‘Anyway, goodnight,’ he said.
‘Wait.’ I got up off the bed. ‘I think I acted like a total fool tonight.’
He smiled. ‘Not really.’
‘I was flapping my dress around, having to sit on rocks and falling all over the place. I’m very embarrassed.’
‘Don’t be. It wasn’t as bad as you think.’
‘Are you sure?’
‘You were totally fine.’
‘I think you’re trying to downplay it now.’
‘Not at all. You were actually great tonight. Everyone else thought so too. Didn’t you notice how they all flocked to you?’
‘I suppose,’ I said.
‘Anyway, goodnight.’ He gave me a small wave and then closed the door behind him.
CHAPTER13
‘How are you feeling this morning?’ Andrew asked when I appeared downstairs in the hotel lobby the next morning.
‘Better than I thought I would, actually,’ I confessed. ‘I’m looking forward to the museum and aquarium.’
‘Me too. And I’ve been to the museum a hundred times.’
‘Me too!’ I confessed.
We climbed into another Uber. Usually, I didn’t like taking taxis. I preferred driving myself; I always feel that you have more control over a situation if you do, but it had been okay here. When we pulled up to the museum I couldn’t wait to get inside and had to physically stop myself from running. I could feel Andrew right behind me, and I could see that he wanted to get in as much as I did. We couldn’t pay fast enough and then, when we walked inside, we both exhaled slowly. I suppose some people might do that when walking into a holy, sacred space like a church. This was our church today. We entered the giant warehouse and, laid out in front of us, in a manner that felt like candy in a candy store, were dozens of historic planes. Some on the ground; some suspended from the ceiling, as if flying. I flapped my fingers at the side of my body. Sometimes I did this when I was excited too. When the excitement felt so large that it needed a physical outlet.
‘Wow!’ Andrew’s voice had a reverence to it. Very different from the reaction that other people gave when I brought them here. Whenever my parents came to visit me on a weekend, I’d drag them here. The sincerity of their ‘wow’s diminished over the years, becoming less and less enthusiastic, but mine hadn’t. Every time I came here, it was as if I was seeing it for the first time all over again.
We ambled around, weaving in and out of the old World War planes. It was incredible to imagine that, once upon a time, these very planes had seen war. I think war is such an unnecessary part of the human existence. War isn’t productive. All it causes is suffering, and in my opinion there’s always a more practical way to deal with disputes.
‘I hate to think that these planes were involved in war,’ Andrew said, as if thinking the exact same thing I was.
‘War is so illogical,’ I replied.
‘Completely unnecessary,’ he added, walking towards my favorite plane.
‘The Vampire 277,’ I said on a long, slow out breath.
‘My favorite fighter jet.’
‘ME TOO!’ Shit, I’d said that way too loudly, but the sudden and overwhelming elation of having my sentiments echoed by someone else was just too exciting.
‘It’s the twin tail for me,’ I said, pointing at the craft’s unusual tail.
‘I like the name too,’ Andrew added.
‘Vampire. It’s a good name,’ I agreed, and we smiled at each other. It felt like I could physically feel his smile. It gave me this hyper-awareness of my own lips and facial muscles. As if all I was as a person was a lump of lips and facial muscles. It felt strange and somewhat disorientating to be paying this much attention to my lips.
‘Let’s go outside,’ I stuttered, which was very unlike me, but my lips were not doing what my brain was telling them to do. We headed outside to look at the truly large planes, the ones that could not be fitted inside a warehouse. The sun was shining, no clouds in the sky, and the planes glinted in the light as if covered in glitter. I could imagine what they would have looked like flying overhead: silver birds. And the sounds they would have made! Planes are far quieter today, but back then they would have roared as they raced through the sky, shaking the ground beneath you as they passed overhead with their turbo jet engines. I liked that, the overly dramatic noises that some planes make, and sometimes on weekends, I packed a picnic and drove to one of the small airfields that light planes took off from. I sat and ate my food while watching and listening to them. The violent noises that the small Cessnas made as they took off, almost sounding like their engines were about to explode. I always held my breath in anticipation as they climbed, and only breathed again when I was satisfied that their engines remained intact. Andrew and I walked around outside for about an hour, before the heat became too sweltering to handle.
‘Don’t know about you, but I could do with some aircon and a cool drink,’ he said.
