It's 1933, the airline business is just getting started, and Beatty's in on it all

AIRFIELD - A New York Public Library Book for the Teen Age

AIRFIELD

by Jeanette Ingold

Chapter 1

"Airfield?" The old guy sorting radiator caps in front of Joe's Texas Auto Parts sends a dented cap spinning to a junk heap. "You goin' flyin', young lady?"

"I wish I were! But I'm just taking a late lunch to my uncle. He's filling in for the station manager."

"I guessed you was new here. That turn's another mile on."

"Oh..." I rub the back of my neck, lifting away hair wet with perspiration. Dark patches of sweat pock the front of my dress. "I'd hoped I was closer."

Out on the otherwise empty highway, a worn automobile struggles our way. Its outside bristles with tied-on house goods, and the inside is packed with people. Depression migrants, I suppose, like half the world seems to be this June of 1933.

"I reckon," Joe says, "you could take that old farm track past my billboard. It'd be a bit of a shortcut."

There's the sudden craack of a tire blowing out, and the car we've been watching lurches to a lopsided halt.

The first out is a boy who looks to be a couple of years older than me, perhaps nearer seventeen than my almost-fifteen. Dirt poor...It's a fleeting thought, gone as fast as I can feel bad for thinking it.

But, truthfully, he does look about as ragtag as the vehicle itself.

"They ain't gonna have no money," Joe says, as though he's already hearing the whole conversation, him trying to sell a replacement and the family wanting whatever threadbare tire he'll give for free.

"Yeah. Well," I answer, feeling for him and them both, "I ought to be getting along. Will that shortcut take me straight to the airport?"

"Close enough, anyway."

AIRFIELD by Jeanette Ingold

A novel for teen readers · Historical fiction at its best