is your invoice. Everything is present and accounted for. It ended up being pretty heavy, so the fuel cost for this trip is going to be more than I expected. I’d appreciate it if you could chip in… partner.”
“Yeah,” she said.
As I started the engine and checked all of the panels, it occurred to me that things were beginning to feel strange between Mac and I. We’d never really gotten along since the whole ordeal with the plane. But still, there had been that lurking fact that we had been fairly timid and borderline flirtatious with each other before it had happened.
But now there was nothing but angst between us. It felt thick and sharp into small interior space of the cabin.
“Have you flown before?” I asked her.
“Of course.”
“In a small personal plane like this?”
“Once… when I was ten.”
I almost said I guess that’s why you look constipated right now, then but I kept it to myself. I really did want to try to make it to Queen Charlotte Island without us blowing up at each other. While I did want to get under her skin the way she had gotten under mine, I didn’t want to enrage her.
Take off went smoothly and moment before we left the water, a few small choppy waves slapped the floats. I noticed Mac grow rigid in her seat and I didn’t feel at all bad when I took a great deal of pleasure from it.
We had been in the air for twenty minutes before either of us spoke. I hated the fact that I broke the silence. It felt like we were engaged in a childish Quiet Game and by speaking, I was essentially admitting defeat.
“So your grandfather runs a business sort of similar to the Pine Way, right?”
“Yes,” she said.
I waited before I said anything else. She was being short with me, but she was turned away and looking out of the window. The cloud cover was minimal, showing the pristine blue sky ahead of us. The sea sparked below, the coast barely visible to the left. I guessed that Mac was either deep in thought about something or uneasy about the height.
“I assure you,” I said. “I’m a perfectly safe pilot.”
She only nodded, but she turned to me finally. She looked at me like I was a snake she had just found under an overturned log. I didn’t mind. She was sizing me up…trying to figure me out. I’d felt that same stare from several army instructors during my time in the service.
“Let me ask you something,” she said.
“Sure.”
“What is it that made you come to Sitka?”
I smirked. “Are you genuinely interested or are you trying to figure out the path of events that led me to Sitka and eventually buy a plane that you would have otherwise ended up owning?”
“Both,” she said with a sigh.
Everything came to the tip of my tongue then. I could have easily told her everything: who I really was and why I had left a so-called glamorous life behind. In fact, I wanted to tell her. I felt like I needed to tell someone. Before all was said and done, I was pretty sure the entire story would come up in a therapy session in the future.
But I wasn’t ready… especially not now. If I ever did spill the beans on who I was and why I was in Sitka, it certainly wasn’t going to be to Mac. So I fed her the ruse. As I told her, I realized it was the first time the topic had been breached with more than passing since I had moved into the cabin on Moose Hill.
“Call it a midlife crisis,” I said. “I just got tired of the life I was living. I wanted something different. Something unique.”
“What did you do for a living?” she asked. “You must have had a decent job if you could just drop money on this plane without batting an eye.”
“I batted my eyes several times, actually,” I said. “And yes, my job paid nicely. But the weight that came with the duties and the paycheck just weren’t worth it.”
“So you just ran away?”
“In a sense. And… do I hear judgment in your tone?”
She looked away quickly, once again staring out to the endless blue ahead of us. It really was a gorgeous day. It would have been perfect if the mood within the cockpit was more pleasant. I hated myself for thinking such a thing, but I wondered how her tune