Storming

Fifty

AFTER TWO WEEKS cooped up in that dad-blasted cell, waiting on a hearing, the sun felt mighty good. Hitch stepped out of the courthouse into the late August heat. Under a sky of perfect blue, the waning morning stretched as far as he could see, golden and dusty. Two weeks was plenty of time for Nebraska soil to suck up even a cataclysmic storm’s moisture.

He paused on the steps to roll his shirtsleeves up to his elbows. Then he slung his jacket over his stitched-up shoulder. It was still stiff, but the doc said it’d mend fine in another couple of weeks.

He looked down the street on one side, then the other. Automobiles rumbled and honked along. Farmers in overalls and straw hats strolled the sidewalks, alongside women with their handbags over their arms and their shopping lists in hand.

Everything looked back to normal: back to boring farm-town life. And it all looked about as beautiful as anything he’d ever seen. It was good to be home. If he had said that when he’d first flown in here, nearly a month ago, he might have been lying. But right now, it was the gospel truth.

Of course, a little part of that might be the fact he was free to walk out here into the sun, rather than stay locked up in jail for the good Lord knew how long. His insides jittered at the thought of it, and he started down the steps.

Campbell was still stuck in there, eating jail food, railing about burying everybody in sight, and waiting for a trial that was sure to put him away for a good long while. Folks Hitch hadn’t even known about were coming out of the woodwork, wanting to testify against him for everything from doctoring finances to extortion to criminal connections with his bootlegging buddies in Cheyenne and beyond.

Hitch got off easy. The judge let him go due to “considerations.” After all, he had more or less saved the valley. And he had confessed and ratted on Campbell. Plus, it appeared the new sheriff had put in a surprisingly good word on his account.

A black Chevrolet, the top folded back, puttered up to the curb.

From under his fedora’s brim, Griff peered up at him. “You’re out then?” Against his suspenders, his new badge glinted.

Hitch sauntered down the steps. “Looks like.”

Griff wet his lip. “Want a ride to camp?”

He lowered himself into the car and slammed the door. “Thanks.”

Griff checked traffic and pulled into the street. He watched the road.

Hitch only pretended to watch it. Mostly, he watched his brother out of the corner of his eye.

What were you supposed to say in a situation like this? Seemed like the two of them had made up, more or less. But it’d be nice to know for sure. He couldn’t just come out and ask, even though the answer mattered now more than ever, what with his new plans.

They passed the cleared lot where Campbell’s house had once stood. The captured residents of Schturming had been released after their own hearings had proven they’d more or less been Zlo’s hostages. Now, they rooted amongst the charred rubble, salvaging whatever they could of their belongings.

“Lot of folks without homes,” Hitch said. “What happens to them now?”

“The town’s doing what they can for them. Some of them want to stay, buy farms. Some of them want to rebuild their ship.”

“And the town’s going to let them?”

Griff shrugged. “They were cleared. Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re not the only ones around here who try to build one of those things.” He glanced sideways at Hitch. “Might be we’ll have a whole fleet of them before we’re done.”

“No weather machine though?”

“No, that went up in the fire. Reckon we’ll leave the weather to God. For now at least.”

“Sounds good to me.”

As they left the city limits, Griff cleared his throat. “So… what now?”

Hitch shrugged. “I don’t have it all worked out. But I do know there’s some things I’ve got to do yet. First thing is finding a job hereabouts.”

Griff kept his eyes on the folded-down windshield. “Nothing glamorous around here. Right now, the only available jobs are on the farms or in the sugar-beet factory. You realize that?”

“I realize it. But I reckon we both know that’s what needs to happen. At this point, staying and working a lousy job is a small price to pay. You were right.” He waited until Griff looked him full in the face. “It would be a mighty poor idea to drag that kid all over the country in a plane—no matter how much we might both love it at first.” He made himself say the words he’d been thinking ever since it had looked like there might be a chance he’d get out of Schturming alive. “It’s time for me to stop roaming. Time to root. If I’m ever going to have a chance at a family, this is it.”

Griff watched him for a second, seeming to digest the words. Then he faced the road again. He might even have dipped his chin in a small nod. “What’s the second thing?”

