The Sky's the Limit
During the war, we were all so focused on the end of it that we actually forgot what it was like not to be at war. Everyone knew life was on hold. It was always, when the war's over, our lives will go back to normal. We'll get to have all those rationed desires detained from us for so long. Coffee, sugar, even the soles of our shoes would change back again. Like Cinderella and the strike of midnight, the fairytale would be over. And those boys, whom we'd worked so hard for, for so long, would come home and our real lives would finally begin.
And then it happened. The war finally ended and suddenly everyone was making up for lost time by packing as much life into their post-war lives than what seemed humanly possible. Lives were swiftly filled with houses and babies and cars galore. Oh, how wonderfully impatient we all were.
Of course, even with all that living, it wasn't long before we had new things to worry over. Cold Wars and recessions and fears of nuclear holocausts, we just knew another round of doom and gloom was waiting for us with the world's fate at stake. It's amazing how we worried over things that weren't in our control or never even came to be. Of course, we also thought we'd be living on the moon by now or that the invention of the flying car was just around the corner.
Yes, we weren't always great at judging the future, but then again, we weren't always wrong either…
October 1957
"How much longer do we have to wait for this flying potato contraption?" Carol asked, bouncing on the balls of her feet to keep warm as Betty, Kate, Gladys, and Vera all looked up into the dark night's sky.
"It's not some starch hurtling through the air, you know," Betty huffed, shaking her head at the other girl's comment. "It's Sputnik. Some new thing they call a satellite that the Russians built."
"I read it means 'fellow earth traveler' or some such," Gladys offered. "Kind of poetic, I think."
They were all standing in Betty and Kate's backyard, staring up towards the heavens above, waiting for their first glimpse of the future as it crossed paths before them.
"How did they even get it up there?" Kate asked, crossing her arms for warmth as she searched the sky for any sign of the spacecraft.
"They shot it up there with rockets and now it's a scientific wonder circling the earth."
They all listened to Betty's description as it came out more whimsically than her usual cool tone.
"Well, I hope this scientific wonder hurries up, I think I'm getting a crick in my neck," Vera replied finally, rubbing the back of her neck as she kept her head craned skywards.
"Yeah, and it is a bit air-ish out tonight," Gladys piped in, pulling her jacket closer around her.
"Air-ish was 20 minutes ago," Carol complained. "Now nothing but catching your death could come from this kind of cold. They couldn't have done this in the summer?"
"It should be flying over any minute," Betty said, ignoring their complaints while her eyes scanned the sky with more focus than the other girls. "It's flying 500 miles above the earth's surface and traveling about 18,000 miles per hour across space."
"Gee, are they sure the Italians didn't develop this technology? I know one who could move faster than that if fueled by his libido or hunger."
Gladys laughed and looked over to Vera, who gave her a wink. "How is your Italian Stallion?"
"Home with the boys," She said with a happy sigh. "I have a feeling I'll be paying for this girls night out on a later date."
"Ah, yes. I know those family obligations all to well. They don't tell you about the missing vows after 'in sickness and in health' comes the part about taking his poker nights for your business trips away, do they?"
"You know it. Marriage, bringing you the barter system since the beginning of time," Vera replied back with her hands sweeping out as if she were showing off a prize while Carol and Kate looked down at them with interest.
"There it is!" Betty announced, excitedly. She pointed to the sky as all their heads shot up towards the stars.
"Where?" Carol asked what the other three were thinking as they searched the hundreds of stars shining above them.
"Right there," Betty said, pointing again to a lone moving spot in the sky. She briefly looked back over at Kate and smiled when she saw her spot the moving object.
"Wow," Kate gasped with a bright smile. "That's something special."
Gladys and Vera found it next and smiled with Oohs and Ahhs at the sight.
"I still don't see it!" Carol exclaimed, throwing her arms up when she realized she was the only one who didn't see the shiny wonder.
"Good grief, are you blind, it's right there!" Betty pointed as if it were as bright as the moon in front of her.
Carol squinted her eyes, focusing on the spot everyone was so enthralled with.
"That speck moving?" She asked as if she were expecting something more. "That's it?"
"What do you mean, that's it," Betty repeated, annoyed. "That's a modern marvel, right there."
"I have to say, it kind of looks like a distant plane moving across the sky," Gladys shrugged, now less impressed as she tilted her head to the side, watching its steady trek.
"Yeah, I thought it would be a little more glitzy or something," Vera agreed as the satellite's orbit fell just out of their eyesight in the backyard.
"You people are hopeless," Betty grumbled. The historic flight was over for them. "You all wouldn't know how to spot a scientific achievement of this magnitude even if it crashed down right on top of your bloomin' heads."
"I tell you what," Gladys chuckled at her friend's aggravation, feeling only slightly bad for downplaying the event. "Why don't we go inside and celebrate this historical flight with some of my famous martinis?"
"Now you're singing a tune I know," Vera smiled, turning to go back inside while looping her arm through Carol's. "Come on Carol, I'll even let you have first stab at the space heater, just as long as you don't try to burn the house down again."
