Page 44 of Supernova

“That’s true—I’ve felt that way. One time a woman came up and asked Ed for the time at a restaurant and I almost lost it.”

This makes Jo laugh. “She asked him for the time?”

Frankie shrugs. “It wasn’t that she asked for the time, it was that she said it with sex in her eyes.”

This makes Jo laugh openly, and Frankie taps her arm. “Hey, hey—incoming.”

Jo glances up to see Bill coming their way.

“He’s probably ready to go. The crowd is thinning out here.” Jo drains the rest of her second martini, which isn’t really like her. But she feels that the extra booze is necessary this evening, so she does it with relish.

“So what’s your next move?” Frankie asks furtively.

Jo smiles at Bill and nods that she’s ready. “I invited her over for dinner.”

“What?” Frankie nearly spits her own drink. “You invited her into your home?”

“She’s actually really sweet. And very interesting,” Jo allows. “And you know what they say…”

“Keep your friends close and your enemies closer?”

Jo’s smile spreads across her face until she’s grinning. “Not exactly,” she says, handing her empty glass to Ed as he passes by with a tray of them on his way into the house. “But if we get to know one another, then she’s not really some mysterious woman who spends the whole day at work with my husband while I’m at home washing his underwear, is she?”

“I guess not,” Frankie admits. “But I was hoping for something a little more exciting.”

Jo waves for her children and they come running over. “Maybe next time, Ethel,” she says with a wink in Frankie’s direction as she takes Kate’s hand.

“I’m the Lucy!” Frankie shouts as Jo and Bill and the kids wave at her from the gate. Jo blows her a kiss. “Josephine Booker,” she calls again, laughing this time, “don’t you ever forget that I’m the Lucy here!”

Jo smiles to herself as they walk through the neighborhood to the Booker house in the dark, the kids skipping and chatteringjust a few feet ahead of them. Bill stays silent, though he reaches over and takes Jo’s hand.

She lets him, but her mind is already somewhere else.

TWENTY-ONE

frankie

The promiseof summer’s humidity is already in the air on April 18th as the women stand in the open area between buildings at Cape Kennedy. The Spring Fling is scheduled to start in an hour, and they’ve been on site since before dawn, setting up booths, checking the sound of the speakers they’ve rented, and making sure that the signs they’ve painted are hung up straight and are visible as people walk through the area. The doors to the hangars they’re using are wide open, and inside of one, a stage has been set up for Frankie’s little troupe of dancers.

David Huggins, the official photographer at the Cape, has been there with them throughout the morning’s preparations, documenting the ladies as they point out where they want booths set up, get on their hands and knees to tie knots around the sandbags that will hold hundreds of helium balloons in place, and laugh with each other about funny things their children have said or done recently. He follows Frankie into the hangar and snaps a few shots of her up on the stage as she points out changes she’d like made in the lighting and the seating arrangements.

By eleven o’clock, the women have changed from their pedal pusher pants and the handkerchiefs tied around the pink rollersin their hair, and into the sundresses and lipstick that make them look fresh and ready for the big event.

“Here we go, ladies!” Lorraine, Carrie’s co-chair says. She claps her hands with excitement as the gates open and families begin to stream in.

They’ve worked hard to put on an event that feels fun and celebratory, and they’ve all agreed that this is the first time since Kennedy’s assassination nearly five months earlier that they actuallyfeela sense of joy and excitement in the air. The space program is a big deal for the country, and in Florida, it’s held in the highest esteem. The women want to capitalize on the hometown excitement that Floridians feel about NASA and space travel, and to include people in the build-up to the next launch.

“I want to see a rocket!” a little boy shouts as he runs over to where Barbie is handing out balloons to all the children. The boy’s father follows with a grin on his face and a young girl on his shoulders. He nods at Frankie as he passes by, and she waves at the toddler on her father’s shoulders.

A baby, Frankie thinks,or maybe two. It’s not the first time she’s seen cute kids and thought about having some of her own, but it is the first time that she’s thought about it without trepidation or a tinge of annoyance because her mother has poked and prodded her about it.

“Hi,” Ed says, coming up to Frankie and scooping her into his arms for a dramatic kiss. Frankie laughs as he dips her and she sticks one leg out behind her like the nurse in the famous V-J Day kiss photo.

“Hi yourself,” Frankie says breathlessly. She stands up straight and smooths the front of her dress. Ed is dressed in his orange nylon flight suit, and his hair is combed and gelled into place. He looks terribly handsome, and Frankie leans in close, putting a hand on his chest where an embroidered patch thatsays MAXWELL is affixed below his collarbone on the right side. “I’m so happy you’re here.”

Ed looks around at the people streaming in through the front gate. “Looks like a raging success to me. You ladies have outdone yourselves.”

All Frankie has done is to choreograph a dance that her young pupils will perform on stage in about an hour and then again at two o’clock that afternoon, but she is proud of it. The kids who have been coming to her dance studio (which she’d christenedMia Perla, in honor of her mother’s pet name for her) are all adorable and eager students, and Frankie is excited to see them on stage with the music playing as they go through the steps of their routines for their parents and the other attendees who’ve shown up today.

---