Page 39 of Fireworks

Chapter Fourteen

*****

Nate

Blaming her was easier than taking the blame myself. I knew there would come a day when my mother found out I had learned to fly a plane. My hope was I would have brought it up in a way that she didn’t get so upset about it. She had been asking me lately where I was, but I always just came up with an excuse. I had gained my license and liked to unwind going up as often as I could.

She wanted me to go to school. I did that. She wanted me to apply to graduate school. I did that without a fight, but this was for me. I wanted to fly, maybe commercial planes one day even. This was the only thing I did that wasn’t because someone was sitting behind me telling me I needed to do it. I could clear my mind up there more than I could just going on a run.

The rush of taking off was an addiction. A feeling that nothing else seemed to be able to compare to. It made me feel closer to my father, too. Not just because I was up in the sky, but because it was something that he enjoyed. Some of my fondest memories with him were him teaching me about the planes he flew. I knew my mother would not be happy about it. It was why I had kept it to myself. That is except when I slipped up around Katie. I knew she hated me, but I never thought she would throw me under the bus like this.

Pulling into the parking lot of the air strip, I wasn’t even sure if anyone would be here today being that it was Christmas. As I noticed Harry’s car at the far end of the lot, I knew he was probably just trying to keep busy today. Harry had never married. Thirty years ago, he opened a flight school after buying this little hanger. He maintained the planes and used them to teach prospective pilots the ins and outs of the vehicles they wanted to learn to fly. Making my way into the hanger, I wasn’t sure where he was. Yelling out, I hoped he could hear me.

“Hey Harry. Merry Christmas.”

“Shouldn’t you be home with your family, Nate? It’s Christmas.”

Shrugging, I didn’t want to get into it.

“Yeah, remember when I told you flying could blow up in my face one day?”

He looked back at me, knowing I probably didn’t want to talk.

“Is it okay if I go up for a while? Just to clear my head. I’ll come by the next few weeks and help you sweep up to make up for it.”

He nodded, knowing I just needed to get away. He was like me in a lot of ways. Harry was no stranger to needing to get away from life and be a couple thousand feet in the air to think about things.

Climbing into the cockpit, I positioned the headset over my ears. Doing the required checks and making sure I would be clear for takeoff, air traffic said the words that lifted a weight off me. You are clear for takeoff.