Hitch laughed. “Don’t you reckon that’s enough for now?”

As a matter of fact, the second thing was somehow talking Jael into sticking around too. She had nowhere left to go, and she’d been wanting to stay before. But things had changed. Asking her to reconsider was another set of words he’d had stuck in his throat ever since _Schturming_’s crash.

They drove in silence for several miles more. Griff took the turn into the erstwhile airfield—shorn now of all but two planes: a red one and a red-white-and-blue one. Half a dozen automobiles filled in the gaps. Blankets had been spread on the ground and pinned down with picnic baskets.

Beside the biggest basket, Nan and Molly knelt, doling out potato salad and fried chicken—and swatting away the twins whenever they tried to stick their fists into the pitcher of lemonade.

Lilla, wearing a tremendously wide-brimmed yellow hat, swept in and grabbed a twin’s waist in either arm. She looked up at the oncoming motorcar and released one of the girls long enough to raise a hand and wave. No Rick in sight. Last Hitch heard, Rick had skedaddled out of the state with Lilla swinging a broom at his backside. Good riddance.

The menfolk—Byron and the Berringers and a few others—stood back a ways with a handful of youngsters. Judging from the bats and worn leather gloves, they were getting ready for a ball game.

Griff bumped the auto across the field toward the crowd.

“What’s all this?” Hitch asked.

“Celebration. Hopefully, it’ll end a little better than the last one.”

“No kidding.”

Griff parked at the end of the row of motorcars and shut off the engine.

For a moment, they both just sat there. In front of them, the hot cylinders ticked. A meadowlark sang from atop a fencepost. The men’s raised voices drifted across the field.

“Now, now,” Matthew said, “why can’t you let these boys play it how they want to?”

“They want to play it right or not?” J.W. jammed his hand into a glove and held out the other for Matthew’s ball. “If they want to play it right, I reckon they better listen to the rules first.”

Matthew passed over the ball. “The thing I can’t figure is how you keep forgetting the right way and your way are not the same thing.”

“And I s’pose your way is?”

“In this case—yes.”

Hitch laughed. “Old buzzards.”

Griff tilted the corner of his mouth. “They’ll go to their graves arguing about something.”

A stout older woman with a mop of frizzy red curls piled atop her head sashayed over to the Berringers. Whatever she said wasn’t audible, but it sure did a number on them. In unison, they clammed up. Eyes got big. Matthew’s face went beet red.

She laughed—no, giggled was more like it—then twirled her fringed parasol over her shoulder and flounced off, ample hips swaying.

“Who’s that?” Hitch asked.

Griff let a grin slip. “Ginny Lou Thatcher.”

“Wha-at? That’s the girl they been fighting over all these years? And they’re still fighting over her?”

“Not exactly. Anymore, I think they just fight ’cause it’s easier than fixing things up.” Griff’s grin faded. “You know, everything that’s gone under the bridge here lately…” He shook his head. “You’re not the only one who’s got things to be sorry for.”

“You don’t have to say that to me.”

“Yeah, I do. You wanted me to forgive you, and I wouldn’t.”

“I don’t blame you for that.” Lord knew, he probably wouldn’t have forgiven himself either. “I hurt you bad. I see that now, where I didn’t before.”

“That’s the point. You always were a clueless lug.” Griff studied the steering wheel. “I felt like you needed to be punished.”

“I probably did.”

“Well, it wasn’t mine to do.” He looked over. “I’m glad you’re staying.”

“Me too.”

Griff smiled. “Yeah, well.” He cleared his throat. “Shall we join the party?”

Hitch climbed out slowly and looked around.

On the far side of the baseball players, his Jenny burned red against the gold of the cropped grass. From the sound of things, she’d gotten pretty banged up in that last landing. Her skin was ripped in places and in need of mending. But she looked all of a piece. Earl must have been patching her up around the clock.

Next to the open engine cowling, Jael crouched. Walter hunkered beside her, watching intently as she fiddled with the carburetor.

Hitch shoved his hands in his pockets and started toward them.

Jael looked back and flashed him a grin. The sun glinted against the smudge of grease across one cheek. She was back in breeches and boots—with a red kerchief over her silver-streaked hair.

