Second Chances in Lavender Bay (The Lavender Bay Chronicles #3)

26. Chapter Twenty-Four

Chapter Twenty-Four

1943

D iana walked through the front door, kicked off her shoes, unpinned her hat, and threw it on the small side table.

Her mother appeared in the doorframe of the parlor. “Any luck?”

Diana grumbled and plopped down on her preferred part of the sofa, the squishy cushion whose spring was gone. She pulled up one foot and massaged it with her hands, noting the blister that had formed. The shoes, though pretty, were a bit too tight, especially in the summer heat.

She shook her head. “Nothing. No one is hiring. I even went to the grain and feed store, and he took one look at me and just about laughed me out of the place.”

Millie gave her a sympathetic smile. Her daughter’s tall and shapely form, her long honey-blond hair and her almond-shaped eyes were perhaps too glamorous for the feed store. “It would be hard to picture you there.”

Diana supposed so. With a sigh, she said, “I don’t miss Pennsylvania, but I can’t help but think of all the jobs I could have secured back there.”

With the end of the Depression and the US involvement in the war, the economy was picking up. That had yet to trickle down to the small town of Lavender Bay. But she was hopeful.

“I’ll bring you a cup of tea,” Millie said, disappearing to the kitchen.

Diana called out after her, “Ma, don’t go to any trouble.”

“No trouble at all,” came the reply.

By the time her mother returned with a steaming cup of tea, Diana had just finished massaging her other foot. She winced from the stinging blister.

She held out her hand to accept the cup of tea from her mother.

“No letter today?” she asked. She and Preston had been writing back and forth regularly. He’d been home on leave for two weeks at Christmas, and they’d made the most of it, spending every day together. She’d even met his parents and his older sisters. But in January, he went back to somewhere in the Pacific.

Millie shook her head.

Diana frowned. His letters were the highlight of her day. But it had been more than a week since she’d received anything.

“Diana, he’s out in the middle of the ocean. To be honest, I’m surprised his letters get here as fast as they do.”

That was no comfort.

Millie sat near the front window in her chair of choice, an old armless oak rocker with a carved back that had come with the house.

Once her tea cooled, Diana sipped it and looked at her mother. “You don’t seem too upset that I couldn’t find a job.” This puzzled Diana. Inheriting a house had been a blessing, but there were bills to be paid. There had been a little bit of money too, and the two of them hadn’t a care in the world for the first few months after their arrival. But the source was dwindling, and it was determined that Diana should try and find some kind of job. They were eating a lot of broth and heels of old bread for their dinners. The curves on Diana’s figure were beginning to disappear.

“I’m going to write to Cousin Herb,” Millie said.

Diana couldn’t imagine a man who talked so little writing a letter. Would it be worth a stamp for one or two lines? “Why?” she asked. As far as she was concerned, they’d left Pennsylvania and everything and everyone in it behind them.

“I’ll ask him for a loan to tide us over.”

Diana’s mouth dropped open. “Don’t.”

“We need money.”

“No, we are not asking Cousin Herb for money.”

“I don’t like it any better than you do, but what can we do?”

“I’ll think of something. But hold off writing any letters to anyone,” Diana instructed.

“All he can do is say yes or no.”

Diana found this funny. “He should be able to handle that.” Whether it was the fatigue or worry, she wasn’t sure, but something made her break into peals of laughter, falling back against the sagging cushions of the sofa.

“What is so funny?” her mother asked sternly.

“We know your cousin is a man of few words. I’m picturing Herb’s letter with one word on it: ‘No’!” And she held her arms over her belly as she laughed harder.

“Honest to goodness, Diana, I don’t understand your humor,” Millie said, her mouth set in a grim line.

Diana sobered up. “That’s okay, Ma, neither do I.” A squeal of laughter threatened to emerge again, but she tamped it down, thinking she must be tired from all that walking around Lavender Bay in the heat looking for a job.

When she arrived home the following day after another unlucky day of job searching, her mother handed her three letters with military postmarks. Preston’s familiar scrawl cheered her up to no end.

A month later, Diana burst through the front door. “Ma, I got a job!”

Her mother appeared from the kitchen, dish towel in her hand. “You did? Where?”

“Cheever Aviation.”

“Is that over in Cheever?”

“I think it’s in the name,” Diana said.

Her mother pursed her lips. “Don’t be smart. What will you be doing there? Secretarial work?”

“Not exactly.”

“Then what?”

“They make C-46s.”

Millie scowled. “What are those?”

“Planes for the military.”

“It’s a defense plant, then.”

“Yes.”

“What will you be doing there?”

“I don’t know yet. I was only hired this morning. It’ll be on the production line somewhere, but I haven’t been assigned a job.” Diana’s excitement was hard to contain.

Her mother seemed unconvinced. “Isn’t that a job for men?”

“Ma, all the men are gone. This morning, the place was packed with women of all ages applying for jobs.”

“Really?” Millie found this hard to believe. Why would a woman want to work at a man’s job?

“And here’s the best part.” Diana’s eyes shone bright. “The pay is seventy cents an hour. Seventy cents! We won’t know ourselves.”

A slow smile emerged on her mother’s face. “That comes to a lot of money.”

“It sure does!”

“But how will you get to Cheever? We don’t have a car,” her mother said.

“I’m going to carpool with a woman named Joy Ruggiero. She passes right by Lavender Bay on her way to Cheever, and she said she’d pick me up. I’ll help pay for the gas.”

“But gasoline is rationed.”

“We’re war workers, so we’re exempt,” Diana said proudly.

“This is wonderful news, Diana.”

“I thought so too.”

“You should celebrate.”

“That’s my plan.” Diana headed to her bedroom and called over her shoulder, “I’m going to the beach!”