The Weight of the Stars - K. Ancrum Page 0,63

this land,” the old man began, “the locals told me I’d have trouble with inventory because it butted up against that trailer park—and they were right, I did. We’ve been losing crop at the back of this orchard for almost forty years. I chalked it up to maintenance cost and planted a couple rows closer to the office to make up for it. I was more concerned with vandals than anything. Even so, I’m a cautious man, so when the technology allowed for it we put up cameras. When we saw you hop the fence, we didn’t look into it. We’d had decades of expecting it. But when you hopped back over and left this, you caught our interest.”

He cleared his throat and continued.

“At the time, we weren’t sure what was going on, so we dumped it in the trash. The next couple of times we kept the applesauce and sifted through it to see if there was anything wrong with it. Eventually, my granddaughter—the young lady you met when you came in—was brave enough to try it.”

He tapped the lid of the jar.

“Forty years people been stealing my apples, and you’re the first to give something back. Something so good, you’ve got my wife trying to replicate it for the holidays.” He laughed dryly. “Yours is better by the way. I’ve always said it’s that much sweeter ’cause it’s got a little bit of sorry in it.”

The old man folded his hands on the desk.

“I’ll tell you what. You bring me the recipe for this, and I’ll give you what you asked for. It took guts to come in here, and it will take guts to get in the air. Consider yourself two steps ahead. You can call me Reed.” He nodded. “Now don’t forget to thank Molly on your way out.”

12 HOURS

Ryann met Reed the next day, before the sun was all the way up. The old man pocketed her recipe, then took her down to the place his company kept their planes for crop dusting.

They went over basic plane anatomy and some safety rules, then Reed pushed Ryann into the cockpit and settled into the pilot’s seat next to her.

“You’ve gotta feel what you’re handling before we do anything else,” Reed said. “It’s like learning to ride a bike. Once you learn, you don’t forget.”

They bumped along the ground violently as they rode over gravel and wood chips. Ryann braced herself against the door. Reed looked over at her and chuckled. “Come on now. Don’t be a chicken.”

They left the ground and Ryann gasped out loud. She half expected them to bang back down to the ground, but the plane sailed smoothly, cresting the apple trees and soaring up over the fields.

Reed laughed at the look on Ryann’s face, and she felt a pang at her pride.

“I’ve never been on a plane before,” she admitted.

Reed did that humming in his throat that Ryann noticed he did when he was unsatisfied, but he didn’t say anything to her about it.

He flew them to the edge of the orchard, then turned them back toward the hangar. He settled them to the ground, then hopped out and opened Ryann’s door for her. Ryann’s legs were shaking and they almost didn’t hold her when she stepped down.

Reed helped her the first couple steps, but his face was tight with bewilderment. “If you’ve never been on a plane before, why are you trying so bad to learn to fly?”

“I need to get somewhere, and this is the only way I can go.”

“Can’t you just get someone to take you? Jesus, kid, you’re white as a sheet.”

“No,” Ryann said. “I have to do it myself.”

Reed nodded, accepting that vague explanation instantly, to Ryann’s relief.

“Well. How did it feel?” Reed asked. He pulled off his gloves and shoved them in the front pocket of his jumpsuit.

Ryann thought about it for a minute. “Fast. Dangerous? Limitless,” she said finally. “It’s hard to be on the ground after feeling so light.”

Reed chuckled and clapped Ryann on the back.

3 DAYS

Ryann rode up to the parking gate. The SCOUT building looked very different during the daytime. Less ominous and more … like a regular office.

The parking attendant barely glanced at her as she leaned off her motorcycle to scan the brand-new ID. The light turned green, the gate went up, and she pulled into the parking lot.

This time she went through the front door. She passed through a metal detector, then was patted down by a security guard.