"That only happened once," Carol replied as they made their way into the house behind them, their voices growing distant as they entered the warm home. "How was I supposed to know faux-fur was so flammable?"
Gladys followed them towards the house, but paused at the back door.
"You guys coming?"
Kate turned back and shook her head. "I think we'll stick around a bit longer. Marvel at the wonder of it all."
Gladys gave her a knowing smile before opening the door to go through it.
"You two try not to freeze then," She said with a singsong voice and a wink before slipping through the doorway.
Kate watched with a blush as Gladys disappeared into their home. She turned back to find that Betty was still mesmerized with the twinkling stars above them. She looked back at the house once more before making her way behind Betty to slip her arms around Betty's upper arms, pulling the blonde close to her chest. Betty sighed contently as Kate rested her chin on her shoulder.
"Tell me more about this Sputnik," Kate whispered as she felt Betty relax against her. In the dark of night, in their own back yard, they could have this moment.
"Ah, you sure you wanna hear it? The others seem to think it's less then stellar."
"I want to hear anything you think is worth saying," Kate whispered, smiling into the crook of Betty's ear.
The corners of Betty's mouth twitched upwards as she let the words warm her against the cold night's chill.
"Well, it's only the size of a basketball, but it orbits the earth every 98 minutes and flies over North America seven times a day," Betty began, lacing her fingers through Kate's, warming both of their hands in the process. "The rockets they used to get it up there would have taken more than all the bombs produced at VicMu during its glory days."
"Betty McRae, have you've been hiding this fascination with science all this time? It reminds me, I do always dig hearing you go all shop talk."
Betty smiled and craned her neck to look back at her. "Oh yeah? I guess that means when I come home and get on a spiel about production times every month, it must really get you going then?"
Betty was now the production manager at Royal Frigidaire, Canada's leading refrigerator manufacture. It was how VicMu's heritage lived on. Instead of bombs, they built iceboxes. They improved family's lives rather than destroyed them.
"Mmm hmmm," Kate hummed, turning her head to breathe in the aroma of Betty's hair, still half expecting the faint scent of amatol to follow. "You have no idea how seductive cold storage can be."
"Duly noted for the future then," Betty grinned, looking back up at the stars above them. "I guess good old Sputnik just reminds me of all the possibilities."
"How so?" Kate asked, looking up at the sky with her now.
"If they can send something like that into space, just think of all the possibilities. They'll be able to travel anywhere, anytime, and be whoever they want to be."
"Yes, which, I think that's why everyone's all up in arms about this new space race with the Soviets leading the way."
"Nah, I see it only as a good thing. It's challenging everyone to step up their game. To be better and reach for the stars like never before. Soon mankind will be embracing change and innovation… accepting what they once thought was impossible as fate instead. Those stars were hung as reminders of what everyone is promised in life. A future of possibilities, you know?"
Kate was now looking at Betty the way Betty was looking at the stars.
"Yeah, I do," she said, kissing Betty's shoulder. "The sky's the limit."
"Exactly."
Kate rested her head against Betty's as they both closed their eyes. They didn't need to see the stars above them to know their future.
Laughter from inside the house brought them back to their present though. A warm home filled with friends.
"Wanna go inside and warm up?" Kate asked.
"Sounds nice, but somehow I don't think what I have in mind for warming up is going to be found in Emily Post's Guide to Etiquette, you know, when one is hosting a gathering of acquaintances."
Kate giggled at Betty's attempt to sound proper. "Perhaps not, but we should probably go in and be cordial anyways. And to make sure Carol hasn't set fire to the curtains or anything."
"You go ahead," Betty said, holding Kate's hand up to her lips before releasing it. "I'm gonna stay out here for just a bit longer."
Kate took her cardigan off and wrapped it around Betty's shoulders, replacing the warmth of her arms for the next best thing she could offer.
"Don't stay out too long, you wouldn't want to prove Carol right about that whole catching your death theory … cause I am kind of fond of you, you know."
Betty looked back at Kate and watched her walk back to the house. "Yeah, yeah. You just keep me around for the warmth."
"True," She said with a smile, pausing at the door to look back at her once more. "You are pretty good at that."
Betty smiled back as she watched Kate slip into the bright glow of their home, the sounds of music and laughter trickling out as the door swung open and close.
She turned back to the sky, pulling Kate's sweater closer around her. With the warmth of Kate's arms still tingling her skin and the scent of her wrapped around her, Betty watched the stars shine on brightly above her with a smile.
"The sky's the limit, indeed."
A/N: This one is going to be a bit different. If I could snap my fingers and had the show last through the decades, I would do it in a heartbeat. I would love to see how these amazing characters reacted during certain times in history and how their lives evolved over time, so that's where this little idea came from. I need some help thinking of events in history for them to live through though, so if there is any event or time period or moment in world history or Canadian history that you'd like to see these characters experience, hit me up! I could use some inspiration for ideas, especially in decades like the 70s.