“Level two.”
No one moved.
“Level one.”
Everyone held their breath.
“You are now exiting the facility. Have a nice day!”
“I programmed her to say that.” Conrad shrugged. “It sounds more friendly, don’t you think?”
CLICK. Slowly the doors retracted. The lobby was all steel walls and marble floors, as quiet and still as a church. Trembling, they moved forward to embrace their freedom. At the last and final door leading to their release, though, there was hesitation.
“You go first, Piper.” Conrad stepped aside and reached for the door to give her first passage. “You deserve it. If it weren’t for you, none of us would be here.”
“Sure you would. I just told you what you already knew. There wasn’t nothing to that.”
“There was if we didn’t know we knew it,” Violet assured her.
“Here goes.” Conrad swung the door open wide.
Standing before them, barring the way, and to the shock and horror of all, was none other than Letitia Hellion.
CHAPTER TWENTY
LETITIA HELLION was not poised and definitely not pretty. Clutching a military-grade stun baton in her scratched and bleeding hands, she swung it violently back and forth. Her hair wildly uncoiled out of rigid pins, her clothes were dirty and ripped from a to-the-death struggle to escape her cell, and she sported an insane look in her rolling eyes that was anything but practiced.
“You!!!” Dr. Hellion advanced on Piper menacingly, swinging the baton erratically. Piper instinctively flew several feet into the air and dodged back and forth to avoid the electricity of the baton.
“You will return to your room where you belong. None of you are going anywhere. Get back. Get back.” Letitia aimed at Jasper and sent electrical voltage pumping through him. Jasper fell to the floor, out cold.
“Ahh,” Lily yelped and jumped back.
Myrtle took advantage of an opening and easily zipped past Letitia and out through the open doors. Ahmed and Nalen dodged, but Letitia was on a rampage, grabbing and hitting. Kids scattered like frightened mice. Kimber boldly charged forth to battle, but the electricity shooting from her fingers collided with the electricity from the baton and she was short-circuited. In a burst of electrical fireworks Kimber was thrown to the ground, singed and smoking. Conrad took advantage of the commotion to dart out. Daisy was grounded next, like a bull in a slaughterhouse. Piper dodged, but Letitia was supernaturally agile and seized hold of her ankle.
“You can’t fly. Do you hear me? You are sick and you need help. I WILL HELP YOU.” Letitia dug her feet into the ground to stop Piper from flying away. Piper fought back and propelled her way out of the shack, dragging Letitia’s dead weight behind her.
“Please, Dr. Hellion, you gotta let me go.” Piper lugged the fighting Dr. Hellion.
Letitia yanked her down with a vengeance.
“I will save you, Piper McCloud, if it’s the last thing I do.”
Piper pulled up. Letitia pulled down. Little by little, Piper towed Letitia Hellion off of the ground. And while the sky was the one place that Piper felt safe, it was also the only place where she would be unable to receive any help from the others, who remained land bound. Chasing after them in vain, Conrad, Myrtle, and Violet were rendered helpless spectators as Piper ascended out of reach.
“I won’t ever let you go. I won’t stop. Ever.” With a failing grasp, Letitia Hellion doggedly held on for all she was worth.
“Ahhh.” Piper was being pulled apart like taffy. Win or lose, she would be several inches taller by the time this was done. Piper reached six yards above the ground. Then seven. Then eight.
“Arrrrrrghhhhh.” Letitia Hellion roared beneath her, a demon wrestling her back to the clutches of the dark underworld.
Letitia’s little finger slipped away from Piper’s ankle and she cursed it. The neighboring finger betrayed her next and she damned it. A moment later she could only count on the allegiance of her index finger and thumb to latch firmly around Piper’s ankle. But then their loyalty was called into question.
Piper reached ever upward, her eyes only for the sky. Her heart welled with the words.
I’m as light as a cloud, as free as a bird.
I’m part of the sky and I can fly.
Nine yards up. They were quickly reaching the breaking point.
At ten yards the flagging resources of the exhausted index finger and thumb gave out.
Freed, Piper rocketed upward.
