“No, I’m alright,” he said, and then turned to Holly. “Did you ever think about going back home?”
“Back home to Scotland?” she asked, and Tim nodded. “You apparently have never been to Scotland in the winter!” she said, and everyone laughed.
“Well, it snows here, but it doesn’t stick around long. It’s a really nice climate, and there’s plenty of food,” Tim said.
“And everything works here, the TV and everything?” Izzy asked.
“Yep, we’ve got all the old classics on DVD, plus every known documentary from the History Channel and Discovery Channel. We keep ourselves pretty well entertained here.”
“That’s just so amazing. So the electric, is it enough?”
“It’s more than enough. There’s two acres of solar panels and three wind turbine generators on the other side of Bill Williams Mountain that feeds the whole subdivision. I’ve got all the other houses winterized and isolated, so this house is the only one drawing power.”
“And all the houses are like this one?” Holly asked.
“Yes, more or less. It was set up to be completely isolated from the rest of the world, and everything still works. I’ve got enough food in storage right here to last several more years, and enough seeds to last the same. I run out, I just go to the next house and get what I need, but I haven’t had to do that yet, and don’t figure I’ll have to for several more years.”
“So it seems you’re set then, Tim,” Izzy said.
“Yeah, guess so,” Tim said, looking away. “So you think you guys will find a good boat after all these years? Good enough to sail a few thousand miles across the Pacific?”
“We think so,” Izzy said. “And I can sail. I didn’t go to Canoe U for just anything!”
“And my grandfather was a fisherman,” Holly said. “He taught me to sail when I was a little girl.”
“Well I wish you all the luck in the world! But until then, my offer stands. You’re quite welcome to stay here as long as you want. I’m sure Robyn would love having someone else to keep her company besides me,” Tim said, winking at Robyn.
“Dad, c’mon!” she said, and then looked at her watch that Tim had found and given her years ago. “Oh! It’s almost 2000, time to go!” she said excitedly, and virtually launched herself from the table, bounding up the stairs two at a time.
Tim looked over at his guests sheepishly. “She chats with a boy in Tahiti on the ham radio. He was stuck there when The Event happened, and lives on his parents’ boat. Apparently, they were sailing around the world, and both his parents died.”
“You couldn’t ask for a better place to be stranded,” Izzy said.
“Methinks she’s smitten with him,” Tim said ruefully, getting up to clear the table.
“Let me help you with that, Tim,” Holly said, with a warm smile that sent shivers down his back.
They busied themselves with cleaning up, and Holly was shocked to see a working dishwasher. She stacked the dishes in it and made small talk with Tim. Izzy had excused himself, and made his way out to the living room where he was going through the DVDs so they were alone.
“So, you fly the ‘17?” Tim asked. “I thought you were a helicopter pilot.”
“Shortly after Iraq, I phased into fixed-wing aircraft. I have a thousand hours in the C-17, and fifteen hundred in the Hercules,” she said proudly.
“I’m impressed with you flying that contraption you flew here, all the way from Colorado!”
“Thank you. I do love flying. I always thought I could fly anything in the world, just let me at her!”
Tim put the last dish in the washer, closed it and turned it on.
When he turned, Holly moved closer to him. “Tim, again, I’m sorry, and thank you for your wonderful hospitality. I never dreamed this could ever happen again,” she said, reaching out and touching his arm, and he could feel little electric charges shoot out from where her fingertips touched him.
“Me either,” he said, and moved a little closer.
Just then Izzy came in. “Tim do you mind terribly… Oh, I’m sorry, was I interrupting something?” he asked with a sly grin when they moved apart from one another.
“No, Izzy. We were just finishing up the washing. What was it you wanted?” Tim asked. Holly stepped back and brushed her hair from her eyes with a mirthful look on her face.
“I just wanted to know if I could watch some of your DVDs? It’s been such a long time.”
“Yes it has,” Tim said, and Holly giggled. “Go right ahead and watch whatever you want. There’s beer out here too, if you want one.”
