Elissa looked, and laughed; her friend’s lips, pursed mock-seductively, were bright red. “Is that your special Rocket Red?”

“Of course,” Claire said. “Want to borrow it?”

Many of the girls had purchased the lipstick, manufactured especially for the cadet nurses, but Elissa never had. She shrugged, zipping her skirt up over her hip. “All right,” she said, and caught the tube that Claire lobbed to her, and set it on her dresser. She took her uniform jacket out of the closet and shrugged into it. All the girls loved the jackets with their crisp lines, red epaulets, and red cadet nurse patches on the sleeves. You couldn’t help feeling a little important in it, especially when you added the beret.

Claire gave her a wolf whistle. “Don’t you look the doll!”

Elissa laughed. She buttoned her jacket, put on the Rocket Red lipstick, affixed the beret atop her head, and slid her feet into her black pumps. The cadets were required to use their shoe ration stamp to furnish their own footwear, and Elissa had shopped a long while for this pair. She loved them for the way their three-inch high heels made her legs look so good.

Claire sat on her bed and chatted on about Conrad. “He just can’t seem to get it through his head about you being engaged. I keep telling him. But I swear he’s got his heart set on you.”

“He does not.”

“He does! You should hear the way he talks about you when we go out to smoke.”

“It’s lucky you smoke, so you can spend that extra time with him,” Elissa teased.

Claire sighed. “I know. Well, maybe this weekend since you’re not around, I can get him to quit moping.”

“Please do. Now, how do I look?” Elissa had put on her uniform overcoat and picked up her suitcase. Her black purse hung from her shoulder.

“Fantastic, as usual. Are you sure you don’t want company getting to the train?”

Elissa waved her off. “No, thanks. I’d better go, though, or I’ll be late.” She leaned down to give Claire a brief hug.

“You have a grand weekend,” Claire said. “Say hello to your brother from me.”

“I will,” Elissa said, and hurried to the door. “Thank you,” she said, looking back over her shoulder at Claire, who wore a curiously melancholy expression.

The night was brisk, the sky full of stars. Carrying her suitcase with one hand, Elissa clutched at the collar of her overcoat with the other to keep the cold air from sneaking in as she walked down the steps to the sidewalk, the heels of her black pumps clicking pleasingly.