Beyond the Horizon Read online

  Eva kept her eyes locked on Frances, but the girl stared into space and did not open her mouth.

  “They might be able to take you away from Avenger Field because you crossed some line, but no one can take your love of flying,” Nina said.

  “Well, I say it’s damned unfair.” Rita’s words rang out, strong in the dark.

  “Rita . . . ,” Helena warned.

  “It is unfair.” Geraldine’s voice was small. “I’m sorry we didn’t do enough to help in the bay.”

  “It’s not that,” Rita went on. “It’s a bum rap. It wasn’t only Frances out late tonight. Why should she lose everything?”

  “Frances hasn’t lost it all,” Bea pointed out.

  “Bunch of fatheads.” Rita let out a loud sigh.

  Frances stared and stared at nothing. Eva worried that no matter what they all said, Frances was not hearing them.

  “I am so sorry for the part I played in this.” Eva’s voice was small.

  “Not your fault.” Nina and Rita spoke at the same time.

  “Rosie the Riveter. That’s the job I’ll be going back to.” Frances’s words were muffled in the dark.

  Eva drew in a breath. She stared out at the ground that spread below the roof and shuddered.

  “See that, up there?” Nancy said, her voice bursting into the night. “See that planet that’s emerging right now?”

  Eva sighed. She looked up at the sky.

  “It’s Saturn, the sun rising over Saturn.”

  Frances leaned forward and traced a pattern with her fingers on the roof. “I cannot believe this,” she said. “I don’t know what I’m going to do.”

  “We’ll sit up here with you until morning,” Nina said, “if that’s what it takes.”

  Eva lay back on the warm roof, guilt snaking through her insides. And yet she also had to ask herself, would Hank ever admit that he’d kept Frances out beyond curfew tonight?

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  THE COMMITTEE: Wasn’t the work you did just like the work thousands of other women did during the war—simply another way of stepping up during the war effort, but still as civilians?

  EVA FORREST: I would argue that there were two levels to which women stepped up. For me, working as an aircraft riveter at Lockheed was one thing, but being a WASP was far more specialized and militarized. Being a WASP showed our complete divergence from the accepted attitude that women had to act a certain way. Not only did we prove we could train in military style, just as men did, but we stepped up to the plate when our country called for us. We risked everything. Now, all we are asking is that we not be forgotten.

  Frances spent the next morning alone, isolated from her own group. She was taken to the train station in the cattle truck at noon, a quiet girl sitting alone in the back. At instrument flight class that evening, Rita sat quietly in the back row. Dan spoke in a low, steady voice. The girls sat in silence. Gossip had gotten around.

  By the time he was done talking, the sun had set and darkness had fallen. It was time to take the planes out at night for the first time.

  Eva followed the girls to the runway. Nerves fluttered through her body at the thought of going up without being able to see the horizon. Harry had always taught her to watch the horizon. Suddenly, a sharp pang of yearning for him hit her. If only she knew he’d remain safe. And she’d kill to receive a letter from him, something that told her he was okay.

  “Well, in spite of all the drama with Frances, at least we still have the stars,” Nancy said. “You know, as an only child with older parents, I learned to use my imagination because I didn’t have a whole bunch of siblings to keep me entertained. I’d lie and stare at the sky for ages, wondering what was beyond infinity. What a funny kid I was.”

  “I’m glad one of us is looking forward to tonight, because if I take my eyes away from the instrument panel, I’ll most likely end up either halfway across the United States or nose down on the ground,” Eva said. She tucked her arm into Nancy’s. She was starting to really like this girl.

  “We will be stacking you up over the airport,” Dan told them outside.

  The girls wound their turbans around their heads, but no one chattered.

  “The airport will be divided into four quadrants with three layers of planes in each quadrant. Each of you will be assigned to fly at either five, six, or seven thousand feet, and you’ll be assigned a quadrant. You need to circle in your assigned quadrant until you are told to change or come in and make a landing, a touchdown and a takeoff, and then go back to your place and keep on circling. None of you are qualified for instrument flying yet, so this is the next stage of our class. You’ll not leave the quadrants until you are all confident with this exercise.”

