Chapter Four: Beauty Is In The Eye Of The Beholder

Dom took the stack of mail from the mailman. Throwing each piece down on the desk as he murmured "Junk, junk, more junk, BINGO! He sat down eager to open the letter from Cait. She had been gone five weeks now. To Dom it felt like a lifetime. Cait promised the last time she spoke to him that she would write and catch him up on her new life. Dom gently opened the letter and began to read.

It started out, "Dear Dom, I sure do miss you." She went on to say she also missed flying but New York was an exciting place to be. Dom laughed out loud when he got to the part about her eating gummy bears in front of the women at the magazine. It went on to say, "We were sitting down for a much needed break. I reached in my bag and pulled out my stash of gummy bears when I heard several of the women gasp in horror. One said to me"You're not really going to eat those are you?" "I said sure and ate the whole bag right in front of them. I swear Dom I think these women live off bottled water." Dom was wiping the tears as he laughed. He remembered how Cait always kept a bag of gummy bears in her desk drawer. String would get on to her about how they were just pure sugar. She went on to say she had made some new friends and other small talk. Dom noticed that she didn't mention String. The last time he spoke to her over the phone he could tell String wanted to know if she asked about him. He was being just as tight lipped over her as she was over him. He was finishing the letter when String walked in.

"That from Cait?" He asked as he peered over Dom's shoulder.

"Yeah, you want to read it?" Dom replied as he handed him the piece of paper.

String hesitated but decided he needed some kind of contact from her. He missed her more than he thought he would. He also laughed out loud when he got to the part about the gummy bears. He imagined that the women there had to hate her. She was the only woman he knew that could eat whatever she wanted and not gain an ounce. Part of that he thought was because she could never sit still. She always had to be doing something.

Dom took the letter from String and carefully folded it and put in his desk drawer. "I sure do miss our girl." He said as he went back to work.

AVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAV

Several days later Dom was in the office and String was under the jet ranger when Everett came running in out of breath. "It's out." He shouted. "Cait's photo shoot, I have the magazine."

Dom came running out as String was up wiping his hands.

"Here I got one for each of us." Everett handed them a copy.

Dom took his like it was an expected Christmas present heading back to the office to savor the moment. Everett was outside looking at his with some of the other guys at the air field. Dom turned to see String set his down without looking at it.

"Aren't you going to even open it?"

String was a bit embarrassed; he didn't want to tell Dom that he wanted to look at it when he was alone at the cabin. Dom silently understood his reluctance to share in his exuberance over the photos.

"If you don't mind Dom I'm going to head home. I'll finish this fuel pump tomorrow."

Dom waved him on. "Sure kid, I'll see you in the morning."

AVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAAVAVAVAVA

String finished his supper dishes and sat down on the couch with a glass of wine and the magazine with Cait's photos. He was anxious to see how they turned out. He thumbed through the pages until he came to the article about exceptional and beautiful professional women. Each had three pages that were dedicated to them. There were several photos that showed them at work. They were featured in casual clothes and at least one evening gown. In between the photos were paragraphs telling about the woman that were featured. He didn't bother reading about the other women. Finally he came to Cait. He was not prepared for what he saw.

The first picture was her in tan pants and a white long sleeved shirt that was unbuttoned low enough that you could see just the rounded tops of her breast, The shirt tails were tied in a knot around the front of her waist. She had on brown riding boots with her pant legs tucked into them. She was leaning on an old world war one Biplane as she was reaching up with one hand to push her hair out of her very beautiful green eyes. She was tan and it looked good on her. String smiled. That was the Cait that he knew and loved. He thought they couldn't have captured her better. She was sexy and cute at the same time. The caption by the picture read "Loves adventure" If they only knew what kind of adventure, String laughed to himself. Looking at the photo his heart began to ache. He didn't know if he could look at the rest.

The next photo was Cait in coveralls with a smudge of grease strategically placed on her cheek. She was by a helicopter with a wrench in her hand. The coveralls were blue and very tight. You could see every curve. They were unzipped all the way to her navel with nothing on underneath. Not much skin was showing but what you could see was enough to make a man want to see more. String grinned. By the look on her face he could tell she was not happy about the outfit. Her eyes were shifted downward which was something she did when she was embarrassed. He laughed out loud as he envisioned her fighting them every step of the way. He could hear her argue that no real pilot would wear such a thing. The caption read "Not afraid to get her hands dirty".

He licked his thumb and turned the last page. No words could describe Cait in the last photo. It was night. She was on a runway that had the runway lights lit up. Behind her was a lear jet. She was standing in front of the nose. She had on a white long halter dress that was soft and flowing. It had gold threading throughout. They must have had a fan blowing in the background, her dress was lightly swaying. Her arms were extended at her sides with her palms up, she had a long piece of material that was the same as the dress wrapped around her arms like a shawl. It was blowing back toward the jet. Her head was tilted back and her eyes closed. Her lips were slightly parted. String didn't realize he wasn't breathing. Never had Catlin ever looked as beautiful as she did now. She was so beautiful that it brought tears to his eyes. The caption read. "Hauntingly beautiful". No truer words could describe her he thought. The first photo was the Cait he knew and loved. This photo was the Cait he never saw and never gave a chance to love.

String continued to look at the photos for a while longer. It was more like he was punishing himself because the more he looked the more he hurt. He poured another glass of wine and drank it down quickly. It would take a lot more than a few glasses of wine to dull the pain and loneliness he felt.

AVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAV

A week later Dom was tinkering with a carburetor at the workbench when Hal from the salvage yard came in. "Hey Dom, did you see the latest on Cait?" He had a magazine that was geared toward pilots and flying.

"No Hal, whata ya got there?"

Hal laid it down in front of Dom and turned to an ad. Dom picked it up and headed back to the lockers where String was showering. "Hey String" he called out. "Would ya look at this."

String was just pulling his jeans on when Dom showed him the ad. String smiled. It was a "Got Milk" ad.

It was of Cait sitting in a fighter jets cockpit. She had the trademark milk mustache and was wiping it off with the back of her hand. Dom was beaming.

"She's pretty good at this isn't she?" He said as he headed to the office to hang it up with the rest of the pictures he had in there. Dom was starting a whole board dedicated to her. Her photo shoot had brought her a lot of attention. She wrote Dom telling him about her latest job offer. Lear had liked her pictures so much that they asked her to do an ad for them. She was flying next week to Saudi Arabia. Lear was trying to promote their jets to the Saudis and wanted to feature their country in the ad. They were a bit concerned about using a woman pilot in the ad in this part of the world but one of the top executives was a women. She felt it was time to break some boundaries.

String finished buttoning up his shirt and tied his shoes. "I'm going for some lunch Dom. You want anything?"

"Yeah, sure kid, you know what I like."

String headed out but lunch was not what he was really going for. He pulled in front of the news stand and purchased the magazine Cait was in. Getting back in he hid it under the seat then headed to pick up lunch. Later that night he would carefully place the picture in the album he had started.