“NOOOOOOOO!” Letitia raged with the force of every emotion she’d ever repressed. Which, it must be noted, was a ridiculously large amount. Some might say it was even incalculable. Unleashed, the rejected and abandoned feelings chemically combusted in a cellular firestorm. It was so catastrophic that Letitia Hellion’s mind and emotions, long distant strangers, were welded back together. The abrupt reintroduction after such a complete and rigid disassociation was brutal. Like a migraine of the DNA.
“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!” Letitia Hellion directed her pain at Piper McCloud.
Smitty saw it first, as he usually did. “Conrad, are you seeing what I’m seeing?”
Conrad was indeed seeing. All of them were. It was shocking. It was terrible. It could almost not even be explained. And yet, Conrad was somehow not surprised. Everything now made sense.
“Piper, watch out!” Violet screamed.
Piper glanced over her shoulder and was so stunned, she did a double take. I’ll be! That’s near about the prettiest thing I ever saw! At last Piper had found what she’d always been looking for and her first instinct was to stop dead.
Dr. Letitia Hellion could fly.
At that moment Letitia was flying fast and with a burning fervor—it was a sight to behold.
The look of unadulterated rage splashed across Letitia Hellion’s face woke Piper from her fantasy of an impromptu fliers reunion, and propelled her to beat a hasty getaway.
“Get back here!” Letitia Hellion stayed on Piper’s tail, getting ever closer.
“Dr. Hellion, please. Just let me be.” Piper twisted and turned. Their aerial acrobatics took them farther and farther due north, leaving the shack and watching children far behind.
Letitia Hellion flew like the wind—or a demon, depending upon your perspective. She was agile too. It was obvious to Piper that she wasn’t going to be able to out-fly or outmaneuver her and that her only chance for escape was in the clouds. Unfortunately, flying through misty clouds is a dangerous proposition. With no visibility, a bird or an icy mountain could strike hard without warning. Not to mention the fact that Dr. Hellion would undoubtedly follow Piper into the white soup, where she would lurk, ready to pounce.
Piper took a sharp left and felt the mist of the cloud closing in around her. She changed her course several times and hovered a good long bit in what she hoped was the center of the cloud. Surrounded by white mist and quiet, Piper felt like she was suspended in a half-sleep state, waiting for a dream, or perhaps a nightmare, to hit her. Thankfully the nightmare was not materializing, and after waiting even longer, Piper tentatively dropped below the cloud, checking for any sign of Dr. Hellion.
What she discovered was an empty sky hanging over a vast expanse of icy cliffs far below. They had flown so far north that the terrain was both treacherous and beautiful. The sun shone off of the ice, making it sparkle like a million diamonds, and jagged cliffs proudly displayed opened jaws of razor-sharp teeth. The sight took Piper’s breath away and distracted her for a moment from the imminent danger she was in.
“Don’t move!” A wretched voice breathed in her ear. An iron grasp clamped down on her shoulder.
Piper braced for the worst as Dr. Hellion spun her so that they were face-to-face. Dr. Hellion’s hair had been completely blown out during her flight and was strangely wild and beautiful.
Without thinking, Piper said the first thing that came into her mind. “Dr. Hellion, could you teach me to fly like that? I bet you??
?re the best flier ever. Fastest too.”
“You didn’t practice enough,” Dr. Hellion snapped. “Your turns are sloppy.”
“Maybe if you showed me how—”
“You won’t accomplish anything until you keep your arms tightly in formation and your legs straight. Your left knee keeps bending out.”
“Will you teach me to fly backward too?”
“Fly? Teach you to fly?” Suddenly concern knitted Letitia’s brow. “You can’t fly. It’s not possible.”
“But, Dr. Hellion . . . we’re both flying. See?”
Jolted, Dr. Hellion looked around, and for the first time noticed that she was hovering several hundred feet in the air. What’s more, she found she liked it up there. A lot.
“Yes, I can fly,” she realized slowly. “And I’m good at it too. Damn good.”
Piper giggled and suddenly Dr. Hellion did too. The giggling grew.
“I don’t know why I didn’t remember before,” Dr. Hellion said between her giggles. “It’s fun, isn’t it?”
“Most fun I ever had,” Piper agreed.
