“Sure, thanks.” Liddy felt pretty silly as Alan Bradon’s driver took her old leather bag and placed it in the trunk of the limousine like it was filled with china. Then he opened the back door for her and she slid in. Mr. Bradon talked non-stop all the way to Liddy’s gate and then continued until she had to interrupt and leave for her flight. He was possibly the most pleasant person she had ever met. The way he made himself laugh as he talked, made her laugh too.
Liddy had a run of interesting deliveries that week. If I can’t fly for my country, this is a pretty good gig, she thought as she flew a Piper J-3 Cub down to New Mexico. The little put-put seemed a toy compared to flying a P-47 Thunderbolt or even a primary trainer, but it took her into the sky and she gave the little girl a loving pat when they leveled after take-off.
At her destination, she was greeted by a rancher and Rusty, his pilot, on a dirt strip that was a mile or so from a sprawling ranch house. Rusty was a week or two out from a shave, and his flight suit and gear had more miles on them than Liddy had days in her life. When Liddy ran through the features and manual with him, she knew he was seasoned.
Rusty reminded Liddy of what Jack would have been like as a man of thirty. She was pleased that the arrangement was for Rusty to shuttle her to the Albuquerque airport to catch her flight home. He wasn’t quite as talky as Jack, but maybe Jack wasn’t either at that age. She took in every word and enjoyed the outback way he flew. He didn’t finesse the plane. He just had complete control of the up and down, and right and left.
The following week brought another order from ALB Enterprises in Chicago and Liddy thought, some people really do have more money than sense. But when she found out that it had been requested that she be the pilot to make the delivery, it seemed that a plane may not be all that Alan Bradon thought he was buying.
Liddy pulled into the hangar and saw the Lincoln and Bradon standing by its door, smiling. She shut everything down and grabbed her bag before she left the pit. “So, we meet again, Mr. Bradon. Your lessons must be going well. This ship is hotter than the last one you bought.”
“Well, I thought it might be good to have a back-up and variety.”
“Nice if you can afford it. No doubt of that.” Liddy held out her clipboard and pointed to the Xs. “If you can sign here and here, I’ll be on my way. The manuals are in the pit. Your instructor will be able to get you familiar with her.”
Alan Bradon smiled as he signed and passed the board back to Liddy, and she picked up her bag and walked away to leave.
“Miss Hall.”
“Yes,” said Liddy as she turned and walked backwards.
“Can I give you a ride to your gate?”
“I’m good walking, but thanks.” Liddy turned back around and left the hangar.
She was a hundred yards across the mat when the Lincoln pulled up beside her. The back window lowered and Alan Bradon looked out. “It’s that obvious is it?”
“Painfully so,” said Liddy as she kept walking and the car rolled along with her.
“I’m sorry. I just wanted to see you again.”
“So you bought a four thousand dollar airplane to take a five minute ride to my gate?”
“Actually, I was hoping we could have dinner.”
“I have a plane to catch.”
“Miss Hall.” He opened the door and hopped out of the car that rolled alongside the two of them now. “I’m sorry, really, it was a stupid thing to do. It seemed like a rather romantic idea at the time, but—”
“Romantic? I don’t even know you.”
He shuffled out in front of Liddy and held up his hands as he stepped backwards. “Please, just stop for one minute, please.”
Liddy stopped walking and clenched her jaw.
“Haven’t you ever made a mistake? I made a big mistake. Please forgive me.”
“Okay, I forgive you. Now I’d like to catch my plane.” Liddy stepped around him and started walking again.
“I don’t believe you’ve really forgiven me. This doesn’t look like forgiveness to me.” He walked backwards in front of her, but to the side. “David, does this look like forgiveness to you?” he called out to his driver and looked at Liddy with his happy face.
What a goofball. Liddy couldn’t keep a slight smile from breaking through and she stopped and stood in front of him. “Okay, I really forgive you.”
He raised his eyebrow with distrust.
“I promise, I really, really forgive you okay.” Liddy held up her hand in oath. “But now, I have to catch my plane, Forgiven Man.”
“Stay and have dinner with me and I’ll get you another flight.”
“You’re unbelievable.”
“I’ve been told.”
“No,” said Liddy. “For three reasons, “One: I don’t know you. Two: I’m dressed for flying not for dining. And three: Then you win.”
“Is that so bad? I’ll let you win next time.”
“Now there’s already a next time? Mr. Bradon, has—”
“Call me Alan.”
“Mr. Bradon, has anyone ever said no to you?”
“Once or twice maybe, I can’t remember.”
“Well, try to remember this, No,” Liddy said firmly and started walking again.
Alan kept pace beside her. “You can’t blame me for trying, and I just want to touch on One and Two for a minute. One: You do know my name, you know my planes and where they live and you know David.” Brandon looked over at the car and called out, “David, you remember Liddy Hall. And Two: I had dinner brought to the hangar—you’re dressed perfectly.”
Liddy stopped and shook her head at the man. “Again, you are unbelievable. You’re going to follow me all the way to my gate, aren’t you?”
“Well, actually, I hadn’t thought that far. I’m just doing as I go here.”
“If I have dinner with you, then what? You kidnap me and I’m never seen or heard from again?”
“No, no kidnapping. I get you a flight home, I promise, but you have to call me Alan.”
David drove Liddy and Alan back to the hangar, and Alan wasn’t kidding, he did have dinner waiting, along with a chef and a waiter. The whole production was set up in the office, complete with linens and candles. So Liddy sat with this pretty man in his pretty suit, and she with her mangled helmet hair in her leather flight jacket and seat-wrinkled slacks. But somehow, Alan didn’t seem to notice. Liddy wondered what was wrong with this man—surely something was.
He had the meal choreographed perfectly, and he was the show. The last time she had laughed that much, she was sitting around with a bunch of fly girls. When Alan left Liddy at her gate that night, she left him with the number where he could reach her at Clayton Air Field, and as she did, she questioned her judgment.
Jerry Bluff was at his desk when Liddy walked into his office the next morning. He leaned sideways, peeking out from behind a rather large vase of yellow roses that were sitting in front of him.
“Who’s the admirer, Hall?” asked Jerry.
“If I took a wild guess, I’d have to say a crazy man,” said Liddy and she plucked the tiny envelope from the arrangement. Inside was typed: Call me collect, Lakeview 387. Alan
“Can I leave these here?” she asked.
“Oh, please do. I’m enjoying the lovely fragrance,” Jerry sniffed at the air.
Liddy sneered at Jerry and left to teach her instrument class. Her classroom students were mostly men, but three were women. The gals wanted to know everything about Liddy’s time as a WASP, and she was sad they wouldn’t have the experience. She found she made a good teacher, in that she knew the subject well, and she had patience for those students that didn’t get the information as quickly. She knew that Jerry had lost some enrollment because he had a woman teaching, but he didn’t seem to care so neither did she. It was all part of the cost of progress.