Page 49 of Cocky Origins: May and Jerald Cocker

“Hank’ll show you.” He runs a hand down my cheek, gazing into my eyes. “Did you look up the word effusive?”

“You showed me what it meant, with your mother’s compliments!”

“Doesn’t count.”

“I forgot.”

“Next time we see each other, that answer had better be different.” He kisses me, just a soft pressing of our lips together before he tips his sailor’s hat and strolls to the car.

I call out, my voice cracking, “Jerald!”

Turning around he smiles, “Yeah?”

“Give him hell!!!”

He winks, “Come on now, May, Language!”

I walk to the edge of the sidewalk and watch until their car becomes a speck and disappears.

Riding home, it doesn’t occur to me that I left the book with the librarian because all I can think of is…

He found me.

27

MAY

December 1944

The school bell unleashes nearly four-hundred girls, grades seventh through twelfth.

The four of us walk down the hall, comfortably holding our books on our hips, except Sable who is hugging hers to her chest.

Gertie announces, “I’ve been thinking I might want to be a teacher. My Father said the war has shone a light on education” One of the Sisters passes and Gertie goes quiet until we have more distance. “He said millions of potential recruits were turned away because they didn’t know how to read or write!”

Lily gasps, “No fooling?”

“No fooling! And to top it off, because so many jobs became available with men enlisting, teachers are leaving their positions for better paying jobs. There simply are not enough to go around now. It’s a darn shame, he said, but it does leave opportunity for me, don’t you think?” We nod and she asks, “I might be able to work anywhere I choose since they’re so hard up. Say, would any of you girls fancy being a teacher after graduation?”

“Not I,” Lily says. “I don’t have the patience for it.”

Outside we stroll together down the path under shady oak trees which surround the red brick ofour school, and Sable says, “I’m thinking of going into the sciences. Research and all that. Ever since I was accepted to Vassar, it’s been on my mind.”

“I could see you in a lab coat.”

She looks at Lily. “Could you, really?”

“Well sure, why not? You’re the smartest of us.”

Gertie asks, “What about you, May?”

“I might like to be a pilot.”The girls react, and I smile, “It’s true!”

“Where are you going to do that?”

“I haven’t discovered where, yet. But I might just join those women who fly bullets around. You remember the ones! The WASPS!”

Sable shivers and hugs her books closer. “How could we forget?”

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