“When I was a girl, I used to wake up in the middle of the night just so I could fly through the stars.” The memory tickled Letitia. “But that was before Sarah and I . . .” A jumble of memories surfaced all at once—pop, pop, pop. “Sarah was my younger sister. She couldn’t fly, but she used to love watching me.” Letitia paused, remembering even more. “It was just so lonely in the sky. Do you know what I mean?”
Indeed, Piper knew exactly what Letitia meant. You yearn to share the joy of the sky when you are flying, because it’s so awesomely beautiful.
“My parents told me not to, but Sarah and I didn’t listen. She wanted to see the world from up high as much as I wanted to show it to her, and so we snuck off, the two of us, and did it one day.” Letitia was no longer aware of Piper as her memories ran away with her. “Oh, what a day it was too! Glorious. Sunny, warm. There were only a few clouds in the sky, but it was like a picture postcard. Beautiful. I hadn’t ever carried anyone, and Sarah was heavier than I thought. Much heavier. But we managed it and it was so . . . it was everything we both thought it was going to be. Sarah kept pointing at things and shouting, ‘Look, Lettie, look at that cloud.’ ‘Lettie, go faster, go faster.’ ” Dr. Hellion smiled as though she were flying with Sarah that very moment. “It was like seeing the sky for the first time again too.
“I guess I had been distracted in all the excitement because we were already over the canyon before I noticed that a strong wind had blown in. And then I saw the clouds, dark clouds—thunderclouds. The storm started like that.” She snapped her fingers sharply and Piper’s eyes grew wide. “The rain was so heavy. And I was so high off the ground. Sarah started to slip and I grabbed her—tightly. She was screaming. She was so scared—we both were. I tried to fly down as fast as I could and I was holding her tightly. Really tightly.”
Dr. Hellion held up her hand as though Sarah’s hand was still in it. “She was gone in an instant. Gone. She just slipped away.” Dr. Hellion’s hands clenched shut, empty.
Piper was aghast.
Letitia Hellion’s chest heaved up and down from the terrible memories. Tears came to her eyes and she looked into Piper’s face helplessly. “I can’t,” she whispered, and for the first time in as long as Letitia Hellion could remember, she showed someone her real face. What Piper saw there was fragile and vulnerable and scared. “Flying is wrong, Piper. I just can’t do it.”
Instantaneously, Letitia Hellion dropped like a stone and free-fell toward the earth.
“Dr. Hellion!” Piper swooped downward, grabbing Letitia’s arms and trying to hold her up. “What are you doing? You have to fly.”
“It’s not possible. Flying is wrong. Abnormal. Humans can’t fly.” Letitia tried to pry Piper’s arms away, fighting her. They descended rapidly.
“Please, Dr. Hellion. Please. You’re gonna fall. You gotta fly.” Piper was struggling to hold Dr. Hellion’s weight, but she was too heavy and resisted any attempts Piper made.
“I won’t be like you. I’m not like you. Let go of me. Don’t touch me!” Dr. Hellion madly scratched and hit at Piper as they tumbled to the earth. In a last-ditch effort to hold Dr. Hellion up, Piper grabbed her right hand and pulled with all of her might. Dr. Hellion pulled away with an even greater might.
They stayed that way, suspended between the heavens and earth for a short while, Dr. Hellion insistently struggling to be released and Piper holding her. First Dr. Hellion’s little finger slipped out of Piper’s grasp—then the finger next to it.
“Dr. Hellion, please. Stay.”
“Let go of me, Piper McCloud. I’m not like you. I can’t fly.”
“But you can. I just saw you.”
“No. No.” Dr. Hellion violently shook her head and her middle finger released itself from Piper’s hold. “Let me go.”
“But, Dr. Hellion, I don’t wanna be alone up here. Just hold tight to me. Don’t let go.” Piper struggled to hold Dr. Hellion while she struggled to think of a way to convince her to fly. “Dr. Hellion, please—I need you . . . stay with me. Fly with me.”
Piper prayed every word, but in the end there’s no saving someone who won’t be saved. When her two remaining fingers slid out of Piper’s hand, Letitia Hellion fell without sound to the icy cliffs below, and Piper turned away, unable to watch.
