Flying Angels(24)

   “I got it! I got it!” Audrey shouted into the phone. “I’m in the same unit you are.”

“Oh my God! That’s fantastic!” They both spoke at once, and Audrey’s mind was racing. She had two weeks to pack up her parents’ house as much as she was going to. And she had to find someone to check it from time to time to make sure no pipes had burst or were frozen. She asked a neighbor, who was impressed that she had enlisted and agreed to visit the house periodically. She didn’t even care about Christmas now, she had so much to do before she left. Lizzie invited her to Boston again for the holiday, but it was only ten days away. She wasn’t sure she’d be finished by then, but said she’d try. All she could think of were all the things she was going to do and learn in the coming months, and the missions she would fly on, and that she would be back with her best friend. They were both hoping to be stationed in England. There was nothing to keep her in Annapolis now, or the States. She had something important to do for the war effort, and lives to save. Her life suddenly made sense again. She was going to be a lieutenant in the Army Air Forces, in a Medical Air Evacuation Transport unit. It was the most exciting thing that had ever happened to her. Her life had a purpose, other than just keeping her mother alive through the agonizing years of her illness. She was grateful she had gone to nursing school. It was going to serve her well with the men she would be assigned to care for.

All she could think about as she hung up the phone was how exciting her life had become, and this was just the beginning.

   Two months from now, she’d be leaving for her assignment, wherever it was. She wondered how hard the classes would be, and she hoped she’d pass them. Lizzie had said that some of the training would be physically rigorous, from what she’d heard. But Audrey was ready to face anything. She knew she was on the right path now, and didn’t doubt it for an instant, nor did Lizzie and Alex. The dangers and potential discomforts didn’t even occur to them. They had a job to do, and could hardly wait to get started.



* * *



—

Audrey finished packing and closing her parents’ house. She left Will’s room untouched. Her mother had slept there, but left all of Will’s belongings as he had had them. It still felt like a shrine to her, and she wanted to leave it that way until she came home. She wasn’t ready to put his things away, even after two years. Her mother had never wanted to either.

She said goodbye to Mrs. Beavis, who was taking some time off before taking on a new patient. Ellen’s death had hit her hard after so many years of caring for her, and Ellen had been such a sweet person.

Audrey took a train to Boston the morning of Christmas Eve, and Lizzie picked her up at the station. It had been twenty-one months since they’d seen each other, although it felt like only yesterday. Nothing had changed between them, and Lizzie felt like even more of a sister now that they would be army nurses together. On the way to the house, Lizzie said that she had told her parents the day before when she arrived, and they were upset that she was hoping to ship out to England, and was joining the air evac squadron. The war would be close at hand if they were sent to England, as they hoped, and the risks greater than being safely on American soil in San Francisco, as long as the Japanese didn’t bomb them again. There was no sign of it so far.

   “They never thought I’d get shipped out. I hope we will be. I told them you’re coming too, and that just made my mother cry harder. I think my father is proud of me, but he won’t say it in front of Mom, or she’d get angry at him. But all three of their children will be on the front lines now.” It seemed like a lot to Audrey too, and she suspected her mother wouldn’t have liked it either, but there was nothing to stop her now.



* * *



—

The holiday at the Hattons’ was tense, with Lizzie’s new assignment looming. She hoped she’d get a short leave to see them when she finished training, but she wasn’t sure. She promised she’d come home to say goodbye if she could. The four of them spent Christmas Eve together, and went to midnight Mass. They spent a quiet Christmas Day.

Lizzie saw a few of her old friends, but all the boys she knew were in the army, many were in the Pacific, and some had been killed. She took Audrey with her when they visited. Dr. Hatton opened a bottle of champagne for them on New Year’s Eve.

“Let’s hope that 1944 is the year this terrible war ends,” he said solemnly, and they toasted Greg and Henry, and “absent friends,” which had new meaning now. Lizzie and Audrey added, “And Will.”

The next morning, the two young nurses left the Hatton home, with Lizzie in uniform. Audrey didn’t have hers yet. They were on their way to join their unit in Kentucky and begin their air evacuation classes the next day. They had much to learn.

   Lizzie’s parents stood on the platform waving at them, as the train pulled away. There was no stopping them now, or changing the world from the dangerous place it had become. But neither of the two young women, standing tall and straight, were afraid of what they were about to face. And they had each other, which made them both feel brave.



* * *



—

Alex’s visit to her family in New York was no easier than Lizzie’s in Boston. Her parents were in shock that she had joined a Medical Air Evacuation Transport unit, and would be shipping out afterwards. Charlotte had had her fourth daughter by then, and still thought her younger sister was insane.