by Skylar Finn
Trip finished the last piece of his meal and stacked his used dishes on top of each other. “It can go as far as you want as long as you have enough gas to keep the engine moving. Why do you ask?”
Keiko wriggled in her seat, unable to restrain herself as she gave Ailani an excited look. “What do you say we fly home?”
“Home?” Trip said. “Home to where?”
“Kauai,” Ailani answered.
Trip agreed automatically. It wasn’t hard to sell him on the idea, especially when Ailani mentioned that Hawaii hadn’t been affected by the EMP blast. Ailani, on the other hand, had reservations. First of all, she had doubts as to how safe Trip’s seaplane was, but he assured her they would make it across the Pacific barring any particularly nasty storms. Second, she feared returning to her father and asking for help, but Keiko said he would be more than thrilled to have both his daughters home again. Third, Ailani worried about what Walt would think. Since her concerns were stacking up, Trip and Keiko gave her three days to consider the flight, and she spent every one of them with a steadily increasing heart rate.
“What’s the verdict?” Keiko asked on the afternoon of Day Three. She drummed her fingers impatiently on the table where Ailani was eating a late lunch. “Are we going home or what? Because shoveling poo isn’t as enjoyable as Trip made it out to be a couple days ago.”
“I don’t know yet,” Ailani snapped. “I haven’t talked to Walt.”
“Still?”
“Get out of my hair, Keiko. You said I had three whole days to decide, not two days and a bit of the third.”
“Fine, but if you haven’t talked to Walt by tonight, I’m telling him myself,” Keiko said. “Trip wants to go, so if you want to stay here—”
“Out of my hair!”
She had avoided Walt for all three days, unable to face him. It wasn’t hard to stay out of Walt’s path. He spent most of his time with Xavier, catching each other up on all the years they had spent apart. Ailani only saw Walt at mealtimes, and even then, she made a point to always put someone—Trip or Keiko—between them so she didn’t have to speak directly to him. She hoped he wouldn’t notice her weirdness, but Walt knew Ailani better than almost anyone else. That final evening, he found her lying beneath the stars on the clay court of the recreation center. His head blocked out Orion’s belt as he loomed over her.
“Are you mad at me?” he asked. “I know you’ve been avoiding me.”
Ailani sighed. This was it, the end of the line. She had to suck it up. “I have to tell you something.”
Walt groaned as he sat on the court with her. “I kinda figured. Come on, Ho. Spit it out. It can’t be that bad, can it?”
“Keiko wants to go back to Kauai,” she blurted. “Trip came here in a seaplane. He says he can fly us home.”
Walt lay back and propped his head on his elbow like a pillow. “Oh. Do you want to go?”
“I think so,” Ailani said. “It’s home, you know? I’d be back with my family. And my mom’s spirit. We’d be safe there.”
“You’re safe here.”
“It’s different.”
Walt crossed one of his legs over the top of hers. “You should go if you want to. I won’t be mad.”
“You won’t?”
“Of course not,” he said. “Listen, this commune is my Kauai. I get it, okay? You always want to go back to where the memories are happiest.”
Ailani mulled this over. “Would you want to come with us? There are four seats in the plane.”
Walt rolled over so he could look at his best friend. “Sorry, no can do. Uncle X is my family. Illyria is my home now. I don’t want to leave here as much as you want to go back to Kauai.”
“I know,” Ailani sighed. “I just had to ask.”
Walt playfully tapped Ailani’s nose with the tip of his finger. “Don’t think you’re getting away from me though. We’re bonded for life. I don’t care about this EMP thing. I’ll see you again no matter what.”
She snuggled close to him. “I wish things were different.”
“So do I,” he murmured, playing with her hair. “So do I.”
It took one more day to arrange their flight schedule. Trip had to convince the camp council leaders to give them enough fuel for the plane to make it to Hawaii. In exchange, Trip promised to fly back with medical supplies that the campers couldn’t make themselves. On the following morning, they hiked out to the lake and uncovered the seaplane from where it was hidden. Keiko bounced up and down as she packed their supplies, but Ailani was more subdued. Walt had come with them to say goodbye. As Trip made his pre-flight checks, the pair of best friends spent their last few minutes together.
“This is it,” Walt said, tugging a strand of Ailani’s hair. “You’re really leaving.”
“It’s not goodbye forever,” she said. “Just for now.”
“I know.” Walt pulled her into a tight hug. “We’ll see each other again soon.”
Neither one of them knew if they were telling the truth. They only hoped they were.
“Bye, Walt!” Keiko said, all finished with loading the plane. She gave Walt a quick hug. “It was nice meeting you. Stay cool, dude.”
They bumped fists, and Keiko hopped into the plane. Trip came over next to shake hands with Walt.
“I’ll be back,” Trip promised. “Quicker than you think.”
“Take your time,” Walt told him. “And take care of my best friend.”
“You got it.” Trip turned to Ailani. “Ready to go?”
“As ready as I’ll ever be.”
She gave Walt one last hug then jumped into the plane. It was a small aircraft, with two small seats in the front and two in the back. Since Keiko had claimed the navigator’s seat next to the pilot, Ailani climbed into the back. She secured her seatbelt and waved to Walt through the window. He waved back with a sad smile.
Trip flicked all the important switches on the plane’s control panel, and the propellers fired up. The plane floated to and fro on the surface of the lake. “Everybody ready?” Trip called over the noise.
“Ready!” Keiko shouted back.
“Ready,” said Ailani.
The plane skated across the lake’s surface. Ailani grabbed hold of her seat and looked back, watching Walt for as long as he was visible. When he disappeared from view, she kept looking backward, watching the shore melt away. The plane tipped upward, its nose pointed toward the sky, and lifted off the lake. They were skyborne.
And heading home.
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