“The wine was enough for me, thank you,” Izzy said gleefully, and turned and went out to the living room where they heard the TV turn on.
“Would you like a beer?” he asked Holly.
“Sure, why not? I don’t guess I’ll be flying tomorrow.”
“We’ll go back down tomorrow and find out what’s up with your contraption.”
“It’s an Airlite.”
“Whatever,” he said with a laugh, and handed her a bottle of Miller High Life. “Let’s go out on the porch.”
They walked through the living room, and Izzy was already engrossed in something about the Titanic, and didn’t even notice them walk by. They sat down in the same chairs he and Izzy had sat in hours before. They were quiet for a few minutes, and then Holly broke the silence.
“Odd how chance works.”
“Yeah, it is. I’d have never met up with Robyn had I just kept driving and not taken a side road out of curiosity.”
“And if the engine on our Airlite hadn’t started acting up, we’d have missed you completely.”
“True,” he said, taking a pull of his beer.
“She really adores you.”
“Robyn? I adore her too. She’s been a joy to have around. But it hasn’t always been easy,” Tim said.
“At least she was thirteen when you met her.”
“What do you mean?” he asked, not knowing what she was getting at.
“You didn’t have to have ‘The Talk’ with her is what I mean.”
“Oh, there is where you are sadly, sadly mistaken,” he said with a little smile. “She didn’t go through puberty until she was fifteen.”
“Oh…” Holly said.
“You’re telling me! She was late blooming I guess, because of the years of malnutrition, so I had to explain some things to her. She already knew some things because she was smart, I just wasn’t prepared for it psychologically.”
“That’s funny!” Holly said with a huge laugh.
“I’m glad you find that humorous. It was extremely painful, I’ll tell you.”
“I’m sure it was!” she said, still laughing. “Karma was at work again.”
“What do you mean?” “Consider yourself completely absolved from threatening to shoot me down.”
“Okay, you got me there. I’d rather have root canal than to ever have to do that again.”
“I can imagine!” she said, giggling.
“I’m so relieved that you don’t derive pleasure from another’s discomfort,” Tim replied wryly.
“Okay, I will stop,” she said with a smile.
“So, tell me about Izzy,” he said, finally able to change the subject, and her face turned dark.
“We met at the supermarket. We were getting canned goods. His wife was already sick, and I offered to stay with him and help, and he gladly accepted my offer. I think we both just needed the company, really. It was so sad watching her go like that. He adored her,” she said sadly.
“Yeah, I can imagine.”
“They were together forty years. Imagine that, forty years with the same person,” she said.
“I know, I can’t. I couldn’t stand to be in the same room with the woman I married at the very end, and we were only together fifteen years. Going to Afghanistan for the last time put the final nail in that coffin.”
“The war has ended so many relationships,” she said wi
th a sigh.
“It’s the nature of our jobs. We’re soldiers, and sometimes we have to go off and do things we’d rather not,” he said. “So you too?”
“Yes. He was a medical student. Couldn’t understand why I had to go away so much. In the end it was a very tearful goodbye in Piccadilly.”
“Sounds very Hemingwayesque.”
“Aye, it was even raining,” she said.
“London always depressed me,” Tim said, draining his beer. “You want another?”
“Maybe one more, then I have got to get to bed.”
“Be right back,” he said, standing and going back inside.
Holly sat alone for a few moments and took in the night. It was rather beautiful here, she thought.
Tim came back out after a few minutes and handed her an open bottle. “Izzy is engrossed with that documentary on the Titanic. I could sum it up for him, ‘They build a big boat, big boat hits iceberg, big boat sinks, a lot of people die.’ End of story!”
“You’re a typical career soldier, the consummate cynic.”
“At least he’s enjoying himself. He looked terrified on that contraption today.”
“I don’t think he was enjoying the flight at all,” Holly said.
“Well, I don’t think it was the inflight entertainment. But you know how airline food is,” he said, and she laughed.
