The Jenny

The forest canopy, pierced by strobes of moonlight, illuminated Teddy's path as he escaped his prison of three years.

Most wouldn't think of the estate as a jail from afar with the mansion's nineteenth-century Georgian columned porch, stonewall, manicured lawn, and trimmed hedges. A well-appointed sign at the end of the long gravel driveway read, Boys Home of Americus.

What was Teddy's crime? The Spanish Flu had decimated his family. First, his mother had succumbed to the respiratory virus, and then his father from grief and whiskey. Fallow farm fields surrounded their humble house and bore the evidence of his father's withering heart. Fourteen-year-old Teddy, like thousands of other orphans across the country, became a ward of the state of Georgia.

The Tooley Manor had been converted to the post-pandemic Boys Home of Americus and housed forty boys. Mr. Tooley, a descendant of a once prosperous family, succeeded in resurrecting the dilapidated manor with government funding and created a house of horrors. Most meals consisted of corn mush with the occasional pork tossed in. Local woman's auxiliaries donated garden vegetables, sweets, and clothing but little reached the boys. Tooley's gross obesity amid the boy's skinny bodies gave ample proof of his crimes. The external façade of the manor cloaked corporal abuse, forced labor on neighboring farms, strict discipline, and severe punishment in the cellar for any rule's infraction. Tooley ruled with an iron fist, also called a crowbar. The iron tip, when super heated in the oil furnace, burned with unbearable pain on the boy's backs. Every orphan’s scarred back gave undeniable proof as new arrivals were branded when given Tooley's rules.

Teddy panted as he stumbled into a starlit clearing. Unabated moonlight exposed the fresh mound of red dirt, feeding his urgency to escape. He stopped at the unmarked grave and removed his newsboy hat.

"I'm sorry Jimmy. We waited too long to run away. But, Geez, why did you have to smart off at Mr. Tooley and call him a fat pig?" Teddy said and wiped the tear running down his cheek, "He won't get away with it, I promise."

Two nights earlier, Jimmy's cries rose from the cellar and shared the torment of the iron fist with all in the manor. The pungent scent of burned flesh inundated the air, and the wails of misery fell silent. Teddy never saw his friend again.

Hound dogs howled in the distance and startled Teddy back into the present. He wiped the tears of anger from his eyes and could almost hear Jimmy cry out in his mind.

"Run Teddy. Run!"

Teddy ran, only hindered by guilt for all the boys he left behind to suffer for his escape.

Dawn glowed orange across the sky as Teddy broke from the forest into a field. The tracking hounds grew louder as they closed the distance on their quarry. Surrender appeared inevitable until the silhouette of a bi-plane near an oak tree emerged in his vision.

Tooley followed the dogs into the field with his henchman and dog handler Marvin. The sky grew brighter by the minute, and the dogs howled with success and tracked straight for the bi-plane in the shadows.

"Boy, you come on out here, and I will go light on you," Tooley said, cradling a shotgun from his shoulder, "Don't make me come root you out."

"Stand away from my plane," a baritone voice warned from their flank.

A tall, lanky man in a leather flight jacket and cap stepped into their line of sight with a 1911 Thompson .45 pistol pointed at them.

"We don't want any trouble, mister. We're after a runaway from the boy's home near here."

"Tracking a boy with dogs and a shotgun? Drop the gun and pull the dogs back before they damage my plane," the pilot said as he raised the gun, and a round exploded into the sky. "Now!"

Tooley dropped the shotgun on the dirt, and Marvin pulled the dogs back.

"Take your shoes off and strip," the pilot said, "I think you came here to rob me."

The two men stripped and dropped their clothes on the ground.

"Now run. I'm going to count to sixty and start shooting," the pilot said. "One, two, three...."

Tooley and Marvin ran for the woods.

The pilot stepped on the wing, reached into the cockpit, flipped the starter switch, and retarded the magneto. He moved to the front of the plane and pulled the propeller down with force. The prop recoiled, and the engine sputtered to life, puffing exhaust into the morning air as the two naked men disappeared into the forest's foliage.

He checked the oil pressure in the cockpit, pushed the throttle forward, and turned the Curtiss JN4 Jenny into the wind. The plane rolled forward and bounced across the field until it reached sixty knots. Air lifted the wings, and the Jenny climbed into the sky as the sun broke across the horizon. Twenty minutes later, the pilot spotted a suitable field in the next county and landed. When the plane stopped, the pilot shut down the motor, sat on the edge of the open cockpit, retrieved his gun from its holster and aimed it at the forward cockpit.

"You can come out now with your hands raised," He said.

"Please, Mister, don't hurt me," Teddy said and stood in the cockpit to face the barrel of the gun pointed at him.

