I nodded and shoveled in another bite to keep my mouth busy, so I wouldn’t have to talk. She seemed to get the hint and turned her attention on Wasp. “What about you? Wasp, right? Which branch did you come from?”
As the conversation continued, I learned a lot more about Naomi than I wanted to. She was smart and funny, she shared a love of reading murder mysteries with her father, and she seemed genuinely interested in the people around her. I’d been expecting her to be an entitled daddy’s girl, but she wasn’t that at all. She kept throwing glances my way, making her interest in me known. But, she wasn’t the kind of girl I normally took to my bed and I didn’t need the grief I’d get if Link ever found out about it. So, as soon as we finished dinner, I got the hell out of there and away from her.
Naomi
I’D TRAVELED OVER sixteen-hundred-miles to be there for my brother’s inauguration, and I didn’t even get to go into the super-secret room where the patched club members voted him in. Instead, I sat in the common area with the ol’ ladies and club whores, trying not to be salty about my lack of a penis once again restricting my options.
‘No girls allowed’ apparently meant the same thing to grown ass men as it did to theLittle Rascalsand their silly little boys only club. The only difference was that theLittle Rascalshad eventually caved. The Dead Presidents probably never would.
I knew the rule. I didn’t understand its necessity, but I didn’t intend to break it, either. I didn’t even complain out loud about being sidelined. Instead, I slipped behind the bar and poured myself a glass of whiskey, with ice so I’d be forced to sip it slowly, and checked my emails. Nothing but junk. I poked around internet news for a while, but found nothing interesting enough to hold my attention. My phone buzzed with an incoming message from Monica and I checked it to find a meme asking me if I’d gotten laid yet.
No. I was too busy wallowing in self-pity over not being included in the club’s penis games to hunt down a boy toy for the weekend. Actually, I’d found a boy toy, but he seemed more interested in avoiding me than getting into my pants. No doubt my brother dearest had something to do with that. Controlling clam-jammer. Disgusted with myself and the situation, I replied with my own meme: a depressed looking dog shaking its head.
I needed out of this funk. I needed to stop focusing on all the shit I couldn’t do, and turn my attention to having a good time. This was supposed to be my vacation. Surely, I could ignore the fight for woman-kind for a few days and let loose.
I needed more alcohol.
Spinning my phone on the bar while I sipped whiskey and tried to think of ways to relax, I didn’t hear Margo approach. She slipped behind the bar to open herself a beer before joining me. Eyeing my rapidly diminishing drink, she said, “This must be hard on you.”
My stepmother seemed like a nice enough woman and she made my dad the adorable kind of happy that old people madly in love get, but I’d been in the service since long before they’d even met, so I didn’t know her well enough to be real with her. “What has to be hard on me?” I asked.
“You came all this way to be here, and you don’t even get to be in the room while he’s getting sworn in. Seems kind of messed up.”
Well, she was observant. Still, I didn’t feel like spilling my insecurities to her, so I shrugged. “It is what it is.”
“It annoys the hell out of me,” she replied. “I love this club, Naomi. I love what they stand for and what they do, but you and I should be able to join.”
“You?” I asked, startled by the way she included herself. “Were you in the service?”
“Sure was. Served in the Army Nurse Corps for six years. My motivation was a little different than yours. I was just a small-town girl looking for an exciting environment where I could explore job opportunities, meet male suitors, travel, and build self-esteem. That’s the pitch they gave us back then. Most of the girls I knew only joined to travel and find a man. That’s how I met my first husband, God rest his soul.”
“I had no idea you served.” And she’d lost a husband. This knowledge gave me a whole new respect for her. “Must have been really hard back then.”
“It was what it was,” she replied, smiling as she turned my words back on me. “It was easier to serve as a nurse than in the Women’s Army Corps. The best jobs those women could hope for were switchboard operator or mechanic, but most served as bakers or seamstresses. Some got to repair or maintain the weapons that we were forbidden to use, but the women who served in WAC were harassed and ridiculed. People called them lesbians or prostitutes and talked about how unnatural it was for them to want to serve the country. Mostly it was men who’d been drafted, complaining about how all the ‘easy jobs’ went to women, or women who wanted to join but were too cowardly to stand up to their fathers and brothers.”
Women had been shamed for serving their country. I was sure I’d read about that somewhere, but hearing Margo talk about it made it more real. Dipping my head, I let her words sink in. Women had come a long way. I was able to be a pilot now because women like Margo had broken down those initial barriers. “I should probably be more content with our progress,” I admitted.
“Oh, no, honey. I’m not saying that at all. I’m saying that without women pushing the envelope and raising the glass ceiling, we’d still be stuck in the sixties. Or worse. You keep fighting for equality, Naomi. God knows I am.”
Something she’d said tickled the back of my mind. “You asked Dad to make you a member? Of the club?”
She smiled. “A prospect. I would have taken the appropriate steps, and wouldn’t have wanted special treatment.”
Okay, I loved my stepmother. “What did he say?” I asked.
“The club isn’t ready for that sort of progress. Then he announced that he was stepping down.”
Interesting. I filed that piece of information away to examine later.
“You know he’s proud of you, don’t you?” she asked. “He tells everyone about his daughter the Pedro.”
Knowing he was proud of me wasn’t the same as hearing it. “Thank you. Did he tell you I lied to him?”
Her smile disappeared. “About what?”
My Uncle Wade and Dad had joined the military at the same time. Dad came home, but Uncle Wade never did. Not even his body. Dad always feared that Uncle Wade had been captured, and it really messed with his head. Mom claimed that it changed Dad into someone she couldn’t live with anymore. It was the reason she gave for leaving. It was also the reason Dad formed the Dead Presidents… to help others like him cope with coming home. “He didn’t want me or Link going into the service. Not after what happened to Uncle Wade.”
“Understandable.”
