Chapter 24
Millie spotted the headline as soon as she came into Mr. Dickson’s office.
FLYING FEMME FATALE FALLS FOR FELLOW PILOT.
Her heart sank through the floor. They’d been caught.
And if Mr. Dickson had this, then Mr. Burleson must have seen it too.
Her dream of opening the airmail to lady pilots was dead before she even managed to break a record.
Mr. Dickson looked like a teapot about to whistle. His perfectly sharpened pencils were fanned out on his desk, bristling in all directions. Ernie had warned her about Mr. Dickson and his pencils. This was not a good sign.
“Miss Aldrich,” Mr. Dickson said brusquely, gesturing toward the plain metal chair in front of his desk. “Would you care to explain this?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said, trying to maintain her dignity, though she had a pretty good idea of what was to come.
“This,” Mr. Dickson said, handing her the Town Tattler issue that had been open on his desk.
Millie glanced quickly through the article. She’d been featured in similar articles countless times when she was dating Barney. If it only named her, she was safe, but she had a sinking feeling this article named Ernie.
And there it was. Ernest Pritchard.
They were discovered.
To make things worse, there was an engraving of her looking longingly over her shoulder at a man who looked just like Ernie. Someone must have snapped a photo of them when they were out.
“I see.” That was all she was going to say until she knew Mr. Dickson’s intent.
“Do you? Do you see?” Mr. Dickson’s brows were deeply furrowed, and his voice was pitched dangerously low. “Did you notice that it mentions the airmail operation?”
Oh, yes, she had. This was going to be ugly.
“Do you have any idea how unprofessional this makes us look?” Mr. Dickson continued.
“This isn’t a dance hall, Miss Aldrich. This is the United States Postal Service.
We cannot countenance this kind of fraternization in our ranks.
I knew we never should have allowed you to join.
Now I’m going to have to lose one of my best pilots over it. ”
She perked up for a moment.
“You think I’m one of your best pilots?”
Under the circumstances, she would take whatever positive she could find in this awful situation.
“Not you,” Mr. Dickson said with withering disdain. “Pritchard.”
Oh, no. In her heart of hearts, she’d always known they would find a reason to push her out.
She was torn between being devastated to have let down her fellow female pilots and being furious about the standard to which she was held.
But to have Ernie lose his job over this too…
And his whole family depended on him. What would he do?
“It goes without saying that your time flying the mail is at an end as well. I spoke to Mr. Burleson this morning, and he agreed that this little experiment was over,” Mr. Dickson continued. “As far as I’m concerned, it’s good riddance.”
He was just looking for an excuse, wasn’t he?
Well, if she was already fired, she was going to give him a piece of her mind.
“Mr. Dickson, I flew the mail as well as any man on this team, and I don’t see how my personal life is any of your business. You knew before I was hired that my name ends up in papers like this on a regular basis. I don’t see why I should lose my job over a little bit of idle gossip.”
She stood and stepped to the front of his desk, leaning in, as she warmed to her topic.
“Furthermore, you clearly have something against women flying the mail. If you ask me, you were looking for any flimsy excuse to get rid of me. You may be pretending to be outraged, but I think you’re secretly pleased to be rid of me.”
Mr. Dickson’s mustache twitched, and he stood so that they were eye to eye.
“You’re damned right, missy. Women don’t belong in airplanes.
You’re a menace in the air and a distraction for the good men trying to go about the government’s business.
It was a waste of taxpayer dollars to bring you on board.
Mr. Burleson must have been under tremendous pressure to agree to something like this.
Wasn’t it enough for you ladies that you won the vote?
Did you have to come and meddle in men’s workplaces too? ”
Millie straightened and put her hands on her hips.
“This isn’t over, Mr. Dickson. I’ll find a way to prove you wrong.”
It was over, and she knew it. But she wasn’t going down without a fight.
“You go ahead and try, Miss Aldrich. You just go ahead and try.”
His eyes sparked with zealous fury. There was no point in arguing further. The man was clearly beyond reason.
She turned around and stormed out.
Seething, she jumped into her roadster and peeled out of the parking lot. All too soon, she arrived at the ferry and was forced to stop.
Stopping meant thinking, and thinking was no good.
Guilt rained down on her as the magnitude of her failure sank in.
Thanks to her weakness, airmail jobs would be closed to women for who knew how long.
She’d let down her sex, struck a blow against professional women pilots.
And who knew what would happen to the funding for the airmail operation without her help? She’d let them all down for a man.