"Who are you and why did you stowaway on my plane?" the pilot said.

"I'm Teddy, Teddy Schultz and I had to escape Mr. Tolley," Teddy said, "He murdered my friend Jimmy and was going to kill me next."

"How do I know you're not a liar and a thief?" the pilot said, and "Why are your pants wet?" pointing the gun at his crotch.

“You pee in my plane?”

"I'm not a liar. I'm an orphan who escaped from hell." He answered and looked down at his urine-soaked jeans.

"I've... I've never been in a plane before, and I was scared. The bouncing, bumping, and noise made me think I was going to die. But anything is better than staying at the Manor house. Are you going to shoot me?"

"Get out of my plane and be careful stepping on the wing. The doped cloth tears easily."

Teddy climbed onto the wing and jumped to the ground.

"Where are you going?” Teddy said.

"I'm flying free wherever the wind takes me. Stand back," said the pilot, jumped from the cockpit to the ground, and stepped to the front of the plane. He pulled the prop down hard, and the engine spit back to life. A few minutes later, the plane and barnstormer taxied away and turned into the wind, ready for take-off. The plane didn't move. The pilot shut the engine down, stood on the seat and shouted.

"What did you think about flying?" he said.

Teddy stepped closer.

"I was scared, but it was fantastic," he said as the pilot jumped from the plane and strode toward him.

"I'm Charles, and I need help at the air shows. You're the brave type to take a chance, seeing how you escaped that maniac."

"What can I do? I'm just a kid."

"Climb your ass back in the plane, and we will find out, or you can take your chances walking the twenty miles to the nearest town."

***

"Opposite rudder, Teddy," shouted Charles as the plane fell toward the earth in a counterclockwise spin, "before you kill us both."

The Jenny stopped its death rotation, and Teddy pulled back on the yoke stick and leveled the flight path at five hundred feet. "Climb back to four thousand feet and let's try the stall again," Charles screamed over the wind.

Over the next week, Teddy learned enough flight basics to take off and land the plane. He also learned that Charles had a love affair with liquor.

They slept in barns when farmers allowed them or under the wings when they couldn't. On the eighth day, Charles told him to sit in the rear cockpit, pulled the prop, and the Jenny sputtered to life.

"Today you solo. Fly three laps around the farm and land." Charles said, "Do not bust up my plane."

Teddy firewalled the Jenny to full throttle and, at rotation, felt the wings lift the plane off the earth. He imagined himself an eagle and climbed toward the sun. At fifteen hundred feet, Teddy banked the aircraft left. A week earlier, he was running for his life, and now he experienced the freedom of a bird as the curved earth shrunk below. After three laps around the farm, he landed and shut down the engine. Charles ran to the plane and yelled out, excited.

"Excellent flying. A bit of bounce on the landing but you did it," Charles said, "You're now a pilot, congratulations."

The mornings were spent flying to new towns following the railroad until they crossed into South Carolina. In the afternoons Charles sold rides to locals for five dollars, and Teddy collected the money. They ate pork and beans heated in the can and tinned beef. Occasionally, townsfolk brought pies and cakes instead of cash, which was in short supply everywhere. One week they met up with other barnstormers for air races, acrobatic stunt shows, dogfight simulations, and wing walking. The crowds were enormous. At night, the hobos of the sky shared stories, whiskey, and whatever food they had. Charlie's pilot friend Doolittle, the de facto leader of the troupe, was also a master mechanic. He helped him rebuild the Jenny's engine.

On the last night before the loose-fit group went their separate ways, Charles and Teddy sat alone. The cool night air tempered by the campfire's dying embers made Teddy shiver as winter would soon come.

"Charles, winters coming, where will we go?"

"Little Falls, Minnesota is where my parents live most of the time. You can come with me."

***

Charles woke Teddy the following day. "I'm walking to town for a few supplies. Stay here with the plane. I will be back by sunset." He wasn't.

The streets were dark by the time Teddy entered the dirt streets of Aiken S.C. He passed the local high school and was impressed by its football field. He wondered what it was like to live in a lovely town like this and go to school. Gas lamplight danced with long shadows of darkness along the town square. Shuttered shops lined the road except for a speakeasy that bled its light onto the sidewalk. Jazz music drowned out the cricket songs of the night the closer he came.

Teddy peered through a window. Men in fine suits jiggled like they were being bitten by fire ants with a drink in one hand and a woman's hand in the other. The woman only wore half a dress compared to his mom's. His breath caught short when a dancer's short green skirt flipped up to expose her smooth legs and pink panties. Her short blonde hair, naked legs, and baby doll make-up wiggled to the music, and Teddy couldn't take his eyes away.