She looked like she belonged here. No more the bedraggled, wild-eyed ragamuffin who’d parachuted in front of his Jenny. She now looked about like a woman who had taken on pirates should look.

She was the reason for all of this. If it hadn’t been for her, he’d have been on the far side of the country by now. He’d have left town without ever knowing about Walter, without ever making things right with Griff.

He smiled back at her. Someday he’d tell her that. And thank her for it. Maybe today, as a matter of fact. He lengthened his stride.

“Captain Hitchcock.”

Livingstone. He winced and slowed up enough to look over his shoulder.

Still in his white suit and Stetson, Livingstone propped his walking stick across his lap and used both arms to wheel his chair toward Hitch. His bandaged legs stuck straight out in front of him on the chair’s wicker leg rests.

That explained the other plane.

Hitch faced him. “Still here, are you?”

“Couldn’t rightly leave the vicinity without laying eyes on our own true-blue hero, now could I?” Livingstone scanned Hitch from top wing to landing gear. He almost looked impressed.

“This isn’t about the bet, is it?” Hitch asked. “’Cause it doesn’t look like I’ll be able to take that management position after all.”

“Is that a fact?” Livingstone pursed his lips. “Well, then, might it be our purposes are coinciding without our even realizing it?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean simply this.” Livingstone wheeled a little closer and lowered his voice. “As you may know, the Extravagant Flying Circus has met with a rather tragic demise.”

“Ah, yes.” After Zlo’s escape, all Livingstone’s pilots had winged it out of the valley, intent on saving their planes while they still could.

“But,” Livingstone said, “a new venture has come to my mind. Despite the recent tribulations, this area has proven itself ripe for the expansion of aviation. I am considering opening a flying school.”

“A school?” Hitch frowned. “With one plane?”

“Or perhaps two.” Livingstone glanced at Hitch’s Jenny. “Knowing the art of good publicity as I do, I believe if I were able to advertise a flying instructor of some heroic notoriety, we could draw in quite a crowd.”

Stay here—and still be able to fly? His mind started spinning with the possibilities.

Livingstone smoothed his mustache. “We could even put on a small circus hereabouts. A monthly affair, perhaps. I’ve already signed on your fair wing walker.”

“Ah…” The words wouldn’t come fast enough.

Livingstone smiled—a little too victoriously maybe—and started wheeling his chair back. “You think about it. Take your time. Let me know whenever you’re sure.”

Hitch was already turning to his Jenny—to Walter and Jael. “Oh, I’m sure.” Saying so was a mistake, of course. Livingstone would use it against him when the time came to negotiate wages. But the words popped out, right from the bottom of his soul.

He started across the field toward the Jenny.

Earl hobbled over from the other direction, his roll of tools under his good elbow. The fingers poking out of his filthy bandage held a chicken thigh to his mouth.

He gave Hitch a grin and a nod, then turned and caught sight of Jael and Walter kneeling beside the engine. “Hey! What do you think you’re doing? You two ain’t grease monkeys yet, no matter what you think.” He stomped toward them.

Jael and Walter both laughed and jumped up to run around the back end of the plane, practically daring Earl to chase them. He didn’t, of course.

Hitch stopped a few yards off and waited for them to circle back around the front. He rubbed the sweat from his palms onto his pant legs. Almost involuntarily, he looked over his shoulder.

Still kneeling on her picnic blanket, Nan shaded her eyes with her hands and watched him. Her shoulders lifted in a breath, and as she let it out, she lowered her chin in a deep, consenting nod.

Walter rounded the front of the plane, without Jael, who must have realized what was in the wind and backed off. He saw Hitch and danced over, eyes sparkling.

“Howdy,” Hitch managed.

The boy grinned up at him all the harder.

“What’s this? Don’t tell me you’re back to not talking?”

Walter shrugged. He seemed to think about it, then said, “Howdy.”

“That’s more like it. ’Cause, you and me, we got things to talk about.” He knelt and set his hands on Walter’s shoulders.

Every minute in that jail cell, he’d been trying to figure the best way to say this. Nan and Byron had promised to prepare the way for him.

He wet his lips. “What would you think if I were to start being your dad?”

