The two shadowy figures seemed vaguely familiar. Because of this she followed them. They had gone two blocks when all of a sudden the taller of the two turned her head half about. The moonlight painted her features in sharp outline.
“It’s Lena!” she whispered. “Lena, in civilian clothes!” What did it mean? Had this girl been found out and dismissed from the service?
As if the question had been put directly to her, the shorter of the two girls paused and looked back. Just in time Norma dodged into the shadows.
An inaudible gasp escaped her lips. The other girl was the one from the beauty parlor at the Fort.
As the two girls resumed their march, Norma followed them, without thinking too much about the reason or possible consequence.
At the next corner they turned west on a dark street. Here, on both sides, were auto repair shops and cheap second-hand stores.
Scarcely had Norma rounded this corner when the two girls swung through a door to disappear into a shop that was almost completely dark.
Acting purely on impulse. Norma caught the door before it had completely closed. Pushing it a little farther open she slipped inside and then allowed it to close noiselessly.
At the same instant a thought struck her all in a heap. Lena had a perfect right to dress in civilian clothes on her day off. All WACs have. She, Norma, had chosen to wear her uniform.
“In a way it is a sort of protection,” she had said to Betty.