"Bet you've never seen woman like that before. They're called Flappers. The dance is the Charleston."

Teddy jumped back. A smudge-faced boy half his size was standing beside him.

"Geez, calm down, I'm not the law, but they will probably be here soon enough. I'm sure the preacher's wife is pushing her husband to go to the police as sure as I'm standing here. Ever since the 1920 Suffrage movement gave woman the right to vote, they have some power." the boy said, "You might want to disappear before then. I'm sure they are serving some of Remus Jone's moonshine which is illegal."

"Who are you?" asked Teddy.

"I'm Jamie. I live in the barn loft just up the street and clean the horse stalls," Jamie said.

"Why are you out in the street?" Teddy said.

"Nothing else to do. Tonight will be fun when the law gets here. They will bust some heads."

"Have you seen a tall dark haired man wearing a brown leather flyer's jacket?"

The boy moved away from Teddy.

"I think I hear sirens," he said, "You better get out of here."

"Did ya? You saw something. I can see it on your face, Jamie," Teddy said.

The boy ran away but stopped in the street and yelled back.

"Check the lane behind the building. I think he pissed off someone dancing with their girl."

Teddy entered a narrow alley between two buildings that could have been a urinal by its skunky scent. Behind the speakeasy, he found Charles between two overturned garbage cans in the delivery lane.

Blood trickled from his nose and blended with a fat lip. His left eye was swollen shut, and his left leg was bent funny. Sirens in the distance created dissonance with the jazz music coming from the building.

"Charles, what happened? You okay?"

"Ted...dy, is...that... you?" Charles said and vomited on Teddy's boots.

"You're drunk. We've got to leave," Teddy said as the sirens warbled more intensely.

"And you reek,"

Teddy half dragged Charles down the lane toward the high school until they were out of sight under the bleachers.

"I'm going to sleep now," Charles said and laid back on the dirt.

"No, we've got to keep moving," Teddy said.

Charles slept, and the police raid commenced a few hundred yards away.

Screams erupted from the center of town, and people in the speakeasy scattered like rats. Some ran down the street and were pummeled by the police. The blonde-haired Flapper in the green dress ran from the dark lane straight toward the football field. She spotted Teddy and headed toward the bleachers like a hound dog on a trail.

"No," said Teddy, "Not here." And waved her away, but she ignored him.

She slipped under the bleachers and knelt beside Teddy and Charles.

"You can't be here. The cops are going to find us," Teddy said.

"I've been busted three times this week, and I'm not going to that nasty jail again. Besides, it's a free world," she said. Teddy inhaled her perfume and felt dizzy. He liked it.

"Alright, but we've got to cover up your shining dress."

"They’re called sequins honey," she said.

Teddy slipped his coat off and gave it to her.

"Well, ain't you the little gentlemen," she said, "What's your name?"

"Teddy,"

She put out her hand. "Nice to meet you Teddy, I'm Jenny."

The up-close introduction helped Teddy realize that Jenny couldn't be more than a year or two older than he.

"And this is Charles," Teddy said, "He's a World War One veteran.

"I know him. I'm glad he's passed out. He might be a little mad at me. I'm the reason he got beat up. Jealousy garners attention and I used him to make the others mad."

"You caused this?" Teddy said.

"Not directly, but when you dance with a strange bull from another pasture the locals don't take kindly to it. It worked."

"How are we going to escape?" she said.

"We?"

"Yes, we. You're going to need help with him. He's a big man," she said.

"I'm going to go get our ride and when I pull up on the field here, you help me load him. Okay."

"You've got a ride up the street? Perfect. You've got a deal."

***

Morning bells rang from the steeple of the First Baptist Church and contended against the chimes of the Methodist across the street. Will There Be Any Stars in My Crown competed against No Not One. The Jenny's engine pistons clucked in sync as Teddy narrowly cleared the steeple with full flaps and glided down to the ball field. The wheel's first contact was in the end zone and bounced once. Teddy cut the throttle and rolled over the ten-yard line. The plane continued to the twenty, thirty, and forty and passed mid-field. The fence and gymnasium past the far end zone loomed ever larger in the oil-splattered windshield. He rolled over the opposing forty, thirty, twenty, and ten-yard line. As the Jenny crossed the goal line, Teddy stood on the right rudder pedal and pulled her to full throttle. The engine roared, and the right wheel dug into the turf. The plane spun one hundred and eighty degrees and came to a stop. Teddy taxied the bi-plane to the bleacher and shut the engine off.

"Where's the car?" Jenny screamed as she ran from under the bleachers. "Where is the damn car you were going to get?"

"I never said a car," Teddy said, "Help me load Charles into the front cockpit."

