By Air Mail Ch.07

Rebecca leaned forward with an intent look in her eye, "We saw you last night. We came home from the movie and we saw you in bed together."

Amelia and Rosa both seemed just about ready to speak up, so she shushed them.

"What is there between you?" she asked.

Marjorie put her hand on Rosa's shoulder as she leaned forward, still aware of the need for quiet. "What Rebecca means is - was what we saw just for a little fun, or are there feelings there between you? I say this so that you might think for a minute before you blurt out anything stupid. I don't think I need to tell you that the Oracle of Cascade didn't even see this coming - so you know how thin the ice is that you're all sitting on just for that."

She leaned a little more, "So make a couple of crazy ladies feel a little better and tell us. Then, if we like your answer, we'll give you a good breakfast and send you three out to hunt up Bonny's rabbits. Your rifles are waiting for you upstairs in my bedroom. We were so surprised and a little put out that we couldn't sleep, so we cleaned them for you."

"How?" Craig asked.,"I've always kept it in the closet of my room, in a rack above the door on the inside. You'd have to have -"

Rebecca grinned and Marjorie nodded, "Well, if you need details, Amelia was a little busy holding Rosa's legs up for her and kissing her to keep her a little quiet while you were on Rosa, fucking her. It was just before Rosa asked her to sit on her face.

I was just sneaking in because I thought that it was a good time, but when I saw that, I just gave up - so Rebecca had to do it.

All we want to know is that it was meant - that what we saw is something that you want to do for a while. We'd like that, since you looked almost in love or something - and if that's the way it is, Deke and Harry will need to know, that's all."

"Why?" Rosa asked.

Because it'll make them happy to know that," Marjorie smiled, "They think of you and hope that you'll stay - especially Deke. He's been wracking his brains wanting to think of somebody for you, Rosa. To his mind, it's not right for somebody like you not to have anybody."

Rosa sat in shock of a moment, her eyes a little wide. She thought that she must have finally gotten somewhere - if people who knew her thought of her like that. It was a very new thing to think of.

"You got here a little late, is all," Marjorie smiled, "But to hear him talk about you to anybody, you're as good as a daughter to him. Harry's about the same. He's just quieter, asking Rebecca to find you somebody."

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Pueblo, Colorado.

"It feels a little weird," Quinton said quietly as they walked through the sunshine toward the terminal to find the showers in the transitory crew facilities. The lack of pubic hair was a bit of a strange feeling for him to come to grips with.

Emmy laughed quietly, "Well I like it," she smiled, "I thought it looked big before. Now with your fur off, it looks huge. I feel proud of you. I just can't yell out why."

She sighed, "People just never understand."

In the diner afterward, Emmy felt a little awkward and Quinton suddenly thought that he knew why. It was hard to imagine not having ever gone to a place like a diner ...

"I've been to a diner," Emmy hissed at him with a surprised smile that he'd think that she hadn't, "I've just never been to one that was this nice ... and clean and so empty of ... people I didn't want close to me."

"Well, I must be getting used to your trim job," he smiled, "I'm starting to feel a little ... naughty there."

Emmy smiled back a little, so he knew that she didn't feel too uncomfortable. "I felt a little bad, you know? It looked like I cut a hole in a really nice rug or something. I'll try to even it up a little better next time.

Do I look alright?" she asked him and he smiled. She was wearing the sweater under her overalls and he was there in his, so that she wouldn't feel out of place. In a place like that, it wasn't unusual to see people dressed as they were at all and he knew that.

"Yeah, you look really nice. Here comes our waitress, I think."

Emmy looked as though she wanted to hide for a minute, but that all changed when she saw the waitress. Other than Emmy's dark green eyes, they could have been sisters and they chatted for a bit before the waitress had to go. Emmy sat looking pleased and still surprised.

"What?" He asked, lifting his coffee for a sip.

"You," she smiled, "You introduced me by my name - my father's name. Thanks."

"Don't mention it," he nodded.

"What does that word mean that you called me when you introduced us?" she asked.

"Associate? It means that we work together or we're in some kind of venture together. Around here, I'd guess that it means that we're aircrew together," he said.

"Ok," she replied with a bit of an uncertain look, "It sounded like we were doctors or something."

