Lost and Found in Lavender Bay (The Lavender Bay Chronicles #2)

31. Chapter Twenty-Nine

Chapter Twenty-Nine

W hen Laura returned home, her parents were still out with the girls. As soon as she stepped through the front door, the phone began to ring.

“I’ll get it, Joan,” she called back to the kitchen.

She picked up the handset and answered. “Hello?”

“May I speak with Mrs. Knickerbocker?” asked a male voice. Immediately, Laura recognized it as Mr. Treadwell and felt her stomach constrict.

“This is she.”

“This is Mr. Treadwell from Cheever Aviation.”

“Hello, Mr. Treadwell.”

She picked up the base of the rotary phone and, stretching the cord, carried it to a side chair in the front hall so she could sit down.

The foreman continued. “I wanted to call you and confirm that you’ll be here for work tomorrow morning.”

As much as Laura wanted the job, she couldn’t work with Les Stockton. There’d be no going back. She had to stand firm .

“Mr. Treadwell, I’ll remind you that I wanted to quit the other day before I left,” she said gently.

“Never mind that,” he said. “I’ll expect you here for your shift tomorrow.”

“I’m sorry, but I wouldn’t be able to work with Les Stockton.”

“Mr. Stockton will no longer be working here,” Mr. Treadwell told her in a tone that invited no questions.

Laura was speechless. In all the realm of possibilities, she’d never entertained this one.

“Oh,” she finally managed to get out.

“Will you reconsider your resignation?” he asked.

Smiling, she said, “I’ll be there tomorrow, sir, for my shift.”

“That’s great news. Thank you, Mrs. Knickerbocker,” he said, and hung up.

Laura sat there for a few minutes, processing everything and reveling in the knowledge that she’d be working at a place where there was no Les Stockton.

Joy drove the following day, full of news on the ride into work.

“After you left work the other day, word spread pretty quickly about what happened. For the rest of the shift, other women left their stations and went upstairs to complain to Mr. Treadwell about Les and his harassment The line was so long down the stairs that he had to stay late to deal with it. And he wasn’t happy about it.”

Laura couldn’t believe it. Although there was some gratification that he was gone, it bothered her that so many women had fallen victim to Les and that he’d gotten away with that behavior for so long.

“Anyway, yesterday morning, Mr. Treadwell came in early and fired Les as soon as he arrived,” Joy crowed. “Mr. Treadwell called him up to the office and security escorted him out. Everyone was clapping and cheering as he left.” Joy’s smile stretched across her face. “Mr. Treadwell held a general meeting and said there was too much important work to be done to allow a distraction like Les. Said morale was lagging among the workers, and he couldn’t tolerate that.”

It was a relief, that was for sure.

“If they hadn’t fired him, I was going to bring my rolling pin in this morning and give him a few whacks on your behalf,” Joy said.

Laura couldn’t help but smile at her friend. “You’re pretty fierce, Joy.”

Joy winked. “Dynamite comes in small packages.”

As they walked through the doors of the plant, Joy linked her arm through Laura’s, and they walked together to the locker rooms to change and punch in.

There were a few women in the locker room, and they congratulated Laura, some patting her on the back.

Soon, she and Joy walked out and headed to their departments. With her stomach in knots, Laura made her way through the plant, toward her station. As usual, the floor was packed with women either finishing or starting their shift. But when she was spotted, the crowd separated, forming two lines of women in coveralls and headscarves on either side of her. She frowned, unsure what was going on .

Then the clapping started, and Laura blushed. All the women on both sides of the line clapped and cheered her on, some even stepping out of line to pat her on the back or shake her hand.

At the end of the line, near her plane, stood Toni, smiling broadly and clapping along with the other women.

Laura smiled. She was so happy she was shaking.

Laughing, Toni said, “Thank you, Laura!”

Laura was buoyed by the change in things. More than ever, she was excited about her work. “Come on, Toni, let’s get this plane put together for our boys.”

“You got it!”

Creepy Les was replaced by a young man named Buster Rolle. Buster had worked in almost every department in the factory since he was eighteen. Unable to go to war because he’d had polio as a child, leaving one leg shorter than the other, he knew how to build a plane inside and out. He was fair, and he treated everyone professionally. And most of all, he kept his hands to himself.