Chapter 43

Alice dithered. Finally ... just as the Menzies fuel truck pulled in ... she said, “I don’t know ... what do you want to do?”

“It’s summer ... well ... in Michigan, it’s late spring ... here it’s summer. What have we done in summer?”

“My family sails ... in the Atlantic. What do you do?”

“Work.”

“Building boats?”

“Yup.”

“When was the last time you saw your mom?”

“You mean ... my real mom ... not Auntie Surprise?”

“Yeah.”

“Ten ... years...” And suddenly I missed her. And JW ... I even missed the Flint. I might even miss the trips ... maybe. “Let’s go look at our new home.” I walked her over to the shipping containers. I swung the doors, went inside and called, “Seven! I need you.”

“Hi, Tyche ... wassup?”

“Explain my watch.”

She looked from me to Alice.

And Alice said, “Hey ... no problem. It’s a Time Piece ... I’ve seen her flicker.”

“Explain?”

“What else does it do? I mean besides go to the past ... or future?”

“Better you tell me what you want to do.”

“Go see the parents.”

“You are in luck ... they’re in Fiji. How do you intend to get there?”

“The watch?”

“Nope.”

“No?”

“No.”

“You’ll have to fly.”

“Commercial?”

“Yup,” said Seven. “You think maybe taking the Spad?”

“Well ... Yah.”

“Just materialize over Fiji? Thin air?”

“Why not?”

“Where did you come from?”

“Who’s asking?”

“The cops,” Seven said. And she was dressed as a Fiji cop ... Blue waist jacket and white ragged fringed skirt ... and combat two strap sandals. “And there’s no use in claiming you’re off an American carrier.”

“Drat ... I was going to say that.”

“The last use was Gabon... 1985.” Seven said, “The US retired them in 1973 ... and Vietnam was hard on the Spad.”

“So?”

“You can’t ‘just show up’ ... If you want to see your family ... Commercial Airlines.”

“Well, Alice?”

“Sure ... what could go wrong?”

Someone banged on the container.

“What?”

“You owe.”

“Oh ... be right out.”

Seven left ... grinning ... the wench.

Bud said, “We filled it up.”

“Drop tanks?”

“Yup.”

“Three hundred gallons internal and 1200 in the drop tanks?”

“Three thousand five hundred twenty dollars ... plus a hundred for the delivery.”

“Bargain,” I said... “Fuel near Detroit is 13.60 a gallon.”

“No Shit?”

“Thirteen sixty a gallon.”

“Well ... we’re going on vacation ... Where can we store the plane?”

Bud said, “I got an idea.” He fished out his cell. “Say ... Bud here. How would you guys like to hangar display a flyable Sandy?”

“Let me check.” He turned to me, “How long a vacation?”

“A week before school starts.” I said.

“August 31, 2021,” said Alice.

Bud spoke to his phone, “End of August.”

“Nope ... they’ll deliver.”

“Today.”

“Let me get this straight,” said Col. Joe. “You want to let us display this Korean War/Vietnam Conflict AD-2 aircraft while you fly commercial to Fiji to visit your parents.”

“My parents ... Alice’s parents are some place in the Atlantic.” I said.

“Your grandfather was Medal of Honor holder Sgt. John Flintkote,” said the Colonel.

“Yup ... you can even fly it if you keep up with the hundred hour maintenance.”

“We can take it to our fly in’s?”

“Yup.”

“Hell Yes!”

He even gave us a ride to Austin Bergstrom in time to catch our flight to Hawaii.