  “I’m worried that I won’t trust what my instruments are telling me.” Nina turned to Eva.

  “I know. Me too.”

  “You’ll be just fine,” Nancy said. “Both of you.”

  But the look on Nina’s face showed she was unconvinced.

  “Your safety is our paramount concern,” Dan said. “We lost a couple students during night training exercises early on in the program. It goes without saying that we don’t want any more losses . . .” For a moment, his gaze flickered over Eva’s group of friends, lingering on Rita.

  “Eva, honey, and Nina,” Helena said in the flight line. “One way of getting used to instrument flying is to get here early and watch the lights, the white and red that are airplanes circling above the field, before you go up.”

  “I’ll be watching before I go up, Helena. I’ll be watching all those lights,” Eva said.

  Eva had been around twice in her quadrant. She’d taken off and done her landings, and everything seemed just fine.

  Bea took off in her little basic trainer, the second aircraft they were flying in, the BT-13 Vultee, and Eva was cleared to take off down the runway for her third flight of the night. She focused on working with the plane, aware that this trainer had a more powerful engine and was faster and heavier than their primary trainers were.

  But just as Eva’s wheels left the ground and she sighed with relief that her takeoff had gone without mishap after having been awake all night, Bea, in front of her, clipped the high-tension lines at the end of the runway. And all the lights went out on the field.

  The radio went out. The control tower disappeared. Eva was ascending. And there was nothing below her except the dark.

  She fought panic. Her hands shook. It was all she could do to keep the aircraft on a straight course. That was what she’d been told to do in a situation like this. Harry had told her, Dan had told her: keep straight. Nothing in sight but the instrument panel.

  What on earth was she supposed to do now? She could see nothing below her, and there was no way to guide herself up. She was just floating.

  There were so many other planes in the air. All Eva could see was a sky filled with navigation lights twinkling around her. Nancy’s stars were there, all right, but Eva could not help thinking they weren’t any use to her with all their beauty tonight. There was no means of communication with another human being stuck up here. And Eva fought not to panic about Bea and to concentrate on her own flight.

  Eva kept her plane steady. She only hoped the tower would come back on before her fuel ran out. Eva banked. She started to circle in the middle layer as she’d been instructed to do, but everything was wrong. She circled for a few minutes and knew that without any reference by lighting, natural or otherwise, a pilot was at risk of not knowing which way was up.

  When, after what seemed like an age, Dan’s voice came over the radio, Eva gripped the control stick harder.

  “All of you, keep flying your pattern and be careful of anyone else. Keep your height.” Dan had come up and was flying with them. He’d turned on his radio and switched it to broadcast.

  But still, there was no way to guide herself except by the other girls’ lights. There was nothing to do except to float. Girls were above her and below her. Eva checked
her altimeter. She was steady in the middle group at six thousand feet. But should anyone get spooked with the lack of visibility, well, she forced herself not to think along those lines. And all the while, she was menaced with fear for Bea.

  Eva lost track of the number of circuits she made before, finally, smudge pots appeared on the runways.

  At last, the tower came back on.

  “Stay in a holding pattern.” It was Reg instructing them now.

  Eva’s gas was getting fearfully low. A film of sweat formed on her forehead. The dense heat of the turban was like an entrapment. Her right temple pounded.

  She had to keep her head. Her mind was in orbit, and she had no way of turning back.

  One of them was going to end up in a spin. Eva fought the urge to just close her eyes and go into a spin. End it. Give in to the inevitable. Her hand was slick on the control stick now.

  She made interminable circles. Urgently, she needed what the men had in their planes. Relief tubes. If she were a male pilot, the relief tube would be in the side pocket in the wing, but there was no such thing for girls.

  How was she going to fly long-distance tomorrow if she could not manage circles above the training runway without getting into a state? She wondered how the other girls were doing.

