“Now what do I do?” Lizzie asked Audrey as she looked at her. “I don’t know what to do. I can’t even go to his funeral. The captain said it’s too dangerous, and Dad said they don’t want me to. I have to stay here. They said I could take time off, but what’ll I do? I’d rather go to work.” Then she could pretend it hadn’t happened, but it had. It was all too real. She wished she could talk to Henry too, but he was in the Solomon Islands and she had no way to reach him. He was in the jungle somewhere. She knew he would be devastated too.

She lay there wide-awake for two more hours, and Audrey stayed awake with her. Then Lizzie got up and started to dress in her flight suit.

“You don’t need to go to work,” Audrey told her gently. Lizzie looked disheveled and confused, but she seemed lucid.

“I can’t stay in bed all day. I’ll go crazy thinking of him, and my dad crying. If I go to work, I’ll have to keep it together. Maybe that’s better.”

“Whatever feels right to you,” Audrey told her.

“Nothing feels right. My brother is dead. I’ll never see him again.”

“I know,” Audrey said sadly. She’d been through it with her own brother: the shock, the void, the agony, the missing him for months, and even years. “Are you sure you want to fly today?”

“I don’t know what else to do. Maybe I can help someone else.” Audrey had to fly that morning too. They both got dressed, and Audrey did whatever she could to help her friend. She almost dressed Lizzie. Lizzie had put on her flight overalls, and her hair didn’t look as tidy as usual, but it was less noticeable under her cap. She laced up her combat boots, and she and Audrey left a few minutes later. Audrey stayed with her until she had to report for her own flight, and she watched Lizzie head up the ladder of the C-47 Skytrain with a heavy heart.

Pru, Charlie, and Ed were already on board when she got there, and both pilots were in the cockpit. Reggie had already started the engines, but they had another twenty minutes to spare before they left. Lizzie didn’t speak to anyone and sat down quietly in her usual jump seat. Ed looked at Pru with a question in his eyes, and she shook her head. A few minutes later, he spoke to Pru in a whisper.

“Is she okay? She looks sick, or like she’s been on a three-week drunk.”