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Epilogue:
Virginia walked into Ed’s office as soon as she knew he was in. She had her transfer request in her hand.
“Something tells me I’m not going to like this, Virginia.”
“No,” she said almost in tears. “I’m sure you’re not. But you’ve been my best friend and colleague for a long time. You have a right to know.”
She handed him the paperwork and he put it on his desk not bothering to read it; he knew what it was.
“We’ve worked together a lot of years, and I’m going to miss you.”
“I do appreciate that Ed, more than you know. But this is best for both of us.”
“I know, I just…”
“You see what I mean?”
The conversation paused for a moment.
“I suppose you’re right. So who do you recommend that I promote to executive officer?”
“You already know the answer to that.”
“Do you think he’s ready?”
“If you had asked me that, two years ago I would have said no. But Paul has grown up considerably in the past two years. Yes, I think he’s ready.”
“Alright, who replaces him?”
“Lt. Colonel Wallace, she’s more than capable. And Ed, do both of you a favor; don’t call her Colonel for the rest of her life; she likes to be called Jen.”
“I’m sorry about that Virginia; I never meant to hurt you.”
“It’s alright, you finally broke through that hang up and I did appreciate it.”
Ed stood and took her hand in both of his, “Good luck Virginia, to both of you. Stay in touch alright?”
“I will, thanks Ed.”
Virginia and Matt met with the SHADO chaplain an hour later. He informed them that unless the circumstances were extraordinary he was bound by the laws of the UK concerning marriage. The couple decided to wait until they got back to the States. In the long run it would be a better decision for both of them as they could at least pull together a small wedding.
They spent the day sightseeing in London and of course Matt took her to pick out an engagement ring. Virginia made arrangements to have her belongings shipped to the States as well as putting her aircraft up for sale; the cost of having it shipped to the US would be prohibitive.
By late that evening they were both exhausted having packed everything that she would need to bring with her for the next couple of weeks. They sat together on the couch enjoying their tea.
“I talked to my mother, Matt. She’s going to fly over for the wedding as soon as we set a date.”
“Yeah, I told Patrick this afternoon, he’s going to let the rest of the family know. He was shocked to say the least.
And that was before I told him who you were.”
“I’m still amazed about that, I mean what are the chances of that ever happening.”
“I don’t know; it’s higher math. It makes my head hurt to even think about it.”
“Hey, let’s get some sleep, we’ve got a busy day tomorrow.”
“No argument here.”
Colonel Foster and Lt. Colonel Wallace walked through the control room on their way to the Commander’s office. The doors were open and they both entered the room.
“Ah, you’re both here. Please have a seat,” he said as he closed the doors.
“I’m making some organizational changes today. Colonel Lake has requested a transfer back to the research section, based out of New York, and I approved the transfer last night. With that in mind it means that I need a new executive officer. Colonel Foster, I’ve decided that you are going to be SHADO’s new second in command.”
“I’m honored sir, but I didn’t expect this.”
“Paul you have come a very long way in the past two years, and you’re also a good friend. You’ve earned it.”
Straker turned to Wallace, “Lt. Colonel Wallace, I’m reassigning you to HQ as a member of the senior staff as well as promoting you to full Colonel. You will be taking on most of Paul’s former duties.”
“Thank you sir,” she said.
“You’ll find that I like to be on a first name basis with all my command staff members, unless that makes you uncomfortable?”
“My friends all call me Jen, but with all due respect sir, I couldn’t address you in such an informal manner.”
“That’s alright; change takes a while to get used to. Paul if you would give Jen your duty sheet, as I have a few things to go over with you.”
After she had left, Paul looked back at his commanding officer with a puzzled look.
“Surprised Paul?”
“Yes, about a few things. Why the informality?”
“I made a promise Paul. I had never realized how much it had hurt Virginia to be called Colonel instead of her name. And she was to only one I did it to. I have no intention of repeating that mistake.”
“You really cared for her, didn’t you?”
“Yeah, I did. I still do. But you can’t live your life on regrets.”
“Does she know Ed?”
“She might suspect, but she as much as told me that it wouldn’t matter. It would seem that Matt was a flame in her heart that had been burning for thirty three years.”
“That is still so hard to believe.”
“Is it Paul? It’s moments like that which make this job worth all the pain that it causes. You’ll find that out eventually.”
“Are you sure I’m ready for this job Ed?”
“Paul, you just erased any doubt I would have had by asking that question.”
The Shadair SST took off from Heathrow at 10:00 am bound for Logan Airport. In the passenger cabin Matt and Virginia watched as the city of London receded into the distance. They held on to each other contemplating the future.
“Once we get home and get you settled in we’ll have to start thinking about finding a place in western Connecticut, unless you want to commute to New York from Rhode Island every week.”
“I could always fly the Mooney, speaking of which how are we going to get it back home?”
“My friend Brian owns a Piper Cherokee; he can fly us up to Twin Mountain and we can spend a day up there to relax and fly back the next day.”
“That sounds like a wonderful idea.”
She looked at him with a mischievous grin.
“What?” he asked.
“The last time we were together on this aircraft we had an audience.”
“Yeah, I remember, the goon squad.”
“We don’t have an audience now,” she said suggestively.
“What about the flight crew?”
“They’re under orders not to come back here, for any reason.”
“I get the feeling that our life together is never going to be boring.”
“Not if I can help it.”
As the SST transitioned to supersonic flight the couple drew each other into an embrace of love, passion and ecstasy.
END
Matters of the Heart:
An author’s response,
First of all I have to thank Louise for this great idea of a personal response; it truly adds a nice touch to a finished story.
This story went almost twice as long as I had planned, but like I said on the forum it took on a life of its own. I never knew writing a “Mary Sue” could be so much fun!
Fact vs. Fiction: The one thing I did try to do in this story is keep me true to myself, even in areas where I took poetic license. I don’t fly in real life (except in the simulator) so because of her training Ginny would be a much better pilot than I am. And while I am familiar with the art of hiking, I have never ascended Mount Washington on foot, although I hope to try it one day.
My conversation with my brother in the story was true to life. We really do talk like that especially since we’ve gotten older. In the story Hiram Hewett is my grandfather, but is in reality my great grandfather. I wanted to keep the story set in the original period and that was the easiest way to do it.
I do sing and play guitar in real life; as a matter of fact one of the songs mentioned in the story, “The Looks of a Woman in Love” was written by my good friend Matt Connelly. I sat in with his band many Sunday afternoons in what we all called the jam session.
I had sung to my wife in public long before we were married, and while she was a little embarrassed, she also enjoyed it. As she put it I was picking her heart strings. Even now if we go someplace where they have karaoke, or a band that knows us, she always wants me to sing one or two songs for her.
I had planned on having Matt’s meeting with Ed to be more confrontational, but in the end that just wouldn’t work. Ed is too much a gentleman to descend to that, and so am I.
My favorite part of the whole story was when Matt and Ginny find out that they had met as children. As the story had so much serendipity in it already it just seemed to be a perfect fit. It also made the idea of the pair falling for each other much more believable as not everyone believes in love at first sight. That aspect was a stroke of inspiration that just hit me one morning; I hadn’t planned on it initially.
Speaking of love at first sight; that is something I do believe in, as it happened to me.
I would like to thank Dragon for sharing her idea of a writer’s story. I’m still amazed at the different takes we all have on a particular subject.
I hope everyone enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it.
Matt
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