  Eva reached back and pulled off her helmet and her turban, letting her thick brown locks fall loose around her neck.

  Maybe she should wash herself out. Was this some hellish way of the world getting back at her for not getting caught last night?

  Finally, after what seemed like an age, Eva was instructed to land.

  And she did. She just followed instructions and landed the plane. When she was on the ground, she leaned forward. She rested her head on the instrument panel. “Thank goodness,” she said.

  She climbed out of the cockpit onto the wing. The first thing she saw was Nina. Nina had found Eva’s plane and was standing alongside it with the ground crew.

  “I didn’t know who was who. I didn’t know which one was you. I didn’t know if you were okay.” Nina held her turban unrolled in her small hands.

  Eva reached for Nina and hugged her friend, holding her close.

  “You know what?” Eva asked, her voice muffled against Nina’s shoulder. “I felt like, instead of being free, I was locked up in that plane. It was the complete opposite of what I normally experience when I’m flying. And I still feel something awful about Frances.”

  Nina’s voice flickered like the weak lights on the runway. “Slow down, Evie. You can’t take everything on.”

  The ground crew was working fast, checking planes that had been taxed way beyond what they should have experienced tonight.

  “Eva?”

  “Yes?” Eva’s eyes caught Nina’s, bright in the dark.

  “This is war, Evie. I know you are cut up about Frances. But we are going to lose classmates. Only a little more than half of us will graduate. After Sweetwater, we are going to have even more responsibility. And right now, it is our responsibility to learn to fly. Whatever happens, during any of this, we have to deal with it. And we’ll do it together. Always.”

  Nina’s words were humbling.

  “Evie, let Frances go.” Nina held Eva at arm’s length. “There’s nothing you can do now. She took the risk, she washed out. It was not and never will be your fault. Don’t let it infect you, because I know you, and I suspect you are doing that.”

  Eva looked at the ground.

  “And whatever you do, don’t let anyone, not any of the instructors, know how spooked you were tonight.”

  Eva reached out a hand to Nina’s shoulder. “Nina, I have to check on something.”

  “Everything okay?” Nina asked.

  “Come with me a moment.”

  Eva strode the short distance to the ready room. “Bea hit the tension wires in front of me. That’s why the lights went out. I want to check she’s okay.”

  Nina kept pace beside her. “No one’s said anything!”

  Inside the hangar, Dan sat at the table along with Reg. They were both smoking cigarettes. Neither of them was talking, and neither of them looked as if anything were wrong.

  “Is Beatrice okay?” Eva rushed over to Dan, resting her hands on his table, forgetting, for one moment, the chain of command.

  “Why wouldn’t she be?” Dan blew out a steady plume of smoke. “I have no reason to believe anything’s wrong with her.”

  Eva stood transfixed, Nina silent beside her.

  “Were you up there?” he asked.

  “Of course I was,” Eva said.

  He held her gaze, his eyes level.

  “Bea hit the high-tension line. Is she okay?” Eva asked again.

  “Nobody hit the high-tension line, Eva.”

  Eva folded her arms. “Is she all right?” she repeated. “I was right behind her in the flight line. I saw it happen. Can you tell us if she landed safely, please?”

  “Eva,” Dan said. He leaned forward in his chair. “Nobody hit the high-tension lines. Is that clear?”

  Eva went out of the room, with Nina close behind.

  While she had plenty to learn about flying, she had seen a different side to Dan tonight. Clearly, Eva saw that she had more to learn about the complexities that lay behind loyalty in the military forces. The instructors had not washed Frances out; Deedee had, because Frances was a woman who had broken a women’s rule.

  But were Dan and Reg not going to do Bea in out of military loyalty? Or was Dan being patronizing to Eva and keeping her locked out of what was going on with her classmate?

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  THE COMMITTEE: If you received full military training without military responsibilities, we struggle to see why you are here, Mrs. Forrest. As civilians, you had advantages. For one thing, you could quit when you wanted to.

