This choice: I'm not the one you think I am • Go Back...Chapter #6Come to think of it, I'm not he on I think I am by: Aurthor   The door lead into the hanger attached to the back of the office. Most of the hanger space was taken up by a Heinkel HE-111, the open access panels and scattered tools surrounding the twin engine bomber indicating some sort of maintenance work was in progress. The colonel lead Lindsay passed the aircraft nose to a group of five women lounging in the chairs scattered in front of an operations map. As the colonel approached one of the women noticed them and snapped to attention with a crisp “Herr Colonel” and a salute. The rest of the women copied the actions with varying degrees of enthusiasm, most getting immediately to their feet and giving a somewhat sloppy salute of their own, although one woman declined to get up, electing instead to give a lazy wave from her chair that could maybe pass as a salute if you were feeling generous. The colonel seemingly took no notice of this.
“Ladies, listen up. I’d like to meet our latest recruit. This is First Lieutenant Lindsay Anderson”. The colonel turned to each of the women as she introduced them. “Lindsay, meet Captain Beverly Opperman, Captain Colleen Landsdown, Captain Linda Bray-Lewis, Captain Lorraine Peterson, and lastly the lazy ass over there is Major Lana-Raye Modsley, your squadron leader”.
Each girl in turn acknowledged her introduction with the same varying style salute they had greeted the arrival of the colonel with. As they were introduced Lindsay was struck by how similar in appearance they all were. All were wearing the same duty uniform as Lindsay, although given the game was supposed to replicate the feel of an air force squadron that was to be expected. What wasn’t expected was that all the women had the same slim build Lindsay had just seen in the office mirror. All had their strawberry blond hair done up in pigtails of varying lengths and styles. All had the same pale creamy skin and bright blue eyes. And all had the same need for double re-enforced blouse buttons. There were just enough variations in height and facial features that Lindsay felt that, given time, she might be able to keep track of out just who was who. For now though, the name tag on the uniform jacket was the biggest help.
The whole squad was unmistakably female. Lindsay wondered if this had anything to do with her current situation, and also wondered just how she could broach the subject.
“Colonel, she started slowly, “I, ah, noticed that the squad seems to be, ah, well…” Dam’d. Lindsay had never been good at awkward situations, and was having trouble trying to formulate the question of how she had wound up here in an all female squad. Unfortunately, the colonel suddenly looked at her watch and cut her off in mid sentence.
“Sorry Lindsay, it looks as though our last pilot is on her way here. I’ll let you get to know the others while I go I fetch her”.
The woman wearing the name tag of ‘Opperman’ came over to where Lindsay stood with her mouth still open, the interrupted question on her lips.
“So I bet you were going to say how we all looked the same, right”? Beverley asked. Without waiting for Lindsay to reply she continued “It’s the avatar base models. The127th was only created a couple of weeks back, and the programmer only managed to get two base models in before the application deadline. The Colonel got the Heidi one because she’s in charge. The rest of us, well. As you can see”. She gestured around to the rest of the squad. “Don’t worry. It’s just like twins. They may look the same at first but after a while you can tell them apart”.
“Or Chinese people” the woman with the Tag ‘Landsdown’ added without being asked. “They’re just as hard to tell apart”.
“Thank you Colleen” Beverly said irritably.
“And Japanese. Never can tell one from another.”
Beverly rolled her eyes, seemingly far more irritated that the simple remark warranted. “Yes Colleen”, she sniped “Thank you for also adding that timely and completely non-racist observation to our conversation”.
“You know me”, the woman addressed as Colleen returned as if nothing was amiss “I call it like I see it”.
“Then you should try calling it a little less offensive next time”. Beverly snapped
“Ooohh” Colleen teased ’A little touchy today, aren’t we. This wouldn’t have anything to do with your recent sensitivity training, would it”?
