The Last Tribe (65 page)

“I’d like that.  Maybe we can share
stories about our initial weeks during the flight.”

“Did you hear the one about the two
little girls and boy walking half of Manhattan?”  Greg heard the story second
hand from Matt.

“Like I said, we can compare notes
during the flight.  Let’s go in and see how long before we eat.  The house
smells wonderful.”  Dan opened the door and went inside.  He kicked off his
boots by the back door, and started talking to people as soon as he got to the
kitchen.  He was a social person, fun, nice, and his true personality was
bottled up for months in Boston.  He felt joy around the new people and
families.

The weather turned worse, and temperatures
dropped back into the thirties.  A needed reminder of how fickle and harsh New
England weather is.  The rain and sleet made it impossible to use the outdoor
pizza oven.  Todd and Ahmed moved their production into the Italian restaurant
downtown Hanover, lighting the commercial brick oven and inviting everyone to
join them for pizza night.  They made goat’s milk mozzarella cheese, and found
canisters of grated parmesan cheese in pantries around the town.  People
enjoyed sausage and cheese pizzas for the first time in close to a year.

Kelly and Hank spent the day
tending to the animals at the dairy farm.  They were back in time for pizzas
and wine.  They reported that one cow was producing milk again, not in any
quantity, but producing none the less.

Dinosaur rock, controlled by the
adults, played from speakers, and candles lit the building.  The little kids
danced and laughed, and the adults drank a few too many glasses of wine. 
People were happy and comfortable in Hanover. 

Peter approached Antonio at the
party.  “Tony, I need to ask for your help.”

Antonio and Peter had only
exchanged cordial hellos up to this point in their relationship. 

“I want to go to the airport, the
one an hour away?  I was hoping tomorrow or the next, and I think I might need
help getting the plane started.  I heard about how great a job you did with the
boats, and, well.”

“Road trip.  Nice!”  Antonio stuck
out his hand and shook Peter’s.  “Yeah, I’m in, anything I can do to help.  I
don’t know anything about airplanes, but if an engine is an engine, I’ll give
it a go.” 

“Great.”  Peter turned to walk away
before spinning around.  “You know, I want to teach someone how to fly, just
some basics in case I need help.  Any chance you want to log some time with
me?  Get some flying lessons over the next week or so?”

“That would be crazy.  Yeah, hell
yeah.  Give it up, Peter.”  Antonio put his hand out again, but this time his
elbow was bent so his hand was more at chest level.  Peter imitated the motion,
and shook hands awkwardly.  Their chests were inches apart.  Antonio smiled and
nodded his head.  “Pilot Antonio, damn does that sound good.”  He walked off to
tell the other teens.

Rebecca found Peter later in the
evening.  “You should go tomorrow, you know, to Manchester.  The snow will
start to fly on Wednesday.  you don’t want to drive in the snow, or on slick,
icy, roads.”

“That’s good advice.  I didn’t have
any plans tomorrow anyway, might as well knock it out.”  Peter went off to find
Paul and Todd to see if they were interested in going. 

The rain stopped the next morning,
but the clouds remained as Peter, Antonio, Emily, Meredith, and Paul raced down
the highway towards Manchester.  Meredith wanted an adventure, and asked if she
could tag along.  It was her first time away from Avery since her family died.

“Why not?”  Was Peter’s response to
her request to join him.

They pulled into the airport,
speeding away from the parking garage and parking lot tents, straight to the
backside of the terminal.  Emily stopped the Suburban once she was through the
open gate and onto the runway.  The fuel trucks were to her right.  The planes
were off in the distance on her left. 

“Which way?”  She asked Peter. 

Peter pointed left.  “Drive down to
the planes.  Let’s see if there is a stair truck.  Pilots had to get out of
those planes somehow once they drove them down there.”

“We’re looking for a pickup with a
set of stairs on it?”  Meredith asked, poking her head between the front
seats.  “Like that one?”  She pointed to the right, next the fuel trucks. 
Parked beside the last terminal gate was a truck with stairs running up the back
of the cab.

“Exactly.”  Peter said.  “Like I
said, let’s go over there and get that truck started.  One of us can drive it
to the planes.”

Emily turned the SUV right instead
of left and drove to the stair truck.  The door to the truck was unlocked and
the keys were in the ignition.  It did not turn over.

“Do we want to use the new battery
or jump the old one?”  Emily asked Antonio through the window.

“Let’s jump it if we can.  I like
keeping a spare in case our battery dies.  Roadside assistance isn’t all that
reliable anymore.”  The new Antonio was intelligent, practical, and a hard
worker.  Emily wondered why his attitude and work ethic had done such a one
eighty.  What made him join a gang in the first place?  He appeared to have a
loving father, a good family, siblings he cared about.  Maybe one day she would
ask him.  She also thought about letting the past go, and enjoying the new man
blossoming in front of her.

She popped the hood for Antonio. 
He pulled twelve foot jumper cables out of the back of the SUV.  He connected
the batteries, waited a few seconds, and the stair truck came to life.  It had
plenty of gas. 

“You mind if I take it over?  I
like driving things like this.”  Antonio asked hopefully.

“Just don’t get close to the plane
until I get out and direct you.”  Peter asked him.  “I don’t want you breaking
the plane or this truck.”