  EVA FORREST: We received no GI benefits, no insurance, no veterans’ educational or financial advantages. We were paid one hundred fifty dollars a month to train, but we had to pay for our own food, transportation to and from training, for our own uniforms. We were flying military aircraft, so we could not get private insurance, but because we were not military, we could not get military insurance. However, we were treated as if we were military in every other sense, from undertaking boot-camp-like training to daily discipline and military rules.

  Eva sat up cross-legged on her bed, watching the doorway in the bay and willing Bea to come back from their night-flying exercise. The other girls lay around her, reading, writing letters, or, in Nina’s case, studying madly for an upcoming algebra test. Clearly none of them knew about Bea’s mishap, except she and Nina. And right now, Eva would give her right foot to see her friend walk into their bay. Heck, she’d give her right foot just to know for sure that Bea was safe.

  “Jeepers.” Rita lay back on her bed. “Flying in quadrants with all of you around me and no lights on the runway scared me. I almost spun out.”

  Eva remained silent.

  “I’m with Rita. Instrument flying is hard.” Nina frowned over her algebra notes.

  “I’ll try to stay awake for Bea. She must be talking to the instructors.” Nancy yawned, stretching her arms up to the roof in her pajamas. “But it’s almost taps. And I sure as anything got no sleep last night.” She lay back, and after a few moments, she’d fallen fast asleep.

  A few minutes later, Helena appeared from the bathroom. Slowly, she unwrapped her hair from its bath towel and let her wet locks cascade down her back. “Beatrice is out late. Did anyone see her after the flight?”

  Eva chewed on her lip. There had been no reports of any accident. She glanced around the room at her bay mates. The girls all had deep, dark circles under their eyes. The last thing she wanted to do was frighten them. They all had to fly tomorrow. They all needed a good night’s rest tonight.

  “I’m going out for a moment.” Eva pulled on a light cardigan. The night was unusually cool. “Going to check on Bea.”

  She heard Nina’s intake of breath. �
��Evie, I’m coming too.”

  “So am I,” Helena said. “Give me five seconds.”

  Eva waited while Helena pulled her hair back into a wet bun and put on a skirt and blouse.

  “You don’t think anything’s wrong?” Rita asked.

  Eva took in the bags under Rita’s eyes. It was unlikely her friend had slept at all last night. “Don’t worry,” she said. “I’ll go find her.”

  Once they were out on the dry lawn, making their way across to the hangars, Helena linked her arm through Eva’s. “Do you think she’s in trouble or something?”

  Eva kept her eyes trained ahead. Lights shone out from the hangar’s wide-open door. “She clipped a high-tension wire when she took off. That’s what caused all the lights to fail.”

  “What?” Helena stopped, hands on her hips. “Dan told us that it was an electrical fault.”

  “Technically, that wasn’t a lie.” Nina motioned them to keep walking.

  Helena picked up the pace again. “I don’t like the sound of this, girls.”

  “Neither do I,” said Eva.

  “But why would they hide it from us?” Helena asked.

  Eva shrugged. “I don’t know, Helena. Loyalty, protection of a student? Maybe Dan was affected by Frances being washed out last night. Either way, we’re about to find out.”

  Eva blinked when she stepped into the hangar. Fluorescent light flooded the space. Dan and Reg stood near a table in a corner. At the sound of their determined footsteps, Dan turned to face them, his handsome features drawn into a frown.

  Bea was nowhere in sight.

  “Eva, Helena, Nina.” Dan strode toward them. “We’ve had a civilian call. A local rancher. He was making his way home along a quiet road about half an hour ago.”

  Eva held on to Nina’s arm. Her mind kept replaying that flicker of dying light over and over when Bea hit the wires and they sparked.

  “Is Bea all right?” Eva asked.

  Dan shook his head. “The ranch owner told us that a plane had come down in a field near his house. He was rushing out to the scene but radioed us first. I don’t know anything more at this stage.”