The Spitfire Girls(100)
‘Grandma, we looked for this plane for a very long time,’ Lewis started, his smile as wicked as his granddad’s had always been. ‘I think you might have flown her before. Does she look familiar?’
Ruby’s eyes were wide as she looked it over. ‘Help me up,’ she said, knees creaking as she pulled herself up and into the cockpit. She bent and squinted, studying the cockpit, looking for the letters she’d scrawled there all those years ago.
‘Well, I’ll be damned,’ she said, laughing and sitting down in the seat, shifting back and recalling the hours she’d sat there.
‘If we scribbled our signature in a plane now, we’d be fired on the spot,’ he told her, looking pleased with himself for surprising her. ‘Now, what do you say we get this old lady up in the air?’
‘Don’t go calling me an old lady,’ she retorted.
‘Grandma, I was talking about the plane,’ he said with a laugh.
The truth was, they were both old ladies now, and she knew this would be her last flight in a fighter plane, the very last time she’d ever take to the skies unless in a commercial jet liner. Her only wish was that Tom were beside her, so she could smile across at him as they took to the sky side by side.
Ruby shut her eyes for a moment, remembering every step, knowing the plane as well as she knew her little car. She settled into her place and Lewis helped her with her straps, securing her just as their mechanics had always done. Ground crew appeared, and she noticed them assisting, but her eyes couldn’t leave the interior of the beautiful old warplane, taking her back in time, her memories coming to life. Once upon a time, this was all she’d lived for.
Lewis took control and started her up, the engine kicking into life, the noise even louder than she remembered. Or maybe it was the way it rattled her old bones that intensified the noise and vibrations, her legs somehow even shorter in her seat than they’d been back then.
‘Ready, Grandma?’ he shouted.
She nodded, blinking away tears as she tightened the knot in her scarf and thanked the heavens that she’d worn warm clothes. But even if she got frostbite, it would be worth it to be back in the air. She’d survived colder temperatures for hours all those years ago, she’d been almost frozen into her seat, so she’d survive this.
Her stomach flipped the way it always had at take-off, and when they finally started to taxi down the airfield she felt a sense of relief. The plane lifted, the nose pointing skyward as they slowly rose, higher and higher, settling just below the cloud cover as they’d always been instructed to do.
The sky was blue and bright, and Ruby watched her capable grandson, remembering a time when it had been her husband teaching her and showing her the ropes. Lewis had turned to smile back at her and was gesturing at the controls. He couldn’t be serious, could he? But his thumbs-up suggested he was.
He wanted her to take over. She was certain the RAF wouldn’t be so happy to know an old pilot who was about to celebrate her ninetieth birthday was flying one of their best and most well-preserved aircraft, but the opportunity was too good to miss. She’d never been one to look a gift horse in the mouth, and she wasn’t about to start now, no matter how terrifying the prospect might be.
She nodded and took a deep breath before taking over on the dual controls. It all came back to her, as natural as breathing; suddenly it was as if she were in her twenties again, settling in for a long flight to deliver a plane. You don’t need me as your co-pilot anymore. You’ve turned into more of a Spitfire than those planes you love so much. You can do this without me, my little bird. Don’t be afraid. Tom’s words were comforting as she soared through the sky.
‘You’re a beautiful old girl, that’s for sure,’ she muttered to herself. She decided to fly along the railway line that had been so fiercely protected during the war before turning in a perfect arc and heading back towards the airfield and doing a sneaky barrel roll. She laughed along with her grandson, feeling as lightheaded as a girl on her first ever flight. The scenery was familiar, yet different at the same time; she vividly recalled her first cross-country trip, proving to herself and to her commander that she understood geography and could find her way wherever she needed to go. Once she’d completed a large circle she signalled for Lewis to take over again, her hands unsteady and shaking the moment she relinquished control.
Years ago, before landing, she’d have giggled to herself as her plane zigzagged while she fixed her lipstick and quickly powdered her nose. She’d have been in the plane for hours and desperate for a toilet stop, but nothing stood in the way of her doing her face before she landed.
She shut her eyes as they made their descent, loving the shudder through her bones as the plane changed, the vibrations different now that they were heading back in, the noise of the engine spluttering more slowly. She felt like that young pilot again, that young, brave girl flying her favourite plane as Lizzie and May watched on below.
‘Well, someone’s a show-off!’ Lizzie called out as Ruby climbed out of the cockpit, her grandson’s hands guiding her safely on to the grass again. ‘Don’t think I didn’t see that roll!’
Ruby grinned at her friends, not noticing their grey hair or the way Lizzie’s hands were gnarled and knotted. Instead she saw her bright eyes and remembered her the way she’d been, with her sweep of lipstick and her perfect curls.