Flying Angels(9)

The two girls introduced their parents to each other. The Hattons were touched when they met Ellen, and saw how ill she was, and how proud she was of her daughter. It gave them a deeper insight into Audrey. Ellen was happy to meet them, and elated over Lizzie’s graduation too.

   Lizzie left for Boston with her family that night, after three years in Annapolis, and her parting from Audrey and her mother was a tearful one. Audrey had never felt as alone in her life as she did after Lizzie left. She was the best friend Audrey had ever had, and Audrey was even more grateful to her mother for the fabulous graduation trip she had offered them. She couldn’t wait to see Will when they went. He hadn’t been home in months. Hawaii was a long way away and he was busy flying planes all the time now.



* * *



—

Lizzie’s job at Massachusetts General Hospital was as boring as she had feared it would be. The post-op female ward was full of women who had had hysterectomies or other procedures that weren’t very interesting medically, and most of the time it felt like maid service to Lizzie. She had a knack for diagnosis, and got no opportunity to use it in her current job. A week after she started, she explained to her supervisor that she had a long-standing “family obligation” in Hawaii, and had to fly there for about a week sometime in the near future. They weren’t delighted at the idea, but agreed to give her the time as unpaid vacation in November, before Thanksgiving. They asked her to work on Thanksgiving Day to compensate for it, as a goodwill gesture, so someone else could have the day off. She readily agreed. She called Audrey immediately and told her. Ellen was as excited as they were. She had wanted to do something special for Audrey, knowing full well how much her daughter did for her, and how much Audrey sacrificed taking care of her full-time. It wasn’t a fulfilling or happy life for a young girl, but she did it gladly for her mother. Audrey was thrilled at the prospect of such a generous vacation with her best friend, and the chance to spend a week with Will.

   They made their plans and booked their flights on United from New York to San Francisco, and on Pan Am from San Francisco to Honolulu. It made the most sense to leave from New York, and Lizzie and Audrey were going to meet there on Thursday night, November sixth, the night before they left on their big adventure. Just flying Pan Am was going to be an extraordinary luxury for both of them, but Ellen had insisted. Neither she nor Audrey spent much money, and they weren’t frivolous, but this time, Ellen wanted to go all out, to give her an unforgettable vacation as her graduation present. They were flying west on Friday, November seventh, and flying back on Sunday, November sixteenth to San Francisco, and to New York on Monday. Lizzie could go back to work at the hospital in Boston the day after, and Audrey would take the train to Baltimore the night they landed in New York.

Will had suggested they stay at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel in Honolulu, and he was taking the week off so he could shepherd them around. He was looking forward to it too. The girls were going to be flying into gorgeous warm weather on a lush tropical island, and they shopped for it accordingly in their respective cities. They needed shorts and bathing suits, sundresses and sandals, and some pretty, lightweight dresses to wear out to dinner. Both girls arrived in New York with a suitcase full of their new summery wardrobes.

They met at the Hudson Hotel, an all-female hotel their parents approved of. They spent the night in New York on Thursday night, giggling with excitement about the trip, and called Ellen to tell her that all was going smoothly so far. The next morning, on Friday, they took a bus to LaGuardia Airport, and boarded the United flight to San Francisco, for the first leg of their trip. They were going to spend the night at the Fairmont Hotel, and catch the plane to Honolulu the next day.

   They both noticed the very attractive stewards on the United flight. They looked more like movie stars to the young nurses. And there was a stewardess on the flight, who told them she was a nurse when they chatted with her.

“We should have done that,” Lizzie said to Audrey in a whisper after the stewardess walked by in her trim uniform, with her matching hat. She looked like a model.

“Done what?” Audrey asked her.

“Become stewardesses. I heard recently that they have to be nurses. And I can tell you that she’s having a lot more fun than I am on the post-op ward, and their uniforms are way cuter.”

Audrey laughed. “I’d have to have a complete makeover. She looks like she came from a modeling agency. No one in our class at nursing school looked like that,” she reminded Lizzie.

“You’d look great in the hat and uniform. I don’t know why I never thought of that. This looks like a fun job.”

“It’s probably harder than it looks,” Audrey said practically. But it certainly did look glamorous. Audrey knew she couldn’t have left her mother and done it. This was the first time in six years she’d been away from Ellen for more than a day or two, and it had taken meticulous planning to make sure that she’d be cared for by a nurse for the entire time. Mrs. Beavis was taking no time off while Audrey was gone.

   Audrey loved the sensation of flying, and looking down at the scenery below, even though the flight was turbulent for some of the time. Neither of the girls was afraid, although several passengers were. The service was impeccable, and the food delicious. Audrey and Lizzie chatted with the stewardess again during the flight, and said that they were nurses too. The United stewardess said how much she loved her job. She said she had never needed her nurse’s training in the year she’d worked for United. The medical issues she tended to were minor, like an infant with an earache, or helping someone who was airsick. But other than that, there had never been medical assistance required on her flights, although it could happen.