The Things We Bury - Part 1: In Anticipation of the End of the World [Completed]

Chapter 13: The Long Way Home (Part 1 of 8)

They were flying in to the night, crossing the continent westward, extending the darkness with every mile. Most of the lights in the small Beechcraft 400A were out. Only the floor safety strips and one lone reading lamp gave life to the nocturnal trip. The lamp lit up Aaron's tray-table, casting a spotlight on his small hands and the brightly colored Legos.

The boy had napped for the first few hours, giving Maxwell a chance to properly bandage his cheek. Torrealba had cut deep and it would need stitches, but that could wait until they were back.

Aaron woke up when they landed at an airstrip outside of Miami for refueling. Maxwell gave him a juice box and the construction set in hopes of keeping him calm. The terror of earlier was hovering just below the surface. With all the unknowns of the future, Maxwell wouldn't be surprised if the boy broke down for the rest of the trip and didn't feel safe until he was in Emily's arms. But Aaron had surprised him. He drank half the juice but quickly forgot about it and everything else once the toy bricks were spilled out in front of him.

Maxwell watched the small fingers work with exacting delicacy putting pieces together in apparent randomness. The shambling tower rising up from the tray held no resemblance to the fairy-tale castle depicted on the discarded box and instructions. Maxwell was mesmerized by the boy's actions as fatigue weighed his body down. He only broke his gaze to look over his shoulder at the cockpit door, every few minutes.

The only other people on the plane were the pilot and co-pilot. Having his back to them felt unnatural. With only four seats in the cabin, the choices were limited and Maxwell preferred to sit across from Aaron instead of beside him on the other side of the aisle. Aaron had stubbornly refused to sit backward. Maybe it was only out of fear of getting motion sickness or some childish preference, but Maxwell couldn't help thinking, he's learning. Sitting with your back to the door is only inviting trouble. There's a lot of Emily in him.

Maxwell picked up a white, four pip square and moved to place it on the haphazard structure.

"No!" Aaron pushed the piece away before it could click into place. He grabbed it from Maxwell's hand. Small, soft nails scratched the pads of his fingers. "It doesn't belong there. It goes over here." He added it to some arbitrary part of the building with a forceful press of his palm.

Controlling, Maxwell mused. Yes, there was a lot of Emily in him.

He rested his head back against the seat and let his glance drift to the window. The world outside was gone. They were flying through cloud cover and there were no lights from the ground and no stars in the sky.

They were probably somewhere over Louisiana by now. The plane would be crossing into Texas soon. It wasn't quick, but home was moving steadily closer. This long journey was almost at an end, both the journey on the plane and the one that began months ago. When he had gone into that dismal prison that morning in May, Maxwell had no idea of the expedition he was starting.

He hadn't been happy waiting in that concrete room. He preferred to walk in on a prisoner. Psychologically, it always put the suspect at a disadvantage when he invaded their space. If he could have arranged things that way, he would have, but sometimes even his DTAA credentials couldn't navigate around the obtuse bureaucracy of some institutions. So he sat in the gray visitor's room watching the milky light leak through the sole window high on the wall.

It was important to remain calm and unaffected in these situations. Mindless waiting built nerves. Another reason he liked to put the prisoner in that position. To keep his mind occupied with something other than the passing of time, he began to calculate the position of the window based on what he knew of the prison and the route he had taken there. It was an idle game that would lead to a hypothetical escape plan if given enough time.