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“I thought perhaps you’d like to see your neighborhood from a different angle,” he said, smiling. “Come on.”
He led me towards the helicopter. It was bigger than I’d imagined, with a pair of long blades in a cross that drooped down.
“It’s great to see you,” said Alex. “How was your day?”
“Oh, fine,” I said. “The usual. You know how it is. How was yours?”
“I was in Toronto, actually.”
“Toronto?”
“Yeah. Flew down this morning by private jet. I was seeing some clients up there.”
“Clients?”
“For the hedge fund I run.”
“You’re a banker? I thought you were a club owner.”
“I am. But I wouldn’t have been able to get half as rich as I am without investing my profits. And along the way, I guess it turned from a hobby into a full-time job.”
“You became a billionaire…from your hobby?”
“I guess you could put it that way,” Alex said, and in the sun streaming down on us as we walked together, I thought to myself that I’d never seen him look so handsome. His soft, clear skin was glowing in the light, and I could see his sharp features and his fulsome lips more clearly. In the six years since we’d first met each other, I would have thought that he’d look older, a little less gorgeous than when I first met him. But if anything, he looked fitter and stronger. I guessed he’d used his wealth wisely.
We got into the helicopter, and he fastened my seatbelt. Then, he gave me a pair of headphones with a microphone attached to a headset.
“For the blades,” he said, and right on cue, the pilot switched on the engine, and the blades began to spin noisily overhead. But the headphones were soundproofed, and so it wasn’t too loud.
Alex strapped himself in, and then, before I knew it, I felt a slight jolt. I didn’t know what it was, until I looked down over the side of the helicopter.
We were rising off the ground!
I was amazed at how smooth the journey was, as we lifted into the sky and I saw as the shape of the land began to mark itself out. Before long, I could see the whole of New York from my side of the craft, the city below me, and the blue Atlantic ocean stretching out beyond.
New York from above looked different. Its gleaming skyscrapers and stadiums stood out and drew the eye in the evening sunlight. It felt so strange to imagine what it would be like to stand in the shadows of the buildings. From here, I could fit them between my thumb and forefinger. And the streets were long, wide, white lines running across in a delicate pattern, with tiny cars rushing back and forth. Like ants running along a trail.
As we turned to the west and began to move closer to Manhattan, the sun began to catch my eyes. Alex handed me a pair of shades, and motioned to a switch on the headset.
I turned it on, and suddenly I could hear his voice. “There’s Jackson Heights!” he called, and slowly we were looking down over the Long Island Sound, towards a tiny, green patch of land which I identified immediately.
“That’s St. Michaels!” I said. “You can tell by the shape of it!”
“Can you see the bridge yet?” said Alex.
I looked out, and there it was. Brooklyn Bridge, gleaming, a few traces of mist and cloud at its top, burning golden in the twilight sun.
“This is amazing!” I said.
“Wait till we get into Manhattan,” said Alex.
Chapter 10
Alex
Itreallywastheonly way to travel. And there was something about seeing the city at night, lighting up while we soared over Manhattan, that lifted my spirits. Even if the experience wasn’t as new for me as it was for Lola.
But still, even though I’d traveled a hundred times or more like this, it really was special to have Lola along with me. We soared among the skyscrapers of Manhattan. Lola laughed and started in fright as a flock of birds flew beneath us. And I stared at the city beneath me in wonder, as though seeing it for the first time through Lola’s eyes. Eventually, we touched down on the roof of a tall skyscraper on the southwest side of Central Park. As we landed on the helipad, I let the blades stop before I unbuckled my belt, and Lola unclipped hers.
