Blackbirds (29 page)
“Do you have to be so damned cheerful and ambitious?” Linda tried to smile and almost succeeded.
You look like hell.
“I'd like to bring Sean, and there will be a surprise for you, too.”
“I look like hell.”
“Look, you can stay at home playing the melancholy heroine, or you can get off your sore backside and come with us.” Sharon waited for an angry response.
Come on, for Christ's sake, Linda, fight back!
“We've made an appointment for you at the hairdressers. I need to see the solicitor. After that, we can get some fish and chips.”
“All food tastes like paste these days.” Linda looked away from her friend and stared at something in the middle distance.
“What happened at the hospital?”
“More skin grafts.”
“I know that. What else?” Sharon leaned forward to be in Linda's field of vision.
“The day I arrived, they brought in a sergeant pilot. He was nineteen or twenty. His fingers, ears, and nose were burned off. He was screaming in agony. Some idiot put tannic acid on the burns before he was brought to the hospital. The staff tried a variety of different treatments, but infection set in. It took him four days to die.” Linda looked at her friend. “And here I am, feeling maudlin because I've had another set of skin grafts. Thinking that no one is going to want to dance with me because my legs look like this.” She lifted the blanket to reveal a nightmare of mottled scar tissue reaching from just below the knees to just above the ankles. “He dies and I live. How does that make the least bit of sense? And why do I feel so guilty for having survived? I should be happy to be alive.”
What do I say to her?
“You don't have to say anything. Everyone else walks around here on eggshells. I wish someone would scream or yell or cry. You know that I don't even feel like crying? I just feel exhausted all the time.” Linda shook her head.
“Shit!”
Linda was startled. A shiver ran through her.
A flock of birds bounced into the sky, frightened from their perches in a leafless tree.
“When I said I wished someone would scream, I was joking,” Linda said.
“Come into town with Sean and me,” Sharon said. “Please.”
Linda frowned. “You're not going to give up on this, are you?”
“No, I'm not.”
Linda pushed herself up out of her chair. “Well, let's get going, then.”
It took Sean five minutes to get ready. Sharon took ten, and Linda took ninety.
Linda drove from the back seat as Sharon steered the black four-door Morris with its reluctant gears and touchy clutch.
“Turn here!” Linda said.
“Which way?” Sharon asked.
“To the right, of course!” Linda said.
“You've lived here all of your life. I haven't.”
“Your mother was born here. It should be an instinctive inheritance courtesy of your blue blood.”
Sean began to laugh.
By the time they stopped in front of the hairdresser's shop, all three were laughing.
“Pick you up in an hour?” Sharon asked.
Linda opened the suicide door and followed her legs out. “That should do it. If not, I'll wait here for you.” She shut the door and waved as they drove away.
Sean said, “That's the first time she's smiled since she got back from the hospital, just before Christmas.”
Sharon drove to the office of Walter McGregor and parked out front.
“Do you want me to wait here?” Sean asked.
“No, come on in with me. This concerns you as well. Besides, I'd like to spend as much time as possible with you.” Sharon opened her door and got out.
“How did you sleep last night?”
“All right, I suppose.”
“I had a wonderful sleep. No nightmare for a change.” Sharon walked toward the door to McGregor's office.
“You have nightmares, too?”
Sharon heard the tension in his voice. “Yes. Mostly I find myself trapped in the cockpit. There are flames inside and out. Sometimes I wake up and I believe I can still smell burning flesh in the room.” She reached for the office door handle and waited.
Sean said, “I'm trapped underground and I'm choking on dust.”
“Sounds horrible.”
Sean nodded and turned his worried eyes on her. “I wake up choking and gasping for breath sometimes.”
“I'm glad I live alone, because I think I wake up screaming.”
“I wake Honeysuckle up.” Sean looked at Sharon and cocked his head to one side. “I thought it was just me.”
“No.” Sharon hugged him around the shoulders. “Both of us have been through quite a bit in this war. But we're definitely not the only ones having nightmares.”
