Chapter 2

Wednesday - August 7, 1996

It was late afternoon when I finished my second lesson with dad. Mom was getting dinner ready and I didn’t have much time before I would have to join them. I figured that Diane would be going out with Donn later, so I went downstairs to her apartment seeking her out. I was energized by our discussion a couple of nights ago, and I wanted to talk some more.

“Hey, Diane.”

“Hi, great, you survived! ... Wait, you didn’t kill anybody else ... did you?”

“I’m not even going to dignify that with an answer.”

“Seriously, Ellie, congratulations, how were your first lessons?”

“It was okay, it handles so easily. I wish I had been allowed to make a takeoff from the water though. I’ve never done that.”

“Oh, so you wanted your first lesson to start with a takeoff?”

“First official lesson, I probably have ten or fifteen hours flying the Connie.”

“Yeah, I don’t think you can log those.”

“It doesn’t matter, it’s relevant experience. The little Cessna is...”

“What? A let-down? Can’t go back to the farm after seeing Paris?”

“No, but dad taught me patience with the flight controls a long time ago in the Connie’s right seat. It makes flying a little airplane a breeze.”

“A breeze?”

“Sure, it weighs next to nothing. So everything moves really easily. Basically, I spent two days just getting familiar with an airplane I’ll never fly again after taking the test.”

“It helps you discern what is typical and what is specific to a type.”

“Maybe. Oh, I did learn one other thing.”

“What?”

“It’s a lot harder to preflight an airplane that’s bobbing around on the water.”

“How many times did you fall in?”

“Just once, dad untied it while I checked the cowl. Then I stepped back and the dock was six feet behind me.”

“I heard. Dad did the same thing to me.”

“His version of baptism, I guess.”

“Is that all you learned?”

“Well, it handles different, but you know, the panel isn’t that much different from the Constellation’s. They both have a six-pack. The 182 doesn’t have radio navigation or a manifold pressure gauge, let alone four. The Cessna has three temperature gauges, but just three, and the throttle is funky.”

“You have a mixture control.”

“With two settings, on and off, big deal.”

“So all-in-all two pretty good days?”

“Absolutely, I missed you though.”

“Back to backs to Goldson, happens sometimes.”

“I know, are you going out later with Donn?”

“He got delayed, stuck in Kansas City or someplace and won’t be here till tomorrow.”

“Oh,” I said with a smile.

“I have an idea. Let’s get dressed as matchers for dinner.”

“What?”

“Like when we were little. Dress the same. You were always wearing my clothes.”

“That’s because you outgrew them. We matched because...”

“Uh-huh.”

“We matched because whenever you outgrew something you bought an exact duplicate in the next size. Except for when you couldn’t. Then you moped for three days.”

‘You were paying attention!”

“Diane, I idolized you.”

“You don’t still?”

“I grew up.”

“Owch!”

“If you gave me a reason to, I might idolize you again.”

“I’ll make a note of that. Come on, let’s get dressed.”

I walked over to her bathroom.

“Mind if I take a quick shower?”

“Nope, I’ll go pick something out for you to wear.”

“You still do, Diane, don’t you?”

“What?”

“Have a closet with multiple duplicates of the exact same outfit.”

“I know what I like.”

Diane moved into her own apartment three or four years ago. But being just downstairs from the one we grew up in, it was liberating without being an impediment. Being thoroughly familiar with the workings of her shower I emerged from it a couple of minutes later. While I was bathing, she had laid a pair of her pale blue pajamas on the vanity. The shirt had large white buttons and piping. I put them on before leaving the bathroom, they were very soft. I took comfort from the fact that the top was not loose, she couldn’t be that much bigger than me up top.

“Oh, Ellie, you look great.”

“Yeah, it’s like looking in the mirror.”

“Thank you.”

“For?”

“The compliment.”

I hadn’t meant it as a compliment. But maybe it was. Diane was certainly more secure than me. Maybe I should be more than I thought.

“You’re welcome.”

We went upstairs to dinner and mom and dad got a real kick out of our “blast from the past.” Seeing their two daughters dressed in identical outfits just as we did “way back then.” Our brother, Robert, was at work. He was flying somewhere, normally this would give me an opportunity to tell “Robbie stories.” But the ones I was thinking of now weren’t meant for the dinner table.

After dinner, Ethan, my father, produced a bottle of brandy.

“Would you like a drink, Diane?”

“Yes, thank you.”

“Ellie?”

“Okay, but just one.”

“Here we are.”

He looked at our mother.

“Claire?”

“Why thank you, yes please.”

As dad poured mom some brandy and put the bottle away Diane leaned into me.

“One?”

“I want to have a clear head later.”

“Oh.”

“It’s like old times, you two whispering secrets to one another.”

“Sorry, mom.”

“He doesn’t want you to get a big head, Ellen, but he is proud of you.”

“I know...”

We talked a little while and then mom and dad retired to their bedroom as they often did. It was sweet, he held his hand out as an invitation she accepted it rising they walked out of the room together. Dad’s hand started on her shoulder and as they walked it moved slowly down the back of her dress until it reached her waist where it lingered. Just as they reached the threshold and she entered their room in front of it had moved to her butt and given it a gentle squeeze our view being only partially blocked by his body. I spoke.

“It’s great the way they show physical affection to one another after decades together and three children.”

“Yeah, they set a great example.”

As the door to their room closed I leaned over to Diane and gave her a very brief kiss on the lips.

“Downstairs.”

“Okay.”

We cleaned up a bit and went downstairs to her apartment. As soon as she closed the door I stepped out of my bottoms.