“Well, I can see when I’m not wanted,” Jake finally said, and Leo heard his footsteps retreat until the sound mingled with the rest of the noise from the crowd.
“How about accompanying a gal on her victory lap?” Mattie lifted her eyebrow in a flirty challenge. Although Leo had difficulty getting into the Fabin with his cast, he’d managed it with John’s help a few times before. If one of Mattie’s brothers also assisted, it would be even easier. Luckily, the craft had a roomier passenger seat than most planes, since Fabin Flyer had left space for a machine-gun mount.
“I’d like that very much.” The words seemed to tumble out of Leo, swept along in a rising sea of joy.
Laughing like two goofs, just as they had on that evening on the Lake Michigan shoreline, Leo and Mattie hurried toward her Fabin. The plane was truly Mattie’s now, won by her triumphant finish. Leo also had a feeling that she’d just earned herself another lucrative endorsement deal and secured her first license agreement for her RadioNavigator.
When Mattie barreled her craft past the scrubby underbrush, an old familiar sensation stirred within Leo: excitement. It started just as a wisp at first—a faint lightness flickering to life. Yet it seemed to grow in lockstep with the Fabin’s acceleration. When the nose popped skyward, Leo’s heart lifted too.
He felt the rush of the wind against his exposed cheeks. For so long, he’d overlooked the simple pleasure of experiencing such wonderful power and reveling in the very forces that kept the marvelous machines aloft.
Leo glanced at the ground below, a patchwork of oranges, reds, and whites. It looked like a sunset...or more accurately, a sunrise full of new beginnings.
Bursts of dark, light, and even silvery greens flashed here and there, proof of life even in the seemingly barren land. Mattie climbed fartherand farther into the cloudless blue, taking advantage of the Fabin’s much-higher operating ceiling compared to the Jenny. Leo hadn’t been this high since the end of the war, and he allowed himself to feel a roar of freedom.
It didn’t matter if he or Mattie was at the controls. This, this was magic, a magic he’d pushed aside because he’d had to focus to survive. But he wasn’t at the front anymore. The battle was no longer dogfights above France.
He could enjoy flying again. He should enjoy flying again. Hewouldenjoy flying again.
“Are you ready to dive?” Mattie loudly asked.
“Copacetic.”
With a whoop, Mattie shot downward into the canyon far below. Like the rumble of dammed-up water finally breaking the levee and whooshing through the dried-up riverbed, his own shout of jubilation thundered from his chest, up his throat, and past his lips. Mattie banked the right wing down and deftly zoomed past the narrow walls. Leo felt as brilliant as the colorful sandstone they shot through.
With a grace that made something superbly difficult appear ridiculously easy, Mattie piloted the Fabin smoothly through the natural bridges. After passing through the fifth, she once again headed into the cool blueness.
“I heard you shouting!” Her words were muffled by the wind the plane produced and the engine itself, but he could still make out her statement.
“I’m having fun!”
“So am I!” Mattie’s raised voice vibrated with excitement. “Do you think I should write a message? Show off more of my skills?”
Leo dipped his chin in a deep nod in case she was having trouble hearing him. “Yes!”
“What should I write?”
He paused, contemplating. He considered how Mattie had pursued her dreams, how she’d raced first him and then Crenshaw, how she’d proven that a woman could fly just as well as a man.
“The Aviatrix!”
“Perfect!” Mattie hollered back.
Releasing one of her battle cries, she began to dip, dive, spin, whirl, climb, and twist. Writing with smoke wasn’t easy. It required a lot of skill and flying blind, but it wasn’t anything that Mattie couldn’t handle.
The wild maneuvers energized Leo, and he once again joined Mattie’s triumphant shout as she executed one last loop and barrel roll just for the pleasure of it. After she’d landed on the ground and John and Will had helped him exit the Fabin, Mattie and Leo stood together, looking up at her handiwork. She’d writtenThe Aviatrixin large flowing letters. It was a distinctively feminine script but no less bold or impressive than a man’s.
“Perfect.” Leo nudged her shoe with the foot of his crutches, knowing that even if a reporter’s camera captured the tap, the snapshot would never be able to convey the sweet import of his gesture.
Mattie shielded her eyes to read the words she’d so artfully scrawled onto the horizon. “I wonder what’s next for us?”
“I don’t know, but I’m sure it will be another glorious escapade.”
“And we’ll do it together,” Mattie said, her words a statement, not a question.
“Together,” he echoed.
They fell into silence then, both appreciating what they had created. The skywriting would fade away, but this—this partnership with Mattie—would not. It was as strong and steady as a well-maintained aircraft climbing ever skyward.
