Blackbirds Read Online Free PDF Page A

make it sound desperate,” Linda said.
    â€œWe can track aircraft as they approach our coast.” Harry looked around the garden, checking to see who might be listening. A pair of blackbirds sat chirping at one another on a nearby branch.
    â€œYes, of course, the Observer Corps.” Linda wagged her finger at her father to scold him for revealing information they already knew.
    Harry set his tea down and shook his head. “No, it’s something new. Something quite different altogether.”
    â€œSo are you going to tell us or not?” Linda stood to force her father’s hand.
    â€œWe will have advanced warning of the Luftwaffe as they form up over France and head this way.”
    â€œSounds fanciful,” Honeysuckle said.
    â€œSounds like the Druids are involved.” Linda rolled her eyes.
    So that’s what those towers built up and down the coastline are for , Sharon thought.
    Harry turned away from his daughter and toward Sharon. “You’re a bit of a mystery. You arrive here off a ship and end up flying for the ATA . Where did you learn how to fly?”
    Sharon looked back at him and replied without thinking. “My mother was a secretary for a construction company in Calgary. The owner and his wife took us under their wing. Their children were all grown up, so, on the weekends, we’d often go to their ranch south of the city.”
    Sharon looked around the table. Harry, Linda, and Honeysuckle were leaning forward to hear every word.
    Linda said, “Go on.”
    â€œMy mother’s boss, Douglas, had an airplane he used for work. He’d fly around the country looking at various construction sites. He saw that I was fascinated with flying. When I could reach the controls, he began to teach me.” Sharon thought back to those flights, those weekends and summer holidays she would look forward to the way she looked forward to Christmas morning.
    â€œHow old were you when you began flying?” Honeysuckle asked.
    Sharon shrugged and looked at them. “Ten. I had a license by the time I was seventeen. Not all of my time in the air is in my logbook. I’ve got well over twelve hundred hours of official flying time.”
    â€œThat certainly answers a few questions,” Linda said.
    â€œLike what?” Sharon asked.
    â€œLike why you’re such a good pilot. Like why you can fly better than all of the people who trained us. Why you fly at least as well as the pilots in the RAF .” Linda chuckled.
    â€œWhat’s so funny?” Harry asked.
    Linda pointed at her friend. “The fighter pilots often can’t believe it when she lands. Most of them have an eye for the finer points of flying. Their mouths fall open when she steps down from the wing. Some admire her ability. Others, well. . .”
    â€œWell?” Honeysuckle asked.
    â€œI think some are jealous that a woman flies as well as Sharon does.” Linda looked at her father. “In fact, better than most of them.”
    â€œYou liked this Douglas?” Harry asked.
    Sharon thought for a minute. “He never asked why I didn’t have a father. He just accepted me. He treated me like an equal, like a friend. Douglas taught me that I could be a match for anyone, and that because I was good at flying, there were lots of other things I could do. Flying his Staggerwing gave me confidence. And he taught me how to shoot skeet.”
    â€œA Staggerwing! You flew a Beechcraft Staggerwing?” Linda hit the table with her palm.
    Sharon sat back. “Yes, that’s what Douglas had parked in his hangar.”
    â€œSo, at ten years old, you flew a Beechcraft Staggerwing?” Linda looked at her father and shook her head. “You’ve been flying a performance aircraft since you were ten!” Linda’s expression and her tone of voice told them all that some great secret had been revealed.
    â€œYou’re saying that it’s unfair that I learned