Then she jumped up. She would have to get out of here, begin to face things. What things? Just any things. If you faced them, they lost their terror. They stepped to one side and let you by.
After putting on her hat and coat, she opened the door to stand there for a moment. Truth was, she was looking for the ladder.
“Hi, there!” came in a cheery voice as a girl in a natty blue suit and jaunty hat rounded a corner in the hall. “You’re one of the new ones, aren’t you? Close the hatch and let’s get down the ladder for a coke at the USO.”
“The ha-hatch?” Barbara faltered. “What’s a hatch and where’s the ladder?”
“Right down—oh!” the girl in blue broke off. “I forgot. Of course you wouldn’t know. You see, we are WAVES, you and I—”
“Yes, I—”
“So this place we live in is a ship, at least we say it is. This is not the second floor but the second deck. The door is a hatch, the walls bulkheads and, of course, the stairway is a ladder.”
“Oh!” Barbara beamed. “That’s the way it is!”
Of course Sally and Nancy had not boarded a ship for their interview. The “U.S.S. Mary Sacks” was a two story building turned over by the college to the WAVES. And it was up a stairs, not a real ladder, that the two girls climbed. It was all a part of the program that was to turn girls from all walks of life into sailors.