Sean leaned into her. “I'm glad you came.”
“So am I.”
She opened the door. “Come on, let's see what Mr. McGregor has to say.”
The secretary's desk was empty, and the door to Walter McGregor's office was open. He stood up from behind his desk when he heard the door close behind Sharon. “There you are. Do come in.”
Sharon gently guided Sean in ahead of her as Walter cleared papers, files, and newspapers from two chairs.
“Sit down, please.” McGregor looked at Sharon and her brother.
He looks different
.
He's cut his hair, but there is something else as
well
. “You look well.” She sat down next to Sean.
“Thank you. I, er,
we've
received word from both our sons. The one has been sent to train other pilots, and the other has a leave coming up. It will be good to see him again. Safe from the convoys and the U-boat wolf packs for at least a little while.” Walter searched his desk, thumbing through one pile. “Ah, here it is.”
Sharon leaned forward.
He opened the file and handed her a letter. “There has been progress in your case. Your grandmother wrote a letter. She must have heard about your claim from Marmaduke. Can't say he'll be pleased by what she's written.” He handed her the letter.
DEAR MR. MCGREGOR,
FIRST OF ALL, LET ME PUT YOUR MIND AT EASE. AS LONG AS I AM ALIVE, YOU WILL CONTINUE TO BE THE LACEY FAMILY'S SOLICITOR. MY SON CAN THREATEN ALL HE WANTS, BUT I WILL HAVE THE FINAL SAY IN THE MATTER.
SECONDLY, I AM CERTAIN THAT SHARON LACEY IS, IN FACT, THE DAUGHTER OF LESLIE LACEY. ANYONE WHO KNEW MY DAUGHTER LESLIE CAN SEE THAT THE RESEMBLANCE BETWEEN THE TWO IS REMARKABLE. BESIDES, IN HER LETTERS HOME, LESLIE OFTEN SPOKE OF SHARON, HER INTERESTS, AND HER STRENGTH OF CHARACTER.
AS MY RIGHTFUL GRANDDAUGHTER, SHARON LACEY IS ENTITLED TO HER MOTHER'S SHARE OF THE LACEY INHERITANCE.
THIS LETTER, THEREFORE, IS MY RECOGNITION OF SHARON LACEY AS A LEGAL DESCENDANT OF MINE. IT IS ALSO A LETTER OF INTENT THAT I WILL SIT DOWN WITH YOU, MR. MCGREGOR, AND FORMALIZE A NEW WILL AT YOUR EARLIEST POSSIBLE CONVENIENCE.
YOURS TRULY,
MRS. CORNELIA LACEY
Sharon handed the letter back to Walter. “Thank you.”
Why do I feel
like crying?
“Lady Lacey came in last week to sign a new will. You are recognized in that will as the daughter of Leslie and a beneficiary of the estate.” Walter's oak chair groaned as he leaned back. “As far as the rest of the will is concerned, it is up to your grandmother whether or not she wishes to divulge more information about the details of your inheritance.”
Sean tugged his sister's blouse. “Why are you crying?”
“I don't know.”
McGregor handed her his handkerchief. “I am also obliged to offer a warning about your Uncle Marmaduke.”
Sharon wiped her eyes and nose. She balled the handkerchief in her hand. “Yes?”
“He is a vengeful man who is unfamiliar with the taste of defeat, especially at the hands of a woman. He will choose another weapon. Character assassination will be his most likely course of action.”
Sharon remembered the
ATA
pilots at White Waltham talking behind their hands. “What have I gotten you into?”
Walter smiled. “Actually, I've begun to feel alive again. I have my own little war to fight while my sons are off fighting the bigger battles. And I have you to thank for this newfound joie de vivre.”
“So what is the surprise you've been talking about?”
Linda sat in the backseat with freshly shampooed and cut hair. They caught the scent of strawberries.
Sharon looked at her wristwatch. “First, some lunch, then the surprise.” She drove along the main street until she came to Guy Fawkes Pub and parked across the street.
