“Well, enough about me.” Lily unfolded the map with a grand flourish. “This is Mattie’s moment, along with Sadie’s and Carrie’s.”
“This moment is for all of us,” Mattie added, her prior nervousness replaced with a swell of love for these women. She turned to Sadie, who would be calling out the frequencies. “What radio station should I tune to?”
“940!”
Mattie fiddled with the radio until a man’s voice crackled to life. “The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Brooklyn Robins three to two in Ebbets Field in front of a crowd of fifteen thousand. In other sports news, American Bobby Jones won his first US Open at Inwood Country Club in New York, edging out Scotland’s Bobby Cruickshank.”
With the flick of a switch, the box containing the electric motor emitted a steady hum, and the loop antenna began to pirouette atop its casing with the slow grace of a music box ballerina.
Lily groaned. “It would be sports. I was all ready to start dancing.”
“Don’t underestimate the glory of going to a game and watching fine young specimens of males stealing home or strutting across the green. There is something about those golf knickers that catches my eye each time.” Vera winked.
The sportscast suddenly faded, and a light on Mattie’s board flickered to life. Excitement burst in Mattie’s chest like a firecracker on the Fourth of July. “The radio station is at four o’clock, east southeast.”
“Correct!” Lily pumped one arm.
Mattie’s heart didn’t need a tune for her heart to start dancing in her chest. It was working! Her brainchild wasworking! Shehadher prototype.
“1010,” Carrie called out.
This time opera music crinkled out of the speakers.
“There’s some music for you, Lily,” Alice joked.
Lily groaned theatrically. “I can’t very well dance tothat.”
“Eleven o’clock. Just west of north,” Mattie cried out.
“Perfect!” Lily clapped butnotin tune to the increasingly melancholy notes.
And it was perfect, Mattie thought. Her device wasn’t just working; it was reliable! Although a pilot would still need multiple ways to check and confirm the bearing, this—this would be invaluable. Although Mattie did not know if it would have saved Alfred, he would have been better equipped. And thatmeantsomething. She could never rescue him, but she could andwouldstop other preventable deaths.
Just then the bellhop arrived with a tray of tall silver teapots and porcelain teacups. Vera handed the lad a tip and announced, “Gather around, gals. The celebrating can begin!”
“Your RadioNavigator is marvelous, Mattie. You should be very proud of yourself.” Leo’s voice was a balmy caress.
Mattie trailed her finger over the light board. “Thank you.”
“Alfred...” Leo paused and then swallowed hard. “Alfred would have loved it. He would have crowed to everyone who’d listen that his sister had figured out a new navigation system.”
It was the best thing Leo could have said. The fact that he had—at cost to himself—showed how much he understood her. And that... that frightened Mattie almost as much as it thrilled her.
If they weren’t in a crowded room, she would have hugged Leo to reassure herself. But she settled for laying her hand over his.
“That... that was all right of me to say?” Leo asked.
“It was absolutely perfect, Leo. Iliketalking about Alfred. It makes him feel less far away.”
“He’d be right there with Lily wanting music to dance to,” Leo added, a little halting at first and then more easily.
“They’d be quite the pair, and he would definitely appreciate Vera’s ‘special tea,’” Mattie said with a wistful laugh.
Leo’s gentle chuckle joined hers. Then a companionable silence fell over them as they stood staring down at her prototype and thinking about her dauntless, charismatic twin.
“Tonic water for you, Leo?” Vera called out.
He shook his head as he slowly withdrew his hand from Mattie. “I was thinking about heading out and keeping John company.”
