Chapter Text
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May 1942
The nervous ticking of a wooden clock above the door to the head office marked the passing seconds.
Judith Sanders felt awful. Her hands were sweaty from the heat and nerves. She was fiddling with the seam of her skirt, trying to distract herself from what might happen when she finally entered the door down the hall.
The door opened, and a busy-looking secretary stepped out onto the floor.
"Miss Sanders?"
Judith stood up, smoothed her skirt, and nodded.
"That's me," she said, beginning to walk toward the office.
Her nerves flared as she passed the other women waiting for their turn. For the last two hours, the door at the end of the hall had opened, the secretary had called a name, and both women had disappeared into the office. Five minutes later, the door would open again. Judith assumed the women who were finished left through a back door, preventing them from revealing what was happening inside.
Well, she was about to find out.
Walking into the dimly lit office, she was greeted by the man behind the large wooden desk.
"Pleasure to meet you, Miss...?"
"Sanders," Judith answered. "Thank you for inviting me, Mr. Thompson."
Mr. Thompson was a tall man in his fifties. His remaining hair was gray, and he had wrinkles around his eyes and mouth, making him look older than he was. Judith respected the man. She had heard of his heroic actions in the Great War, where he had saved many of his comrades during combat.
"We don't have much time. Shall we begin? You saw the other women waiting outside, I believe?"
He didn't wait for an answer.
"Miss Sanders, I have seen your portfolio, and I must say, I'm rather impressed," Mr. Thompson said, looking through Judith's folder of photographs.
Judith didn't know what to say, so she simply nodded with a smile that she hoped looked thankful.
"I take it you know where you will be sent?" he asked, raising his left eyebrow.
"I do."
"Well, in that case, I'd like to invite you to join our team."
"What— I mean, I didn't expect this to be so quick," she stammered. She had thought she would have to take some kind of test.
"Well, there was a reason for the portfolio. I just wanted to see the photographer behind it before offering a job," Mr. Thompson said with a faint smile.
"Of course. In that case, I would like to accept your offer."
"Good," Mr. Thompson stood up, and Judith followed suit. "Go with Kelly here; she will give you further instructions," he said, gesturing to the secretary—Kelly—who stood by another door.
Judith shook hands with Mr. Thompson, and he handed her back her portfolio folder. Then she followed Kelly.
Kelly led Judith to a room that looked much more inviting than any other room Judith had seen in the building. Various framed photographs were hung on the walls, and a comfortable seating area occupied the center of the room. The faint smell of old paper and ink filled the air. When they entered, two women looked up from their conversation.
They seemed friendly. The taller one had red hair, braided down her back, with soft features and warm brown eyes that reminded Judith of her mother. The shorter one had dirty-blonde hair, hazel eyes, and the prettiest freckles Judith had ever seen.
After Kelly had disappeared without a word, the red-haired woman began talking.
"Don't worry, she'll come back and explain everything once we're all here."
"At least that's what that lady said to me when she dropped me off here an hour ago," the blonde murmured.
"Don't listen to her," the redhead laughed. "Mary doesn't mean it like that."
Judith chuckled at the blonde's expression.
"Anyways, I'm Cecilia, but everyone just calls me Celia."
"I'm Mary," Mary said. "But Celia already spoiled that."
"I'm Judith."
Judith smiled at them. When she didn't say anything else, Mary started talking again.
"Talking doesn't come easy to you, huh?" Mary asked with a grin.
Judith felt heat rising in her cheeks. Talking—especially small talk—had always been difficult for her.
"No worries," Mary quickly added. "We won't see each other very often anyway after we get sent away."
"We could send letters, though."
At that, Judith smiled. She had always preferred writing over talking anyway. Excitedly, the girls exchanged their current addresses, promising to write each other as soon as they knew where they would be sent.
Judith put away the piece of paper into her photography folder so that the paper wouldn't get lost or damaged on her way home.
"Sooo, Judy, show us your photos," Celia looked at her curiously after she saw Judith's folder.
"Um, sure, here," Judith handed the yellowish object in her hands over to Celia.
Celia opened it, glancing at the photographs inside.
"Wow! These are incredible, Judith," she said, her voice filled with genuine admiration.
"Holy sh—" Mary had looked into the folder as well.
"These are so good! How the hell did I end up here when they've seen your photos too?" Mary asked jokingly, scrunching her freckled nose.
"Oh Mary, shut it, you make poor Judy turn all red," Celia scolded.
Mary flashed a sheepish grin in Judith's direction.
"Thank you, Mary," Judith replied with a smile. Since she had discovered her talent for photography when she was twelve years old, she hadn't gone a week without taking at least one photo. And although Judith would never openly admit it, she knew that her pictures were really good.
"You have to show me how to take these kinds of pictures sometime!" Celia exclaimed as she handed the folder back to Judith.
"I will," Judith said, tucking a loose strand of her chestnut hair behind her ear.
At that moment, Kelly came into the room again, followed by another woman.
"This is Nora. She will be your contact back here. You will send her the photos, and if anything occurs, you will talk to her," Kelly explained as soon as she walked into the room.
Nora smiled at them and greeted them: "Hi everyone! I would shake hands but, you know..." Nora's hands were full of packages and folders filled with paperwork.
She was greeted in return by the laughing Celia and Mary. Judith just smiled at her and hoped Nora wouldn't think she was mean or impolite.
Nora had dark curls reaching her shoulders. Her golden earrings shimmered in the light. Judith noticed that Nora had painted her nails red, matching the color to her lipstick and shoes. All in all, Nora was a very stylish person, Judith thought.
"Now on to the explaining part," Kelly said. She and Nora had just finished showing the girls around the building.
When the girls looked at her expectantly, Kelly continued.
"As we all know, you are here because you are good at photography. And that's just what we need in our paper.
To be more specific, we need photos of combat.
There have been combat photographers before, but we want to send women too. You know, it should definitely give our paper some more attention, and we really need that. All these other papers are sending out people too."
"So basically we want you to go to the front, take pictures, and send them back so we can publish them saying it was women that we sent to the front to take these pictures?" Nora spoke after a moment of silence had passed.
"Alright by me," Mary said.
"Yeah, sure," Celia agreed.
Judith, sensing that the attention was now all on her, said quickly, "Okay."
"Good." Kelly looked down at some paperwork in her arms. "I'll finish the formal stuff, and in a few days, you will get the further information in the mail."
The girls looked at each other, each of the three smiling nervously at the others, with whom they would work together for the next time.
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