Walter cocked his head and raised his eyebrows. He looked intrigued.

Hitch kept going. “What would you think if it turned out I was your dad? And maybe, one of these days, if you wanted to, you could come live with me?”

Walter kept staring. If anything, the look rising in his eyes seemed to be one of hope. He flung himself against Hitch’s chest, wrapped his arms all the way around, and hugged him.

Hitch’s breath ripped right out of him. How could anybody forgive that fast? Or trust that easy? He didn’t deserve it, that was sure. But here it was, like a gift someone had slipped into the palm of his hand. And he’d almost missed catching it altogether.

Walter stepped back from Hitch’s arms and looked up at him, fairly glowing.

Then J.W. hollered, “Hey, kid, you playing or not?”

Walter glanced over, then again at Hitch, eyebrows raised, asking for permission.

Hitch nodded. “Go along. We got more to talk about, but it’ll wait.”

He stayed on his knees and watched Walter scamper off.

So help him God, he was going to make good this time. He’d be there for Walter, every single day of his life. He’d accept this gift, and he’d do his best to take care of it like it deserved to be taken care of.

Beside the plane, Jael stood with her hands in her back pockets. She grinned.

He pushed up to his feet and joined her. “I hear Livingstone offered you a job?”

She inclined her head.

“Me too.” He took a breath. “I don’t have any kind of right to ask you to stay, after everything that’s gone down. But just in case it might mean anything to you, I am promising I’m going to stay.”

Her grin faded. She stitched her eyebrows together and pursed her lips. She’d never seemed to have much trouble making up her mind about things. But right now, she looked downright indecisive.

He tried again. “I reckon you don’t have to say anything right now.”

“It is not that.” She moved a step closer. “It is that I am not knowing right word for… this.” She set her palm on his chest. Without so much as a blush this time, she leaned in and kissed him right smack on the mouth. Then she pulled back, shook a few loose tendrils of hair out of her face, and grinned wickedly.

He blinked. “What? No slap this time?”

She shrugged one shoulder. “Not this time, I think.”

“What about this time?” He cupped a hand around the nape of her neck and pulled her back in.

From behind him, voices started hollering.

“What kind of umpire are you?” J.W. demanded.

“The boy was safe,” Matthew said. “I make the calls the way I see them.”

“Well, maybe the fact you’re wearing spectacles is a hint you shouldn’t be umpire!”

“And maybe the fact you’re not wearing them is a hint why you weren’t voted umpire in the first place.”

Hitch stopped kissing Jael, but kept her close, and looked over his shoulder.

Livingstone wheeled his way over to where Matthew and J.W. stood nose to nose. “Gentlemen, gentlemen, was this not supposed to be a friendly ballgame?” He turned to Hitch. “Perhaps our resident flight instructor might be persuaded to give free rides instead?”

Hitch looked at Jael. “What do you say?”

She tilted her head all the way back to see into his face. “I have lived in sky for as long as my life. Take me home, Hitch Hitchcock.”

“My home too.” And he didn’t mean just the sky this time.

He stepped away from her. “All right, who wants a ride?”

Several people whooped, Walter loudest of all.

Hitch hopped up into the rear cockpit. Almost before he’d settled, Walter scrambled into his lap. Taos jumped right in without so much as an invitation—barking his head off, of course—and somebody coaxed Nan and Molly into the front cockpit. Jael perched herself on a wing, while Earl swung the propeller. The Jenny couldn’t take off with all of them, but Hitch could taxi them around the field.

“Contact!” Earl shouted.

Hitch flipped the magneto switches. “Contact!”

Earl swung the prop again, and the engine started chugging. Inch by inch, the Jenny lurched forward, until she was bumping across the field. The wind touched their faces with the scent of cut grass.

Walter leaned back against Hitch’s chest, one hand on the stick, the other on Taos’s ruff.

Hitch glanced over at Jael, on the wing, and she laughed, delighted.

His stomach got that same old weightless feeling. He faced forward again, feeling the Jenny’s rhythm beneath him. Flying a biplane, especially one as rickety as a war-surplus Curtiss JN-4D, meant being ready for anything. He just hadn’t ever expected “anything” could turn out to be quite this good.