Autumn had hair the color of amber fall leaves and tiny rust- tinted freckles spotting the crests of her cheeks. She immediately told me that was not the reason her parents had named her after the fall season of the year.
"It has always been my mother's favorite time of the year, and she would have named me Autumn even if I had black hair. She's from upstate New York, and when the leaves turn, she says it's the most beautiful sight. I've seen it a few times. We've gone back to visit my grandmother and my aunts. and my mother always tries to time the trips about midOctober," Autumn said.
Right from the start she was eager to talk and tell me as much about herself as she could in a single day. I think we were all like that, insecure naval brats, afraid that if we didn't get everything out quickly enough, we would not only forget but would be moved on before we had a chance to do it. Our friendships, which we knew would be short, had to be crammed full of events and information almost as if we were fast-forwarding our lives on a television screen.
Autumn's father was a lieutenant and an instructor in Heliops, too, teaching in the Landing Signal-man Enlisted School. They had already been at Norfolk for nearly a year. Autumn had an older sister. Caitlin. She was a senior in high school. and
Autumn let me know immediately that her sister's boyfriend. Jarvis Martin. was Vice Admiral Martin's son. He had already been accepted to Annapolis.
Just a little over five feet one. Autumn was plump and more chesty than I was. She had dimples in both her cheeks, deep enough to hold a nickel, as Daddy would say. I liked her immediately because of how bubbly and excited she was. Before I could get a word in, she rattled off a list of her CDs and made sure I knew exactly who were her favorite singers and group s .
"Can you come over to my house for dinner tonight?" she asked, gasping for a breath at the same time.
Mommy overheard and smiled. "Don't you think you should ask your mother first. Autumn?" she asked her.
"Oh. Daddy makes us dinner. He's a gourmet cook," she declared.
Mommy laughed and looked at Autumn's mother, who was talking with two other naval wives in the kitchen.
"I still think you should ask first," she said with a soft smile.
"Right. I'll ask," Autumn cried, and leaped off my bed where she had been holding court.
Mommy and I looked at each other and laughed.
"It's okay for you to come," Autumn cried. returning. "Daddy loves having another mouth to feed. That's what my mother said."
I looked at Mommy.
"It's all right. Go on. Enjoy yourself. honey. There's not much to do at the moment since you've already put your clothes away." she told me.
She knew I would want to take my time organizing my dolls and other important possessions. Daddy would have to put up some more shelving, too. I thought.
Mommy returned to talk to the other women, and Autumn and I left the house so she could show me around. The streets and the other houses looked remarkably as they were depicted in the brochure. Often the brochures were older and no longer as accurate, but these homes were still sparkling with a new sheen, the lawns and flowers rich and healthy.
I saw other officers in their crisp, sharp uniforms getting in and out of automobiles or talking to one another. Some gazed our way and smiled, others nodded, never losing their military demeanor. I was so used to men and women standing firm and straight. I thought most civilians were sick or deformed, slouching, moving with slower,
undetermined, and insecure steps.
As we walked along. Autumn rattled off the names of the families in each home, which ones had children close to our age. and which didn't. Although there were two other girls who would be in my class at school. Wendi Charles and Penny Martin. I had the distinct sense that Autumn was not very friendly with them. Wendi Charles's father was a captain, a fighter pilot, and, of course. Penny was Jarvis's sister and the daughter of Vice Admiral Martin, She made them sound as though they were very snobby girls who let everyone know how important their families were in the naval community,
Autumn had been living in San Diego, too, only from what she told me, this was the first time her family was living on a naval base. We walked until we were at a small park where some mothers were supervising their small children on slides and the merry-go-round. We sat on a bench and watched for a while.
"I bet you're tired." Autumn said. The way she said it made me think she was saying I was tired of "the life," as Mommy sometimes called it. Some of the Navy wives she had known thought of their husbands' enlistment as they would a prison sentence, looking forward to discharge and their entry into the civilian world just as someone who had finished serving a sentence would.
"A little," I said "You know how hectic it is to pick up and move so much."
"Did you have a boyfriend back in San Diego?"
"No," I said quickly. She nodded as if that was what she had expected to hear,
"Wendi Charles told me boys who know you are a Navy girl think you are more promiscuous. Do you know what that means?"
"Yes," I said. smiling.
"I bet you're a good student. I bet you're smarter than I am. You just look like you are," she said. and I laughed.
"I like to read." I admitted.