“I think he needed the distraction, really. He was a doctor for years, taking care of other people, then his own dying wife. He’s never really thought about himself much in the last forty or so years.”
“Yeah, I guess you’re right. So you really think you guys will find that island?”
“I don’t see why not. I have the coordinates right up here,” she said, tapping her temple. “I wrote them down when we got our avionics back up. I knew I shouldn’t have, but the place intrigued me.”
“I’ll say, enough to make you fly that thing to California, and then sail across the Pacific.”
“It is. Let me ask you something, Tim. Have you ever had a dream?”
He wanted to say a whole bunch of them, usually nightmares, but just nodded.
“I’ll go one better. Have you ever had a feeling you’ve had to do something, just have to do it?”
“Yes, I’ve felt like that before,” he said, becoming uncomfortable. He wanted to tell her about Paul and his island, the island in his dreams, what Redeagle had said, what Robyn felt, but he let it lie dormant. Even after all this time, he still couldn’t wrap his mind around it, and it chilled him to the bone, so he remained silent.
“That’s the way I feel about Volivoli. I just have to go back. I don’t know why, but I do. So that’s why Izzy and I are going.”
“From the outside it seems a little crazy, but I think I get where you’re coming from,” he said, after a pause.
“Aye, I agree. It does sound crazy. But something in the back of my mind is telling me I have to go there.”
“I think I understand,” he said.
“From the very moment I set foot on that island, something told me it was important that I get back there some day,” she said, and they looked out over the meadow, and watched the elk come out to graze in the moonlight.
“They are such magnificent animals. We’d see them in Colorado too.”
“You should hear them in the rut,” Tim said, thankful that she’d changed the topic.
“The rut?”
“It’s what they call it in the fall when they breed. The males bugle. It’s something everyone should hear at some point. It’s eerie when you hear the sound echoing through the forest at night.”
“Really?” “Yeah, I can’t even begin to describe the sound. It sends chills up your spine to think that an animal makes that noise.”
“Perhaps one day I’ll hear it for myself,” she said, finishing her beer. “Now, I think it’s time for me to go to bed.”
“Did Robyn show you where to sleep?”
“Aye, got me all settled in. She really is a sweetheart, you know.”
“I know,” he said, smiling again.
“Good night, Tim.”
“Good night, Holly,” Tim said as he watched her enter the house, her long, wavy hair swinging with her steps. He looked out at the elk again, and sighed.
He laughed to himself as he thought that he felt like a fifteen year old boy that just had his first date with the most beautiful girl in school, only to be left at the doorstep without a kiss. He got up after a while, gathered up the empty beer bottles, and went inside. Izzy was now watching something on the Glomar Explorer, a definite nautical theme to his TV watching, Tim noted.
“I’m going to bed, Izzy. You okay down here?”
“Yes, yes! I’m really enjoying your collection. I may stay up for a bit longer and finish this one. Thank you again, Tim.”
“No problem, Izzy. Good night.”
“Good night, Tim.”
Tim went upstairs to the master bedroom suite, went to the bathroom, and looked in the mirror. He cringed. He looked like his Dad. Not that his dad wasn’t handsome, he just looked old. It was the crow’s feet at the corners of his eyes and the salt and pepper hair that made him really look old. Where was that eighteen year old private? He put his hand on his stomach at the slight paunch he had going, knowing that no matter how many crunches or sit-ups he did, he’d never get rid of it because it was hereditary. What would Holly want with him, this old, broke-dick soldier that was past his prime? He sighed and stripped, taking a long, hot shower, letting the hot water knead the knots in his muscles until they felt better. Getting out, he shaved and brushed his teeth, then donned a ratty old pair of shorts, turned off the lights and crawled into bed. He lay there for some time, and the moonlight lit up the room almost like daylight. He watched the shadows march across the wall for what seemed like forever before falling asleep.
