Chapter 7 #2
They stood in a small huddle, clutching the handles of their cabin bags and looking lost. The stairs were already up and the plane was taxiing off in the opposite direction. They were on their own.
“What do we do now? Where do we go?” asked Aelanna.
“It's not Kansas, for sure,” said Nayli.
“I’ll bet it’s Oklahoma—” snapped Kora.
Aelanna twisted round to face them, cutting off Kora with her mouth open. “Guys, we must figure out what to do.”
A dusty off-road vehicle with a large cab and an open pick-up truck back drew up alongside them. A young, gangly guy with messy red hair and matching stubble hopped out of the driver's door. He wore blue overalls, like a mechanic.
“Get in,” he said in an unfamiliar accent, jerking his head toward the cab. “Leave yer bags. I’ll load ‘em.”
“Wait a minute,” Kora said, confronting him.
“We two are travelling... onwards.” She jiggled her hand between her and Nayli.
“My friend,” she pointed to Aelanna, “needs to go to the terminal. Can you take her there, and us... wherever we’ve got to go?
” She glare-frowned at him. “Where’s the terminal, or is there one at all? ”
“Over there,” he said, jerking his head to a long low shed with a corrugated metal roof. “Only I’m the last one here. The manager’s knocked off early and there ain’t nobody else.”
“I’m coming with you,” said Aelanna fixing Kora then Nayli with a determined look. “I’ve changed my mind.”
Nayli gasped. “Sweetheart! What brought this on?”
“Are you sure? It’s not that you feel like a fish out of water because you’re out of New York?” asked Kora.
“Make yer mind up. I don’t got all night,” the mechanic growled.
Aelanna got in, then Nayli, then Kora. The mechanic loaded their bags and hauled himself into the driver’s seat, bringing a whiff of cigarettes. He started the motor and moved off.
The sun was on their left, casting the truck’s weirdly long shadow over the gently swaying grass. Aelanna was having an out-of-body experience, she was sure.
She heard Kora's voice, thin and uncertain. “Babe, you'd better be sure. Considering how you felt before the flight...”
The truck was moving down the runway at quite a speed when it jerked to a halt. The mechanic rammed the gears into neutral and twisted to face the girls. It was a stick shift, and they were crammed together on a bench built for two.
“I can take you to the terminal, or there... ” he said, impatiently. The last word was weighted with meaning. Nobody wanted to say alien ship out loud. He grinned, more of a leer than a smile, showing tobacco-stained teeth. “Unless you want to party.”
Nayli pursed her lips to cover a grimace. “No thanks, we’ll pass, but thank you for the offer,” she said sweetly. Too sweetly. He got the message.
“Take us there,” said Aelanna. She crossed two sets of fingers and squeezed her eyes shut.
“All. Righty,” he drawled, and they were moving again. He turned off onto a track in the grass, into the sun. It was hard to see and bumpy. After bouncing forward for a few minutes, the truck stopped.
“This is as far as I go. Get out. I’ll get yer bags,” he said, opening the driver’s door and hopping out into the grass at the track edge.
Nayli gasped. “But you can’t leave us here!”
He didn’t hear her, or he ignored her; Aelanna wasn’t sure which. Kora marched up to him.
“Where is it?”
He jerked his head again toward the north-east horizon. “There.”
Aelanna heard a door slam. She turned and watched him reverse down the track, leaving them alone with their carry-ons.
They saw it. A black shape on the distant horizon against a sky that was already dark blue and peppered with early stars. Smooth lines, sleek and elegant, glinting in the setting sun.
Waiting.
For them.
Not threatening. Just… there.
It glowed faintly and a heat shimmer made the edges ripple, giving the ship an other-worldly quality, which it was, of course.
Aelanna swallowed.
Would she get on? Would she go through with it? What would Brad do? He’d run a mile. He’d been scared of his own wedding. Well, she had a spine; she’d do it. Her resolve had hardened during the flight.
“That’s not on the departure board,” Kora muttered.
“It sure is, sweethearts,” said Nayli. “So… we’re walking toward the ominous glowing object? That’s the plan?” she asked, confused, awestruck, disbelieving, or maybe all three.
“We are,”Aelanna replied with determination. They set off toward the craft, their carry-ons bumping along behind them.
Kora’s bun had disintegrated, and her loose hair kept blowing into her lip gloss. Nayli was looking decidedly rumpled in her designer yoga pants and kitten heels. She glanced at Kora.
“You only get one chance to create a good impression,” she said.
Kora huffed. “Do you see hair and make-up? Anywhere?”
“Maybe they’ll have them on the ship.”
Aelanna stopped abruptly.
“Let’s lose the bags, guys. We can tell the alie— those guys — to pick them up with the rest.”
Kora arched one eyebrow. “You think?”
Nayli flashed her palms helplessly. “Well, we can’t cope with the carry-ons, never mind take the heavy cases over this.” She flapped a hand over the grassland.
They stumbled onward without their bags, pushing through the waist-high grass for an hour, or it felt like it.
When they approached the spacecraft, they could see it clearly and they stopped and stared. A concave saucer on three short legs, it was huge, smooth and sleek in dark satin metal, built for speed and traversing vast distances of space.
As they stared, a hatch opened with a sigh, barely a whisper, dropping and forming a ramp by which they could board.
A soft light glowed in an empty chamber with a door in the far wall, not bright, but as golden as the sunset outside.
It felt inviting, beckoning them inside.
The ship seemed to issue a dare. Go on, start over.
The warm, steady, almost welcoming light seemed to compel her.
Frozen, Aelanna gawked at the ship, and she got a grip on her emotions before they ran away with her.
Kora crept closer until their arms touched. “It’s beautiful,” she whispered. “In a terrifying, kinda in a please-don’t-abduct-us way.”
Nayli shivered on Aelanna’s other side, eyes darting everywhere. “Why is it so quiet? Why does this moment feel now-or-never? Why am I here?”
Good question. That last one. Aelanna knew her experience with Brad had left her bruised and determined not to be vulnerable again, but she felt the universe was literally opening a door for her. She’d be a fool not to walk through it.
Arms straight, fingers splayed, she reached back without looking and found both of their hands. They gripped her instantly — Kora warm and trembling, Nayli cold and steady.
“Because we’re doing this together,” Aelanna said. Her voice came out steadier than she felt. “And because running would be worse.”
Nayli muttered, “Debatable,” but she squeezed Aelanna’s hand tighter.
Aelanna couldn’t stop staring at the open ramp. She inhaled, felt both girls tighten their grip on her hands, and stepped forward.
Whatever this is, it’s ours now. This was their adventure. She would show Brad Silverman. Let him top ‘went into space'.
“Ready?” She looked at each girl in turn, giving them an encouraging smile. “Let’s do it.”
“Let’s do it,” echoed Kora.
“Here goes nothing,” Nayli chirped.
Gripping their hands, she stepped onto the ramp and into the ship. She didn’t have to drag them; they came willingly.
Take that, Brad Jerk Silverman.
Aelanna felt a new life opening up. New possibilities.
She was stepping into a future; one she had designed for herself.
But she knew she couldn’t do this alone.
It had been Kora’s idea: Kora had signed up first. She knew Nayli was running from something bad to take this leap into the unknown, but her friend wasn’t ready to share it.
It was only her two friends that gave Aelanna the courage to do it. They meant everything to her, on planet Earth and on the journey into space.
Once they were in the chamber, the ramp behind them closed with a soft hiss. Aelanna gasped, then Nayli. Kora’s mouth dropped open.
They had boarded the ship. Again, Dapkey’s words echoed in her head.
No going back.