

Joy Lynn grabbed the paper. “Let me see that.” Joy Lynn continued to read, “‘The little Gremlin has been seen dancing on the wing, swinging on the throttle and known to lock the rudder forward’. Goes on to say, ‘All students must carry used postage stamps to pacify the Jinx.’”

“Used postage? What a crock,” Bet scoffed.

“I don’t know, there’s gals who’ve said they’ve seen them,” Louise teased.

“Definitely better to be safe,” Joy Lynn added.

“Did you know about this?” Bet asked Liddy.

“Oh, sure,” Liddy confirmed.

Bet looked around the room. “You all knew and didn’t tell me? You carry used postage when you fly?”

“Why not,” said Louise. “Couldn’t hurt.”

“Wouldn’t go up without it,” confirmed Marina.

“Slipped deep in my back pocket every time,” said Joy Lynn.

“How much postage?” Bet asked.

“As much as possible,” said Louise.

“Anyone have extra?” Bet asked.

They all shook their heads. Bet stormed out of the room and they all howled. Liddy couldn’t keep up the farce and chased after her. Laughter slowly chugged itself out and a hush draped over the room. Marina grabbed the paper back from Joy Lynn, scanned the text and questioned Joy Lynn with her eyes. Then she rolled off the bed and she and Joy Lynn began to pillage the cancelled postage from their old mail.


The first new class, since the gals had become the seniors, arrived at Avenger and timidly walked into the rec hall. As they passed by, Liddy and Bet were perched on the back of a sofa, and Bet zeroed in on one of the new trainees and called out to her, “Welcome to HP HQ, ladies. WC and FS in the SD are a little OS. Still have to make it to the FL by ten hundred hours so don’t OV.”

The girl’s eyes got big and her forehead wrinkled up in confusion as she stumbled into the back of one of her classmates.

“OV?” Liddy questioned Bet.

Bet shrugged with a grin and Liddy shook her head at her little HP friend, and then asked her, “You’re going up for your night-fly tomorrow, aren’t you?”

“Yup.”

“Take me with you,” said Liddy.

“Why?”

“I’m practically at the bottom of the list. I’ll never get up there.”