“That has nothing to do with this” Beverly replied, more angrily than Lindsay thought the situation warranted “I’m just asking you to show a little respect”! With this Beverly stalked off and threw herself angrily into one of the folding chairs at the far end of the room. The chair creaked alarmingly but thankfully didn’t collapse
“God”, Colleen snickered, “She is so easy to get a rise out of”.
“You shouldn’t tease her about that” The woman wearing the tag ‘Modsley’ lectured sternly. “You know how upset she is about the whole thing”.
Colleen rolled her eyes. “She needs to grow a thicker skin. I’m just trying to help with that”.
“There’s teasing and then there’s this shit. This event is supposed to be fun and here we are not even half an hour in to it and you’ve already got her bawling her eyes out”.
“She’s not crying” Colleen protested, looking over to where Beverly sat with her face buried in her hands. “Well, not that much” She continued uncertainly, seeing Beverly’s shoulders shaking with sobs. “Oh shit” Colleen was quiet for a couple of moments, then softly spoke “Okay. Maybe you’re right and I crossed a line. Or two. I’ll.. I’ll talk to her”. With that she stood and walked softly over to where Beverly was sitting.
“What was that about”? Lindsay asked as she watched he walk away.
At the far end of the row of chairs Colleen was trying to put a comforting hand on a shoulder whose owner wanted nothing to do with her. Lana-Raye watched the interplay for a couple of moments before explaining.
“In real life Bev works in customer service. Crappy job but it’s all she has for now. And in spite of all the shit she has to deal with she never let it get to her. Until now”
“So what happened”?
At the end of the row of chairs was Colleen was kneeling, finally having got Beverly to stop pushing her hand away every time she put it on Beverly’s shoulder.
“A month ago some customer wanted to do something that wasn’t allowed and when Bev wouldn’t help they played the race card on her. Typical knee jerk management jumped and sent her for a mandatory two weeks of cultural sensitivity training. Since it was the result of a complaint it was deemed an ‘unpaid necessary absence’. They actually threatened to fire her over it if she didn’t go. Never mind that she’s a minority herself and one of the nicest, knowledgeable, and most helpful people you’ll ever meet, and that she was following their own bloody written procedure. As for Colleen, well, she likes to take a tease too far. She’s a nice enough person, but her brain sometimes forgets to pay attention to her mouth.
At the far end of the chairs the two women were hugging at this point, so Lindsay decided it was as good a time as any to try and get answers to her own situation.
“So”, Lindsay began, gesturing to the rest of the women in the room. “I take it this is an all female squadron”.
“Yep” Lana-raye said casually, deciding that the passing crises had been a minor one and flopping back down in her own. “Colonel Helgameire’s idea actually. She had a bad experience with her last group and figured she could do better in a less misogynistic environment”.
Well, if that’s the case I don’t know what I’m doing here. I’m not…
“Herr Colonel”! came a shout from one of the other girls.
The colonel had returned, triggering another round of sloppy salutes. She was followed closely by an unsurprisingly pony tailed woman in a pilot’s uniform.
“Girls. I’d like to introduce to you the last recruit for our squad. This is First lieutenant Addison Garlander. Addison, this is Captain Linda Bray-Lewis, Captain Lorraine Peterson, First lieutenant Lindsay Anderson, The weepy one over there is Captain Beverly Opperman, the damp one with her arm around her is Captain Colleen Landsdown, and that unmovable lump in the chair there is Major Lana-Raye Modsley. She’ll be your squadron leader, if she ever get’s around to moving her butt out of that chair.
Once again each girl gave the new arrival the same salute as earlier; even Beverly managed a weak if somewhat soggy smile and flip of the hand. Lindsay was surprised to see Addison return each salute with a snappy, well executed salute of her own.
The colonel clapped her hands for attention. “Alright people. Lecture time. Game starts in 20 minutes so have a seat and listen up”.
The room filled with rumbles, squeaks, and groans as chairs were rearranged and occupied. After the noise settled the colonel began.
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