And she’d let him down too. If she’d never given in to the attraction between them, he’d never have lost his job. His family wouldn’t be in danger of penury because of their actions.
Love cost too much, and she was a fool to fall into its trap.
Somehow, she had to make this right, and that started with ending things with Ernie.
If she wanted to be taken seriously as a professional pilot, she couldn’t afford to have a man by her side.
This mad relationship had cost them both far too much.
Surely, he would agree after he heard the news from Mr. Dickson.
Yes, it was for the best for both of them if they broke it off.
She still had her airplane. Now that she had some distance experience, she could set some records on her own, go back to the barnstorming circuit.
Maybe if she broke some records she could go back to Mr. Burleson and advocate for other women to be allowed to join the airmail, even if she herself was banned for life.
Her days of flying the mail might be over, but she had to do her part for the Gerties of the world.
They were just as good as men in the air and deserved a fair chance at those jobs.
The jagged skyline of Manhattan got closer and closer as the ferry approached the dock. The Woolworth Building loomed like an accusing finger. Tears formed in the corners of her eyes, but she dashed them away. She couldn’t allow her weakness to overcome her.
Stiffening her spine, she got back in her car for the drive back to her apartment. When she arrived, she headed straight upstairs. Beth was out. Was it too early for a martini?
The morning sun was still streaming through the east windows. Definitely too early.
She sat next to the phone but couldn’t bring herself to dial Ernie.
It was only delaying the inevitable. He deserved a warning about what he was walking into next time he went to work, but if she talked to him, she would have to end things.
And after the morning she’d had, she couldn’t quite face it.
After staring at the phone for five solid minutes, she finally picked up the receiver.
Best to get this over with, Mildred. It has to be done.
The operator connected her call, and the ring tone through the phone tolled like a funeral knell.
There was a click and static as someone picked up. Her heart jumped. She stopped breathing.
“Pritchard residence, Ernie speaking.”
Oh, God. It was him. She’d half hoped he wouldn’t be home. Her throat was suddenly terribly dry.
“Hello? Is someone there?”
She swallowed, hoping her voice would work.
“Ernie, it’s me. Millie.”
“Millie! I’m so glad you called.” He paused. “But is everything all right? You sound upset.”
The temptation to lie and say everything was fine was almost overwhelming. What if she didn’t say anything? What if she asked to see him and invited him out for drinks? Wouldn’t this be easier with alcohol?
“No, I’m afraid things are not all right,” she said at last. “A reporter saw us. It’s in the Town Tattler. Mr. Dickson saw, and…”
She couldn’t go on. Her throat closed up.
“And?” The edge of panic in his voice made her wince.
“…and he’s firing us both.”
Dead silence.
“Ernie?”
More silence.
“Oh, God. What am I going to do?” he whispered at last. “My family,” he said slightly louder then trailed off.
“I’m so sorry, Ernie. I know how much you need this job. We should never have…” She couldn’t say it aloud. “The cost was too high.”
There was a long silence.
“No,” he said at last.
“No?”
“No,” he said firmly. “I don’t know what I’m going to do, but I can’t bring myself to regret you. We’ll figure it out. Somehow, we’ll find a way forward together.”
“You can’t mean… Ernie, we can’t keep seeing each other after this. We have to end it. This proves we should never have gotten together in the first place. It was a mistake from beginning to end, and now we’re paying the price.”
“What? That makes no sense. I—”
“Don’t make this harder than it already is.” The phone cord was wrapped around her hands, and she was twisting it into knots.
“Please, Millie. Listen to me. I—”
“Don’t. Please don’t. It’s better if we make a clean break. I wish you all the best.”
“Don’t hang up that phone, Millie. Please don’t—”
Click.
It was over.
No more Ernie.
She was doing the right thing for both of them, so why did she feel even worse after hanging up the phone?
Ernie would come around eventually. He’d see that she was right. This wasn’t meant to be. The pain would ebb with time, and they’d both move on with their lives. It really was for the best.
A tear dripped down her cheek. And then another. She rushed to her bedroom and grabbed a handkerchief, dabbing the tears away.
Pull it together, Mildred. It’s only a man.
Only Ernie.
The drips turned into a torrent as she sobbed on her bed.
No more men. It wasn’t worth it. It hurt too much. She should have learned her lesson after Barney, but no. She had to go and fall for a man again. Well, no more.
Millie Aldrich was going to stand on her own two feet and stay as far away from romance as possible.