We were in the airport. Skylar was like a ticking bomb the whole time we were driving here. Now that we were finally just waiting for her dad to come off the plane she had exploded. Her happy energy had bubbled over and now she was fizzing. She was jumping up and down.
“I’ve never seen her this excited before,” I commented to her mom.
“She and Mark have a special connection.” She smiles. We wait a few more minutes until Skylar comes over to us.
“I wonder where he is,” Skylar muses, “It says his plane landed half an hour ago.”
“I’m sure he’ll be out any minute now, honey,” Her mom says. We wait another fifteen minutes. Skylar was looking into her lap, playing with the strings on her sweatshirt when her mom gave her a nudge. “Look, Skylar. I think I see something.” She looks and immediately perks up.
“Dad!” She runs over to him. Her mom and I walk behind her. When we got over there her dad had his arm around her. Skylar was clinging to him as they walked, a big smile plastered on her face.
“Hello, Jane,” Skylar’s dad said, greeting his wife. He kissed her on the cheek and she smiled.
“I’m glad you’re back,” she told him.
“Who’s this?” He asked, looking at me.
“This is Robin,” Skylar introduced me, “She Ummm… Well, she’s staying with us for a while. Her Ummm... You see… It’s a long story.”
“Ah,” her dad said., “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Robin.” He extended a hand and I shook it.
“You too, Ummm--” I broke off. I wasn’t sure what to call him. “Mr?”
“Please, call me Mark.”
“Mr. Mark, then.”
“Just Mark would be fine, but I suppose you can say Mr if you like. It makes me sound quite professional, doesn’t it, Sky?”
Skylar giggled. “Sure, Dad.” We started walking.
“You know, Robin,” Skylar's mom mused as we walked through the airport together. “You should really start calling me Jane. It’s been a while since you started staying with us.”
“Mrs. Jane?” I asked.
She laughed, “Sure.” She looked to her husband. “So Mark. What was the hold-up getting off the plane.”
“Oh, yeah.” Mr. Mark seemed to have forgotten about that until now. “It was really strange actually. I don’t know many details, but as far as I can tell there was a guy who landed his helicopter at the airport without permission. I don’t know much, but I could see him talking to the staff outside. He seemed to be apologizing.”
This jerked my memory. I was suddenly extremely interested. Both Skylar and Mrs. Jane had seemed interested by this news, but not curious. “A helicopter?” I asked.
“Yes,” Mr. Mark answered.
“What did he look like? Do you remember?”
“Ah, yeah. About medium height, brown hair, green eyes. A lot like yours actually."
“Do you know what he was wearing? Was it blue jeans and a checkered red shirt?”
“I think so. How do you know?”
I turned to Skylar. “Do you remember my dream?”
“Yes. What’s wrong?”
“The guy is my uncle!”
“What?” Mr. Mark was extremely confused.
“Long story, remember?” Skylar reminded him.
“We have to go back. Now!” I said, and took off running through the airport in the direction we had just come. I was in such a hurry I bumped into three people and tripped over someone’s suitcase. “Sorry, sorry, so sorry!” I yelled back at the bewildered people. I stopped in front of a window and looked out. I could see Uncle Ben’s helicopter parked somewhere, the exact one from my dream, but I couldn’t find Uncle Ben. I dashed through a ‘staff only’ door. A flight attendant who was waiting for her next flight was in the lounge room, and she stood up when she saw me running.
“Hey, you can’t be here!” She yelled at me.
“Sorry!” I told her as I ran, “It’s an emergency!” She didn’t seem to believe me at all. She ran after me, although I was much faster. I took a fleeting glance behind me and saw her hobbling to keep up. Her legs were bound together with her tight skirt and she kept tripping over her impractical shoes. She was muttering something under her breath that sounded like, “Darn kids these days. Defying authority!” She seemed to give up chasing me about halfway across the landing area.
I ran as fast as I could over to Uncle Ben’s helicopter. The door to the cockpit was closed and seemed to be locked. I jumped up and down, trying to look through the glass at the front. Uncle Ben wasn’t there. I circled around the entire helicopter and still found no sign of him. I sighed and walked back to the door I had come through. I opened it, hoping to just walk back peacefully, but found two armed guards standing on the other side. I reflectively pulled the baseball hat I was wearing down over my eyes, so they wouldn’t recognize me.
I knew it was a long shot. By looking for Uncle Ben I had probably earned a life sentence in Juvie. “You!” one said, “You’re not allowed back here.”
“Sorry,” I mumbled, still upset that I hadn’t found my uncle. “I must have taken a wrong turn. Before either of the guards could throw me out the door I walked out myself. I could see Skylar’s entire family looking worriedly for me. I went over to them.
Skylar's mom let out a sigh of relief when she saw me. “Rob-” she started and then noticed the people staring at us, “I mean, Olivia. What were you doing?” Then she lowered her voice to a hushed whisper, “You can not draw attention to yourself!”
“Sorry,” I said again.
“Wait, Olivia?” Mr. Mark was much more confused now than he had been before.
“Long story!” Skylar repeated.
“We have to find Uncle Ben!” I said.
“We will,” Mrs. Jane assured me, “Just take a breath.” I followed her advice, panting heavily. I hadn’t realized how out of breath I was. Then I noticed a red shirted, blue jeaned, brown haired man leaning over a counter a few yards from us. I perked up, and went over to him.
“Ummm?” I asked as I got nearer. He turned around a big grin spread across his face.
“Robin!” he said delightedly, wrapping his arms around me.
“Shhh!” I whispered, “In public you need to call me Olivia.” He was taken aback by this news.
“Sure, sure,” he agreed, “What are you doing here?” I ushered him back to Skylar’s family. I introduced them to each other as we walked back to the car.
“You can come home with us,” Mrs. Jane told Uncle Ben.
“Oh, that’s very kind, but it’s not necessary. I can get a hotel room.”
“Whatever you like, but our door is always open.”
“Thank you,” he smiled. In the car ride back to Skylar’s house we explained everything to both Uncle Ben and Skylar’s dad. We had just finished catching them up when we got back. We led them into the kitchen where Skylars enormous meal was still waiting.
“I guess it’s a good thing you made so much food,” I told Skylar. She grinned back at me.