The Four Corners of the Sky_ A Novel - Michael Malone [62]
Sam patted Clark’s arm ironically. “‘We’ve got that going for us.’ But, D. K., is the King of the Sky mechanically sound for a long trip?”
Annie made a comic choking noise. “Sam, you’re a woman who’s owned—just in the twenty years I’ve known you—a Gremlin, a Pinto, and a Yugo, and you’re asking about good mechanics? Ha!”
“It is what it is.” D. K. spun away in his wheelchair, calling to Sam to help him throw on the runway lights. “Go, Annie P. Goode!” he yelled over his shoulder.
Clark masked his distress by giving Annie a wry hug. “If this is good-bye, can I have your Porsche?”
“No. It goes to Georgette. What do you need a Porsche with a souped-up eight for? You never go over forty.” Annie tossed the duffel bag into the plane along with the tote bag of food Sam had packed for her. “You okay, Clark?”
“I baked you a cake. You know how long it takes to squirt icing for ‘Happy Birthday, Annie’ out of a soggy paper cone? Too long. That’s why your cake says ‘Happy B’d’y, A.’ I figured, know what? She’ll think Brad made it.”
“You baked a cake for me?”
“I’m freezing it. So come back.”
She straightened her uncle’s glasses; one stem was taped. “Okay.”
He held up the Maltese. “Say goodnight and good luck, Malpy.”
Lightning lit the distant sky and thunder echoed along the tin roof of Destin Airworks. Jumping out of Clark’s arms, the dog raced off into the darkness.
Sam was wet through by the time she ran back into the hangar. “Annie, I changed my mind. Let’s do call the St. Louis cops. You’re right. Let the police find Jack! You stay out of it.”
Annie retied her shoes. “No, you were right. If we try to bring in the police, he’ll either disappear or shut down. If he’s got something to tell me about my mother, now’s when he’ll do it.”
Sam frowned. “Remember, you can’t believe everything he says.”
“Don’t warn me. I’m the one who lived with him. I’m the one he almost took twenty-five thousand dollars for.”
Sam sighed. “Oh, he just saw that in some old movie.” She patted Jack’s leather jacket, which Annie was now wearing. “What I mean is, you may not find out what you want about your mother.”
Annie kissed Sam’s cheek. “Then I won’t. Stop worrying.”
“When I’m dead, I’ll stop worrying.” Sam looked out at the rain. “So tell Jack from me: Don’t do anything stupid.”
“Like die?”
“Like die; don’t do anything stupid like that.” She tapped Annie’s nose and stepped away from her. “Either one of you.”
“I promise.” Annie climbed up onto the wing.
Lights on the runway glimmered in the hard rain. Clark stepped back to the little television screen to watch the red splotch on the Doppler moving toward them.
While Clark was looking at the weather report, Annie waved at Sam and climbed briskly into the cockpit. Sam watched the propeller turn over, catch, and the little plane head out onto the tarmac.
D. K. Destin’s growling voice crackled into Annie’s headphones when she reached the end of the ramp. “Tower One to King of the Sky. You got that big maple to clear. You see it?”
“Roger.”
“You always cut it too close, Annie. And it’s bigger’n it used to be. Wind gusting to 22 knots. Go ahead.”
“D. K., you don’t have a Tower One. You’re sitting in a pickup truck and you always say Tower One. Like there’s a Tower Two?”
“You crack me up, baby. Go ahead.”
She turned the nose of the rattling Warrior into the wind, pushed the throttle forward, squeezed her fingers around the plane’s yoke and headed it bucking in protest down the runway. “Don’t call me baby, you sexist child of your times. Departing runway 27.”
“Wind fifteen…eighteen, nineteen. Too much wind. Roger that? Taxi back? Taxi back. Roger that?”
“Negative. I’m good to go. Thank you. Go ahead.” The windsock flapped frenziedly. Annie had a breathtaking sensation—a kick of the heart—that she was making a stupid mistake and couldn’t even say why. She peered out across the airfield. There they stood, under the light, Sam and Clark, huddled in the hangar doorway, wet through, waving to her. Above them fluttered D. K.’s huge tattered banner with its hand-stitched black eagle