“Here they are!” Lily called out gaily as she rushed up the steps of the lodge while holding a large brown paper satchel in her hands. Her twin,Sadie, hurried behind her, lugging an even bigger bundle. A dry wind blew behind the women, sending the pungent, piney odors of scrub wafting onto the porch. The sharpness of the scent mirrored the prickles of anticipation crinkling inside Mattie.
In many ways, waiting to read the coverage of the competition was even more nerve racking than the race itself. During the contest, she’d had control. This time, though, she didn’t. Reporters—most of them male—steered this particular vehicle.
The Flying Flappers and the McAdamses had all agreed to wait to read any news of the event until they could gather the national papers as well. They’d asked the owner of the little general store near the lodge if he could collect one copy of each of the periodicals that he sold or could easily get his hands on and wrap them in brown paper. Today was the day they would open the collection.
“And,” Sadie called out, “we’d stopped at the front desk of the lodge before we left, and there was an envelope for you, Mattie. Do you want me to get it for you?”
“Yup. I might as well read all the news at once,” Mattie said, proud that her voice didn’t betray any of her anxiousness.
“I’ll be back in a jiffy!” Sadie said as she dashed inside.
Mattie beat out a nervous tattoo with her right foot, trying to steady her breathing as she waited for her friend to return. When that failed, she squeezed Leo’s hand. He sat beside her on the rustic wooden bench while the other members of Vera’s circus and Mattie’s family clustered around in rockers and other seats. The sight of her loved ones calmed Mattie more than any action ever could. She owed Vera and her other female comrades so much. Mattie had always known she could fly, but no one else had embraced her true potential quite like these women. They’d nurtured it, nurturedher, and helped her come into her own.
When Sadie popped back on the porch, she handed Mattie a large manila envelope addressed from Mattie’s lawyers. At the same time, Lily placed the first bundle in Mattie’s lap.
“Which are you going to open first?” Lily asked, giving a little bounce.
“I... I think the news articles.” Mattie glanced down at the bulging stack of periodicals. “The mail from the law office might just be routine.”
Inhaling, Mattie tried to undo the string, but her normal dexterity failed her. When she grunted in frustration, every male member of her family thrust a multiuse pocketknife in her direction.
Leo waved them away. “She has Alfred’s old one.”
It seemed fitting, using her late brother’s Swiss Army knife to slice through the string just as she’d worn his helmet and goggles during her flight. Alfred would have been so proud of her and proud of Leo for being by her side. It struck her then that she didn’t need his old flying circus or even the flight school to preserve his memory. Every time she took to the skies, he was with her. The best way to honor him was to fully live her life.
Slipping the heirloom back into her pocket, she hoped no one noticed that the blade had trembled in her grip. Then, like plunging into the pool in the spa’s cooling room, she ripped open the package. The sound seemed to echo over the vast landscape, reaching the canyon walls and then bouncing back. The brown paper fell away, revealing a well-respected national paper with a huge circulation. Mattie gave her head a sharp tilt and then focused on the headline in one fell swoop.
She cried out... in utter delight.
MCADAMS BEATS CRENSHAW IN AERIAL RACE
There were no mentions of petticoat flyers, ladybirds, or even girl flyers. Mattie was identified by her name—not by her sex, not by her relationship to a man, not by a role perceived as womanly. But by hername.
Tears sprang into Mattie’s eyes, and her hands still shook, not from anticipation now but from pure joy. She lifted her fingers to her mouth and pressed them there as she read the lead. “Miss Mattie McAdamstrounced Mr.Earl Crenshaw, beating him by an entire minute in an air race through the famous Canyon of the Bridges. She told gathered reporters, ‘I hope this will put to rest the silly notion that women don’t belong in the skies.’”
The reporter had chosen to use those words! Her words! The ones she had worked on crafting over and over and over again as she’d lain awake at night.
With a voice as unsteady as her hands, Mattie read the entire article aloud. Mostly the group stayed silent, but occasionally they broke into cheers, whistles, and applause. The entire piece treated Mattie like an aviator—a true aviator, not a silly girl pretending to be one.
When Mattie finished, Vera clasped her hands together. “I don’t know about anyone else, but I am dying to see what the lawyers sent. Something tells me it’s good news, Mattie, especially based on how Mr.Fabin kept raving about you after you defeated Crenshaw.”
Trying hard not to get too excited in case she only ended up disappointing herself, Mattie ripped open the envelope. Out fell a license agreement along with a cover letter. After grabbing the message, Mattie scanned it three times. The blood was rushing through her so fast she was afraid she’d misread the missive.
“Mr.Fabin signed a license agreement for my RadioNavigator!” Mattie waved the document around her head like a team pennant. “I have my first business deal!”
Leo crushed her to him, his fingers wrapped around her shoulder. “Congratulations, Mattie!”
Before he could say more, the Flying Flappers converged on both of them, smashing them even closer together. Everyone’s voices were raised in excitement. They were talking so fast that all the felicitations blurred together in a wonderful, uplifting clamor.
When the women shifted back to their seats, Mattie directed her gaze at her father. “The flight school is saved, Pa. Our combined money along with the license fee is more than enough to pay off the debt.”
Her father smiled, his hazel eyes warm as they regarded her. “It was never about the flight school for me, Mattie. It was always about my children finding their dreams, their place. And it looks like you have.”
Mattie teared up again, and she wondered if she was always going to stay this emotional. But this was from happiness. Sheer happiness. “I believe you’re correct.”
“Ooooh,” Lily suddenly called out as she looked up from a newspaper that she’d grabbed. “You allmusthear this article!”
After the blonde flapper rattled off a paragraph praising Mattie, everyone took turns rifling through the periodicals and reading aloud phrases and passages that they loved. Mattie spotted mentions of ladybirds, and they laughed over some pompously written pieces that awkwardly tried their darndest not to credit her with the win.