“And you thought I was lying when I said it runs through that blue blood of yours. Case in point. Your kind always knows where to find a pub. And this is one of the best in West Yorkshire,” Linda said.
Sharon turned off the engine and looked in the rear-view mirror. She couldn't tell if Linda was smiling or frowning. She got out of the Morris and waited at the front door of the Fawkes.
Sean held the door for them as they went inside. They were greeted with the scents of pipe smoke, hops, and fermentation.
They sat by one of two windows and ordered food.
“So what is this surprise?” Linda asked.
“You'll have to wait,” Sharon said.
“Is it more chocolate?” Sean asked.
“A promotion celebration?” Linda asked.
Sharon blushed.
“Christ, I'm right. You got a promotion?” Linda sat back and rolled her eyes. Then she looked at Sharon. “I've become such a miserable Angus. You get a promotion, and all I feel is jealousy.”
“She keeps calling herself a cow,” Sean said.
Sharon smiled. “Well, I'd say you're more like a Charolais.”
“If you want my opinion, you're more like a Limousin.” Michael stood next to Sean.
“Michael!” Linda stood up and hugged her brother.
“It
is
you!” Sean looked sideways at his sister, gauging her reaction.
“One advantage to living in Yorkshire is that we certainly know a great deal about cows.” Michael held Linda away from him. “You've cut your hair.”
“How would you know? You haven't seen me in months! Still, this is a wonderful surprise.” Linda looked at Sharon. “This is your surprise for me?”
Sharon nodded.
Michael put his hand on Sharon's shoulder.
Sean looked from Michael to Sharon.
“What have the two of you been up to?” Linda asked.
Michael pulled up a chair and sat next to Sean. “A trip to the theatre in London, a few dinners. Mostly, we went for walks, because it has been the only option with the time available.”
“White Waltham is close to London. And the train goes right through Maidenhead. Just down the road, really,” Sharon said.
“Why didn't you tell us?” Linda looked at Sean.
Sharon and Michael looked at one another.
“We wanted to be sure, is all,” Michael said.
“Before we told you,” Sharon said.
“What about Mother?” Linda asked.
“She knows,” Michael said.
“How?” Linda asked.
“Father told her,” Michael said.
“Why does he have to know every damned thing that goes on?”
Linda began to laugh.
“What's so hilarious?” Sean asked.
“Sharon comes all this way looking to meet her father, and she ends up with a whole family!” Linda pointed at her friend. “Just promise me one thing: don't name your first-born Marmaduke.” Linda laughed some more.
Sharon looked around the table as Michael looked at Sean. Her brother sat back in his chair, then laughter jumped out of him.
Michael leaned over and said to Sharon, “I'm afraid I've only got four days. Will it be enough?”
She leaned into him. “It will do for now.”
Bruce, for caring for us all these years thank you.
MaryAnne, thanks for the invaluable advice and for reading the first drafts.
Again, thanks to Wayne Gunn.
Thanks to the Canadian Aviation Museum in Ottawa, the Alberta Aviation
Museum in Edmonton, the Aero Space Museum of Calgary, and the
Military Museums in Calgary.
Mary, Alex K., Ernie, and Sebi thanks for the suggestions and feedback.
Doug, Lou, Paul, Jenna, Natalie, Andrew, Matt, Michael, Cathy, and Tiiu,
thank you.
Thanks to creative writers at Nickle, Bowness, Lord Beaverbrook,
Alternative, Forest Lawn, and Queen Elizabeth.
Sharon, Karma, Ben, Luke, Indiana, and Ella. Well?
DVD
Foyle's War
, Acorn Media
Piece of Cake
, based on Derek Robinson's best-selling novel, Granada International
Island at War
, Acorn Media, Granada International
PRINT
Reach for the Sky
, Paul Brickhill
Ginger Lacey Fighter Pilot
, Richard Townshend Bickers
Spitfire Summer: When Britain Stood Alone,
Malcolm Brown
The Big Show (Le Grand Cirque)
, Pierre Clostermann