He didn’t know how long he was asleep when he felt the bed move, the covers being lifted, then warm soft skin against his. He rolled over and faced Holly, who just smiled at him in the darkness, took his face in her hands and kissed him gently. He was stunned at first, then his body reacted the way it should, and he took her in his arms and kissed her back, slowly at first, then more insistently. When it was all over, he lay back with her head on his chest, his fingers lazily playing with her hair.
She held him tightly for a long time, then she finally spoke. “It has been a long time.”
“That it has. I wasn’t sure everything would work,” he said.
“Oh, I believe everything worked wonderfully!” she said, kissing his chest, working up to his lips, and kissing him there, longingly.
“I’d almost forgotten what it was like,” he said.
“It’s like riding a bicycle.”
“It’s a whole lot nicer than riding a bike,” he said, kissing her again, his hand travelling down her back.
“I hope you don’t think I’m some slag for crawling into your bed like this.”
“No, not at all, I was really hoping you would, actually.”
“Were you, now?” she asked, playing her hands lower on his body.
“Yes. All evening I felt like a schoolboy,” he said.
“I never just hopped into the sack with anyone before tonight. You… well, you’re different.” She traced a line with her finger up his chest, and then found the dime-sized hole in his left shoulder. “This is a nasty scar.”
“Yeah, it was from when the guy took Robyn.”
“Shotgun?” she asked. “Lucky it didn’t take your bloody head off.”
“Yes,” he said, pulling her closer.
“You’d take a bullet for her again, wouldn’t you?”
“In a New York minute I would,” he said, and she put her head back down on his chest, and squeezed him tightly again for a long time.
“Do you still think I’m a pompous British fuck?”
“Well, you certainly aren’t pompous,” he said, and she smacked him playfully.
“You�
��re so naughty!” she stated, and bit his nipple.
“Yes I am,” he said, kissing her again. “And I think I might be able to be naughty again here in a few minutes.”
“Really supercharged, are we?”
“Yes,” he said, rolling on top of her and showing her…
They fell asleep later, her lying on her right side, Tim behind her with his right arm around her, holding her tightly. It was well after sunup when they were both awakened by the smell of breakfast cooking. He toyed with her buttocks and she slowly stretched, rolling over into his arms.
“Good morning!” she said, with a sleepy smile.
“And a very good morning to you, too,” he said and pulled her close.
“I smell something wonderful.”
“I think breakfast can wait a little bit, how about you?” he asked with a mischievous grin.
“You are so naughty!” she said and kissed him. Breakfast did wait for them…
Chapter 18: Fly the Friendly Skies
After that night, by unspoken agreement Holly moved into Tim’s room, and she and Izzy decided to stay for a while, at least for the summer. They both settled in quite nicely, and Holly became not so much a surrogate mom, but more like a big sister to Robyn. Izzy was like a grandfather, and she adored them both. Tim had tried to fix the engine on the Airlite, but the carburetor was too gummed up from the bad gasoline to make it work correctly. In the end, they folded the wings and pushed the tiny aircraft into an empty bay of the local fire department’s house, Tim not having a clue where the missing fire engine was. They spent most days lazily, but sometimes Tim would go out and cut fresh firewood that he’d stack and let dry to split later with the hydraulic log splitter that was in the barn, preparing for the next winter. They made several trips to Flagstaff to get Izzy and Holly some more clothes, because they had so few belongings they could fit onto the Airlite.
One day, after a conversation about the Grand Canyon, Tim packed up some camping equipment and a picnic lunch, and they all went down to the railway depot. Tim fired up a small machine he said was called a ‘Speeder’, although he didn’t know why, because it would only go about ten miles an hour. It was a little boxy thing with a tiny diesel engine in it, but it seated them all comfortably and they rode the rails in it all the way to the south rim. Tim had been there years ago, but the other three had only seen photos, and were blown away by the sheer magnitude and beauty that lay before them. They camped out that night, and headed back to Williams the next day, completely satisfied with the trip.
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