The Four Corners of the Sky_ A Novel - Michael Malone [186]
As they walked back to the hotel to look for the phone, he suddenly stopped and asked Annie what were her plans for the future? She thought for a moment and then told him, “More of the same.”
“Same what?”
She meant, doing more test flights and teaching more flying and hoping in a few years to be promoted to a senior officer, then to lieutenant commander, and then to commander and maybe some day captain…
He pulled her hand through his arm as they walked in step along the old sidewalk. No, he meant “personally.” What were her plans for her personal future, after her divorce? She said she had no plans, an uncertainty that, she admitted, ought to make her more nervous than it did, because she had always made detailed plans for the future. “I guess I don’t know.” She stopped, turned to him.
“Sure you know.” Dan leaned to her, his eyes intent on hers. “I know.”
She pressed her hand against his heart, listened to its beat. They kissed for so long that a passing pack of intoxicated college boys hooted at them.
***
On the balcony at Casa Marina, their bare feet tangled resting on the rail. Dan kissed the inside of Annie’s elbow. He pointed to the moon’s white shadow on the sea.
She looked at the full moon for a while. “Let’s go to Machu Picchu,” she said.
Surprised, he laughed. “So I can propose to you there?”
She moved her cheek against his. “No, I’m thinking maybe I’ll propose to you. Maybe I’ll propose tomorrow at Sigsbee at the BOQ. I bet you’ve never been proposed to by a Navy pilot at the bachelor officers’ quarters.”
“Just shows how much you know.” He walked her back into the room, fell softly with her onto the bed. He kissed the inside of her palm, the hollow of her neck. “Understand that I’m prepared to say yes if you propose. I’m practically yours already.” He kissed her shoulders. “Did you know Sigsbee Base was named for the captain of the Maine? That the Maine left for Cuba from there?”
“Yes, I did.” She kissed along the line of his jaw.
“Right, that was dumb of me. You’re a naval officer.” He kept kissing her neck.
“Daniel Hart,” whispered Annie. “You don’t know what dumb is until you’ve been married to Brad.”
His lips brushed the corner of her mouth. “Oh, yeah? Have you met my ex-wife?”
Annie laughed a loud long laugh. “Well, guess what? What we’re doing is totally irrational and I know, I know, it’s the smartest thing I ever did in my life.”
***
Hours later the full moon wandered into the window and awakened her. She wrapped herself in the white robe and slipped quietly out onto the balcony where she could see the luminous globe floating down below in the hotel pool. Someone had left a towel spread over a deck chair, white as a ghost.
Back in the room, the hotel phone rang. Hurrying to the bed, where Dan was sleeping, she picked it up quickly so he wouldn’t be awakened.
“That old movie,” said her father without preamble.“With Rosalind Russell; Amelia Earhart-type character, famous woman pilot.” His voice was raspy.
“Where are you, Dad? Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. Just listen. Flight for Freedom. Remember that movie I was telling you about? Where Rosalind Russell tells Fred MacMurray, ‘My Dad always used to say, when you’re safe…you’re dead.’”
How strange her father should keep mentioning that old movie and how strange that it had shown up on television at the Hotel Dorado. Maybe it had been part of some series on flying films repeated over the past weeks by the cable network. Or maybe it had been an old favorite of Sam’s and Sam and Jack had watched it together a lifetime ago at Pilgrim’s Rest.
His cough sounded tighter. “‘When you’re safe, you’re dead.’”
His repeating the quote scared her. “Dad, are you in a hospital? Go to a hospital. Where are you? Are you here in Key West?”
“Annie, when you get to Sigsbee Park tomorrow, you call their bluff. Full immunity.”
“What? How do you���”
“How about that moon?” He was swallowing his words so that they were almost hard to understand. “Your pal the moon that always came along for the ride?”
She ran out to the balcony,