Once again, Piper McCloud was alone in a blue sky—defeated and triumphant in equal measure.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
ROW UPON row of freshly ploughed soil had been painstakingly planted already that day and it pleased Joe that all signs were pointing to a good crop. When the snows fell that year, he and Betty would have more than enough to last the winter. At the house, Betty stepped onto the porch and rang the old bell. Joe then obediently put down his tools and led the old mare back to the barn for lunch. Pausing in the yard to wipe the dust from his homespun shirt, something unusual in the distance caught Joe’s eye, so much so that he stood there for a while, watching it grow larger and larger.
In the kitchen, Joe’s transfixed form became a source of irritation to Betty, who had a ladies’ auxiliary meeting that afternoon and a schedule that didn’t allow for any dilly-dallying. In short order she bustled to the door. “Mr. McCloud, lunch is on.”
Still Joe didn’t move and Betty followed his gaze and saw what he saw. Using her hand to shield the sun from her eyes, Betty shuffled next to Joe and watched with the same mute anticipation.
At first it appeared to be nothing but a black dot, and then it grew to what could possibly be a bird, and then it grew further until there was no mistaking the fact that their girl was returning home to them.
From up high in the sky, the sight of familiar trees, rivers, and farmlands was a welcome sight to Piper, filling her with gladness and peace. At last, she was back where she belonged. Everything was exactly as it had been before she left it, indeed as it always had been since her birth. It was as if no time at all had passed since Dr. Hellion had taken her away in the helicopter, and even her ma and pa were in exactly the same positions that she’d last seen them in.
Gently descending, Piper set her feet down in the dirt at the edge of the yard and suddenly felt nervous. Were her ma and pa going to be sore at her for flying? Was she going to get into trouble and sent to her room? Maybe they hadn’t missed her and didn’t want her back at all? The fact that Betty and Joe stood stock-still with expressionless faces did nothing to settle her ever-increasing nervousness.
“I’m home,” Piper spoke finally, kicking her toe into the dirt.
Betty nodded. “I expect we can see that well enough.”
It had been a very long journey back, and for most of it Piper had practiced what she was going to say next. Taking a deep breath for courage, she began quickly.
“You see, thing is that I fly and I like it and I’m not gonna stop. And I’m real sorry that it’s not to your liking. Trouble is that there isn’t anything else t
hat makes sense to me like flying does.” Piper paused before she got to the hard part and took another deep breath. “So I don’t wanna hide it anymore and I don’t wanna sneak off to the back field. Even if you won’t like it, I’m not gonna lie about it anymore and I’m not gonna do it on the sly. And, well . . . that’s all I have to say.”
Betty sniffed. “Well, me and your pa ain’t gonna lie to you none neither, we don’t take to this flying much. It just ain’t the way of things for youngens to be gadding about in the sky like that.” Betty looked like she was on the verge of launching into another lecture on the evils of flying, and with only the greatest effort did she managed to rein herself in. Like Piper, she took a deep breath before continuing. “But we had a good spell to think things over and we figure as long as you do your chores and act as the good Lord would want, we’ll just have to take you as you was made.”
For Betty’s and Joe’s entire lives, and the lives of their parents and grandparents and great-grandparents, and so on and so on for as long as anyone in Lowland County could remember, on those twenty acres of land, things had always been the same. Yet today Betty and Joe had taken their very first tentative step toward something different. It was nothing short of earth-shattering and no one could appreciate the incredible sacrifice more than Piper.
Rushing forward, Piper threw herself into her ma’s and pa’s arms. “Ma, I missed you so much. Pa, I still got my bird, look.” Betty and Joe held their daughter tight.
“It weren’t the same without you, child.” Joe held Piper tightly. “We’re powerful happy to have you back.”
Betty didn’t attend the ladies’ auxiliary meeting that day, and after lunch Joe did not return to the fields. Instead Betty and Joe sat down, and Piper talked and told them all about her adventures. She told them almost everything and they listened with wonder and with fear, glad to have their girl back safe and sound. Not once did Betty reprimand Piper for talking too much, so grateful were they to have her lively voice fill the house once more. Piper talked into the night and Betty made her fried chicken and her prized apple pie for dinner, even though it wasn’t Sunday.