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A meadow outside the community of Cascade, Idaho in the mid-morning sunshine.

They walked, the three of them, headed off to Farmer Thorpe's place. His eyes weren't what they'd been for a while and he found that he needed a little help from Amelia to keep the population of rabbits culled every now and again, so it seemed a logical place to start.

"What is there between you?" Rosa mimicked Rebecca's voice as best she could, "I guess that I must be softening up or something."

She scowled as she drew her pistol and checked to see that there were cartridges in all of the cylinder chambers but one, "I would have wrecked everything by telling them to fuck off and mind their business."

She looked around for a moment, "And it's too late to just saddle up and move on now."

She thought about the three of them and smiled over, "Not that I even could anymore.

But I still almost told them."

She sighed, "But I couldn't. I love them - as nosy as they are sometimes."

"They gave us the nod," Amelia said with a smile, looking over so that Rosa could read her lips easily, "They love us too, all of us. I think that they were just concerned and wanted to hear it from us.

Me? I'm really happy today. I got fucked pretty much everyplace last night and I slept really well between two people who love me."

She chuckled, "They didn't even kick me out of the club."

"What club?" Rosa asked.

"The Women of the Family Club," Amelia chuckled, "You better prepare yourself, Rosa. I can tell that they'll pull you in too. I just know that they think of you as family now anyway by the way that they spoke to you the same way that they spoke to us."

What are you taking about?" Craig asked.

Amelia laughed and walked on with a grin across her face that just wouldn't go away. "It's like getting to sit with the elders and being involved in family things. You'd probably fall asleep and I wouldn't blame you a bit.

But you gotta be a girl to join. It's not open to boys. It's for when the women of the family talk about things that only women care about, mostly.

Besides, you're probably not missing much, and anyway, you've got two women to talk the ears right off your head any time you want."

Craig walked on, his eyebrows up about as far as they could go. Amelia saw that he wasn't looking at more than his own feet, so she waved her hand subtly to Rosa, who looked over.

Amelia's fingers were signing to her and Rosa began to grin.

She liked the idea after a minute. Being in a bed naked with three other women seemed like a nice thought to her all of a sudden. She'd always admired Rebecca and Marjorie.

She just hoped that the discussion part didn't go on for long - or she'd be like Craig, sound asleep.

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Downtown Pueblo, Colorado.

Even though they took a cab into town, they were back in ninety minutes with clothes for Emmy and she felt a lot better.

"You can keep the seven-fifty for yesterday," she said in the back of the cab on the way back, "I'll need to work a little while for nothing to pay for what you did for me today. I can't remember having clothes this nice."

Quinton wanted to argue, but she told him no; that was how she wanted it. The way that she sat there holding onto the things that he'd bought said that she wasn't exaggerating even a little, so he let it go before she thanked him for the bra.

They cleaned up in the plane and Emmy did most of the loading of Harry's mail load on board. When Quinton went to the terminal to get them food for the flight, she put on some of her new clothes while she was alone and when Quinton came back from the diner, he stood in the doorway and whistled in a low tone.

"You like?" she asked and he nodded, deciding that he was thoroughly astounded to see how good she looked in boots, jeans and a checked cotton shirt under her denim jacket.

"Please, Miss Emmy," he whined a little, "If you care for me at all, please put on your hat."

She shook her head, though she was smiling, "If you're a good boy, then um ... later on, I'll wear my hat for you, but nothing else."

Her façade fell away as she hugged him and laughed, "Would you like that?"

He looked dazed, but he managed a weak nod, standing with an expression that told her that he was already imagining it.

He'd called for a fuel truck and they waited while it filled them. Emmy climbed up on the wing to see how it was done. "That took a little time and some running around," Emmy said, "I was surprised."

"Five tanks," Quinton sighed, "275 gallons, but with that, we can fly over a thousand miles, more like twelve hundred. With Harry's mail load aboard, we'll fly right past Colorado Springs and Denver. They're normal mail stops, but they're not our route, so we won't stop until we hit Cheyenne for the night. It's a little under two hundred miles, but it'll be a bit more for us, since we have to jog a little.