With herculean effort and minor assistance from Charles, they pushed him up the fuselage and into the plane. Sirens sounded in the distance.

"You think I'm getting in that thing?" Jenny said.

"Your choice. Come with us or go to jail. I don't care which because we are leaving," Teddy said as he stepped to the prop and yanked it down.

The Jenny sputtered white smoke and fired to life.

Teddy stepped onto the wing and put out his hand to her. Frightened by both choices, she surrendered to the escape plan. Jenny climbed into the cockpit.

Where do I sit?" she yelled over the prop wash feathering her short hair,

"In my lap," he said and reached his hand up to her. Jenny climbed in and squeezed in beside him.

"I hope we have enough space to get Jenny off the ground," he said.

"Jenny?" she asked.

"The plane, it's a Jenny," he said.

"Yes, seems you have two of 'em now," she said.

A 1923 Ford Model T with white PD letters stenciled on the side pulled onto the Main St. end of the football field. Two officers jumped from the car and aimed their pistols at the plane. Teddy swung the plane into the wind and gave her full throttle. She bounced across the ball field as bullets sailed past them. One pinged off the front windshield and cracked the glass. Teddy pulled back on the stick, and she climbed over the fence and cleared the gymnasium roof. The left wheel clipped the weather vane on top and spun the rooster. They rose to a thousand feet and followed U.S.1, parallel to the train tracks, pointed toward the Georgia state line fifteen miles away. They could see the police car following below as it kicked up a trail of dust. Charles had told him the police version of the Model T's maximum speed was fifty miles per hour. The Jenny's max speed was seventy miles per hour without a headwind. The Savannah River, the state line, appeared in the distance. Teddy waggled the wings at the cops, banked left to create separation, and crossed into Georgia.

Jenny's arm was around his shoulder and her breasts pressed against his head. He had never been this close to a woman. He liked it. Teddy turned his head toward her, and their eyes met. She mouthed the words.

"I... love...this," and then she smiled radiantly.

South of Augusta, Georgia, Teddy spotted Doolittle's bi-plane near a barn and landed.

***

A rat ran across the floor of the rancid motel porch as the Doctor stepped out of Charles's room.

"How is he Doc?" said Teddy.

"Not good son, it's been a week now and the broken leg is turning into gangrene. It needs to come off, but he won't let me take it. The infection is going to kill him," he said.

"Let me talk to him," said Teddy.

Teddy entered the room that reeked of decaying flesh.

"Why are you being a stubborn old fool?" Teddy said, and Charles opened his eyes.

"If he takes the leg, I can't fly. So, I'd rather die," Charlie said, "Let me be."

The following morning Charles didn't wake when Teddy checked in on him. A note lay on the battered nightstand beside the bed.

Teddy,

You don't understand, I'm sure, why I refused to fight death. Since the war, the guilt of what I have done has eaten away at my soul. I dropped bombs on the poor lads in enemy trenches where they didn't stand a chance. They gave me a medal. The weight of bronze is too heavy. I don't think I will last the night, and that is fine by me. I will finally be free of the burdens of this world. We are all brothers. You have become a dear friend to me, and I thought life could become normal again for a while. Now I know my purpose was rescuing you from your ordeal. The barnstormers know your story, and they have a plan to solve your dilemma. Talk to Doolittle about it.

Think of me when you soar the heavens.

Fly free wherever the Jenny takes you.

Charles

P.S. The Jenny is yours. The other Jenny? That's up to you, in case you haven't seen how she is enamored by you.

***

Two weeks after burying Charles, twelve bi-planes landed in the field a half mile from the Boys Home of Americus at midnight. The barnstormers stormed the house and overpowered Tooley and Marvin. Two hours later, they were led at gunpoint to the end of the gravel driveway. Bruised, bloody, and crying, they were bound to two chairs. Their handwritten confessions to Jimmy's abuse, torture, and murder were pinned to their chest. At two a.m. Jenny made the anonymous phone call from the motel in Hephzibah to the state police. The horror story would headline the Atlanta Journal for the next week.

Their work complete, the barnstormers hiked to the field for the grand exit.

"Teddy, you're free now," Doolittle said, "make the best of it."

"Thank you, sir," Teddy said.

"Because of Charlie, we are brothers, no thanks needed. See you at the next show."

***

Teddy landed the Jenny in Hephzibah as the sun broke over the horizon, making him think of his first flight.

"Thank you, Charles."

Jenny ran to meet him as he shut down the engine and climbed off the wing.

"Where you been, mister?" she said, "and where are you going?"

"Flying free," he said, "and wherever the Jenny takes me."

Jenny ran to him and leaped into his arms. With her arms around his neck, she kissed him. With their bodies pressed together, she said, "Let's fly."