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She heard his voice, but the signal was breaking up badly. It was crackling in and out loudly, causing her to wince… only to see him nod. He pulled the jack, plugged it back in, and adjusted the little microphone before his lips.
“Can you hear me now, Em?”
“Yes.”
“Where do you want to go?”
“Me?” she balked in disbelief. “I thought you had an idea of where you wanted to go?”
“Well, sorta… but it was more of a curiosity, not really a…”
“Indulge in the curiosity then,” she smiled. “I have no plans except to peer out this window and take lots of photos.”
“You don’t mind? I mean, I could take you to Houston, Austin, New Orleans…”
“Where were you wanting to go?”
“Honestly? I was going to circle as low as possible to see if I could see my old place where I grew up,” he admitted, but there was a catch in his voice. “I mean, it’s a dump and we were dirt poor… like, literally dirt poor… but I’m curious to see if it’s still standing.”
“Where did you grow up?” she asked, honestly surprised at the sensitive nostalgia she saw on his face. “Can we land so you can look around?”
“What? Oh no,” he chuckled, looking extremely embarrassed. “There’s nothing there I’d want to show you except the bayou… but we are not going out there at night. I figure we could fly over just before dusk, and it would be the perfect time to see it.”
“The bayou?”
“Yeah.”
“Why did you leave?” she asked, wanting to get to know him better, and suddenly very curious about the man before her.
“Involuntarily,” he admitted and looked away. “It’s not a good story, and the things that would have kept me there, disappeared a long time ago. Now I’m just curious to see if someone developed the place, or if you can still see the moss hanging from the trees.”
They were both silent for several minutes as she gazed at the ground below before hearing him speak again.
“Do you mind terribly? It’s not the most impressive place, but it’s unforgettable… or at least to me it once was long ago.”
Emily looked at him in surprise that he would ask.
“Not at all,” she began, seeing him relax. “I can’t wait to see it.”
He nodded silently… and she felt him touch her hand, lacing his fingers with hers as they flew, both just enjoying the views and being together there.
It was some time before either of them spoke again, still holding hands as they flew over the land dotted with what looked like thousands of lakes to her left and the glistening ocean to her right.
“It’s so different from Tyler…” she breathed.
“You should see Afghanistan,” he joked, and then hesitated. “Actually no – you really shouldn’t. I would be beside myself if you showed up.”
“What’s it like?”
“Dry,” he said bluntly, and then laughed. “In the summer, think of the most blistering afternoon you can imagine…”
“I can imagine quite a bit…”
“Okay,” he chuckled… “Now add sand with not as much humidity.”
“So, like a convection oven?”
“Kinda… now at nightfall, it cools significantly. The sunsets are incredible, with so many different shades of gold over the mountains in the distance, that melt into a deep burnished copper right before fading into blue… that’s when all the creatures come out. Spiders, snakes, scorpions…”