By the way, whenever you order up a fuel bowser, you be sure to specify that this takes 100 LL avgas, Ok? You get the wrong grade, it won't like you much, you get the wrong kind and we'll know when the engines stop on us in midair. That will be the loudest silence that you'll ever want to hear.

I want to get you started on going through the checklists with me on this flight and also, I'll want you to fly it a little, just to get the feel. Before that, I'm gonna bore you to tears with a little flight theory. It's no good teaching you to fly if you don't know how it happens."

He smiled, "After that, we're staying in a hotel tonight. No waiting for a five minute shower for us."

Emmy's eyes lit up, "Wait a second, there'll be a bathtub, right?"

He nodded and she looked happy, "Then you have a shower. I'm having a bath, a long ladies' kind of bath."

"What?" he asked, a little surprised, "You mean with scented bath oils or those poofy bubbles?"

"Yeah!" she laughed, her head thrown back as she did, "That's what I want. Can I? Do you have to pay extra for that?"

He smiled and shook his head, "No - at least, I don't think so. I'm just a little surprised that you'd want that so much. Is it for the scents or what?"

She walked up to him and looked around as she put her arms around him, "I don't know if you can understand it ... or ... or maybe it's just something a little childish in me. I don't think that I really know myself, Quinton.

I ... I feel a little like I'm in a new life, somehow. It's like a fairy-tale to me. Everything feels so new and there's so much for me to learn. I don't mind that. I even want it.

But I feel like I need a good wash to fit in that life, like I have to scrub off the dirt from where I've been. Maybe I have to do that so I can put on the new dirt of where I am now."

She smiled, "I sure don't know. I just know that if I have the chance at a real ladies' poofy bath for once in my life, I'd like to have it."

He nodded and kissed her forehead just before he pulled her to him a little more, "Then I think that you need a poofy bath. Try to remind me if I forget when we get there. I want to make sure that you've got that bubble bath stuff, and then, I'm gonna make sure that you get time for a long one, even if you come out of there with your fingers and feet all shriveled up like you're a prune.

In fact," he chuckled, "I'm not going to take even the slightest chance that you don't get complimentary bubble bath in that hotel, because I've stayed in hotels before where you don't find out that the maid or the room service person didn't bother to set out the complimentary soap in your bathroom until AFTER you've turned on the shower and gotten into it."

"What are you gonna do?" Emmy asked, with a mystified expression as Quinton began to walk away, "Are you going to call them to make sure or something? Won't that cost money for a call like that from here to Cheyenne? Two hundred miles, you said. Gotta be long distance and even I know that they charge more for that kind of call."

He stopped for a second, looking thoughtful, "You're right, and even if I call, there's no guarantee that it still doesn't happen anyway." He looked up, "I'm gonna go over to the gift shop right now before I forget and buy you a bottle. What kind of scent would you want?"

There were thirty feet separating them by this point. He watched as Emmy looked down and began to walk toward him.

"What?" he asked and she shook her head as she came up and took his hand, "I can't tell you what kind I'd like, because I won't know myself until I smell them. We'll go together."

They walked along parallel to the long taxiway, well away from it in case some large aircraft rumbled along as they walked.

"I also want you to go into the smoke shop," she said, "You can get more of those little cigars that I see you sneaking a smoke from now and then. I'm a little amazed at myself, but I find that I don't mind them and they suit you. I was gonna ask you if I could try one sometime."

"You smoke?" he asked as his head came around.

Emmy nodded, "Less often than you shave.

I just never buy any. Sometimes there was nothing to eat where I lived. Tobacco takes away some of the hunger and Momma always has smokes and booze. I can't eat booze and I won't drink it, but I'll steal a cigar where I can."

He nodded and they walked along holding hands.

"You forgot the rubbers, didn't you?" she asked quietly after a minute or two while looking out across the airfield.

"Uh-huh," he mumbled, "Thanks."

"Don't mention it," she smiled and then she kissed his cheek.

"You were gonna get me bubble bath so that I could have what I wanted - and you were gonna go into the smoke shop anyway because you suddenly remembered the rubbers. I'm not as dumb as I look, Quinton.

"You don't look dumb," he said and she grinned as she looked ahead, "Now you've got it. Next time, just tell me that you forgot and you're gonna go now. That was a real fairy-tale you had me on for a minute there."

She stepped closer to walk with her arm around him, "But I did see that you wanted me to have something nice, so thanks."

-----------------

He began to teach her from the time that they began preparations to leave. He showed her basic ground maintenance and she soaked it up, making notes to herself in a notebook that she'd pointed out to him in the smoke shop.

She read from the checklists carefully so that she didn't miss a single step as she did it and Quinton told her why it was important and what it was for.

When they were airborne, he spoke of basic aerodynamics and why airplanes could fly, the common elements of aircraft, and how they managed to extend the envelope which they could fly in by the use of flaps to be able to fly slower in their approaches to land.

He even let her fly the plane a little.

Emmy found that she liked it, as nervous as she was at first. She sat in her seat afterwards, making notes to herself in the little notebook, but after a while, she looked at Quinton whenever she was reasonably certain that he might not notice it.

They were a good way off before beginning their descent going into Cheyenne when he looked over for a minute to find her scribbling in her notebook again, looking studious.

"You're really digging into this, huh?" He smiled.

She looked up, "I don't know if you can see it my way," she said, "but you're teaching me something. I've always loved to learn things. I just never got much of a chance to, that's all. You teaching me is something that I take as a gift, Quinton.

One day, I might be able to use it to make a better living than I ever would have gotten the chance at in Dodge."

She thought of something then and looked at him carefully as he sat looking straight ahead. "You don't just teach people things like this do you? I mean, if you'd picked up somebody else back in Dodge or someplace, you wouldn't be making an effort to show them things, would you?"

He shook his head, "Probably not. Why do you ask?"

"I just wondered, that's all."

She looked out of the window at the mountains sliding past her view for a minute or two.

"So why are you teaching me?" she asked, "It can't all be to pass the time."

"I'm teaching you for a couple of reasons, "he said, "I do need some help. I might be God's gift to aviation, but I can't do everything. Also, I think that I knew that you're not a dummy from about the second moment and I liked that. It told me that maybe you'd be the one that I'd need.

I'm coming to believe that now more than ever. And I really like you, not that I think I ever really had a choice.

So tell me Emmy, do you want learn how to fly properly?"

Emmy considered for a moment and then she said, "Right now? No. I got too much on my plate to learn about more than flying. But I think that once this mail thing gets going, then yes. I think that I'd like to learn how to fly more than anything. Do they have women pilots?"

Quinton chuckled and nodded, "Oh yeah, just not many. Yet.

Take a look around the flight deck here. I'm hanging on to a control yoke. Just like the one that you were hanging onto in a death grip earlier. The only joystick in this thing is attached to me - and it sure isn't needed to make this thing fly.

I don't know any female pilots personally, but I have seen a few. The P-61 Black Widows that we got were picked up at the Northrop factory and flown to a naval field where they were hoisted onto a carrier for the trip across, and then they were lifted off by crane and set on a pier when they got to Fiji. From there, they were dragged behind tractors to an airfield less than half a mile from the docks and flown to where we were. The pilots in every case were women."

He smiled, "And now that I think about it, I'm kicking myself that I didn't get a chance to talk to at least one of them."

"Why?" she asked, "Would you have tried for a date?"

He laughed and shook his head, "Nope, probably not. I'd have asked them what they do when they gotta pee."

While Emmy laughed, Quinton smiled over, "I'm just Mr. Practical and I'm sure that I'd have been curious.

To be a good pilot, you gotta have a brain and enough common sense to listen to it. That old flying by the seat or your pants thing has been proven wrong over and over.

That's why God created flight instruments in the first place. Only a fool, man or woman, won't heed what they're telling him or her and doggedly try to fly without a horizon in sight and any time that you want me to prove it, you just tell me.

I'll put this thing into a crazy attitude slowly while you've got your eyes closed and you'll swear to me that I'm flying straight and level. You'll about fill your pants when I tell you to open your eyes."

"I'll just pass, thanks," she said, "Hey, can you fly us upside down in this?"

He shook his head, "Not in this. It's not rated for inverted flight. The engines are fed from carburetors. You turn then over and the gas inside runs out, the engines starve and quit. Back to silent flying again. The technical term for that is gliding and this would make a lousy glider."