“I wanted to drive the stair
truck.”  Paul said from the back seat.

“Well, you should have gotten out
to jumpstart it then.  You don’t get the fun when you don’t put in the work.” 
Emily mock chastised him.  “Maybe Tony will let you drive it when we’re done.”

“Funny.”  Paul replied.  “Very
funny.”

She followed Antonio’s stairs down
the runway towards the large grouping of planes. 

“John and Solange are right.  We
have two planes.   Hopefully one of them will work.”  Peter said upon seeing
the two 777’s.

Instead of backing the truck
against the plane, Peter suggested they park the stairs parallel to the door.
He did not want to take a chance of hitting or denting the plane or ruining the
stair truck.  He could get into the cabin from the side of the stairs.  He
directed Antonio to the right spot before running up the stairs to the jet’s
door.

“Do we need a key or something?” 
Paul asked, coming up behind Peter.

Peter looked at him with as close
to a ‘really?’ expression as the polite man could give. “No, these do not get
stolen very often.  We need to use our muscles and twist this handle.” 

A circle with a bar running through
it, similar to a Greek letter Theta, was recessed into the side.  Paul noticed
a metal catch that held the handle into a “locked” position.  He pushed the
catch up, like he would the safety on a gun, and turned the circular handle to
his left for half a rotation.  The safety button clicked back into place and
the seal on the door made a noise like opening a new jar of pickles.

“Nice work.  We’re in.”  Peter
patted him on the back.

The door pulled out a few inches
and slid to the side.  They were next to the cockpit.  Peter saw the rubber
floor of the steward’s area.  “It smells a little stale, but other than that…” 

The level of the stairs was equal
to the floor of the plane.  One by one they stepped into the cabin.

Peter went to the cockpit with
Antonio.  The others checked the cabin areas.  “Holy moly this plane is big.” 
Emily said.  “I mean, seriously, we should have enough room, don’t you think?”

“Yeah, we are good.”  Paul looked
around the steward’s cabin.  It was fully stocked.  “I bet this plane was
supposed to take off and was grounded.  It probably has a full tank.”  He
looked at Meredith.  She sat in a first class seat.  “Meredith, let’s go in the
back and check the cargo hold.  Anyone want to see if there is luggage back
there?  This plane might have been boarded or had people sitting in the
terminal waiting to board.”

Meredith jumped out of her chair
and made her way to the back.  She had flown before, but only to Orlando from
Newark.  She had never been on a plane this large.  She eyed the next area of
seats.  “If that was first class, what is this?”  She asked.

“Business class.”  Emily told her.

“What does that mean?” 

“Another way for the airlines to
make money.”  Paul told her. 

The cabin lights came on.  Paul and
Emily cheered.  They yelled louder when the engines started.  They were in the
back and did not see Antonio jump out of the plane to move the stair truck and drive
the Suburban towards the terminal. 

Paul, Meredith, and Emily were
searching the cargo hold when Peter stuck his head through the door.  “They
were going to leave, must have been stopped.”  There were hundreds of stowed
bags.  “Why wouldn’t they give people their stuff back I wonder?” 

“It was a weird time.  I would have
gotten out of Dodge, not cared about my luggage.”  Paul told him.  “I know the
Cincinnati Airport was closed.  It just closed.  I read on a blog it was nasty,
armed troops in hazmat masks throwing everyone out.  People were told to leave
without their things.”

“We can go through the luggage if
you like, but I’d just as soon lighten our load, particularly if we are taking
cows.  Cows are heavy.”

“We aren’t taking the cows, are
we?”  Paul asked.

“We’re not?  Then why is Kelly
trying to save them?”  Emily asked back.

“Because that is what she does, at
least that’s what I assumed.  I mean, I guess we can take the cows.  Dairy is a
good thing.  We know there are cows in Hawaii, right?”

“There are wild pigs and chickens
too.”  Meredith chimed in.  “I was reading a book about Kauai at the library
during school yesterday.”  She continued to give facts, and grinned as she
talked about the island. 

Emily enjoyed seeing her smile. 
Like so many of the tribe, Meredith emerged from her shell the longer she was
in Hanover.

“The reason I came back here was to
tell you that I am putting the plane in reverse to jockey down the runway
towards the terminal.  You need to find a seat and buckle up.  It might be a
little bumpy as I take this baby over grass and up and down the runway edge.” 
He looked at Meredith.  “I need a co-pilot.”

“Okay.”  She said, dropping her head
from shyness.  Meredith looked over to Emily.  The young girl’s eyes blazed
with excitement.  She followed Peter up front.  The old man moved quickly, and
Meredith had to hurry to keep up.

“Well Emily, I suggest taking our
seats in first class.”  They shut the cargo door and walked back towards the
front of the plane.  “I didn’t realize we were taking the cows.  That was dumb
of me.  Are they going to walk up the stairs and onto the plane?  Are they
going to walk down the stairs in Hawaii?”  Paul had logistical questions, which
he continued to ask Emily after they took their seats.

“You worried at all about this?” 
Emily asked him, ignoring most of Paul’s questions.

“About taxiing to the terminal?  I
question why we are taxiing to the terminal when we can just leave the plane
here.”

“No, about flying to Hawaii.”

“Yes.  I’m scared, but it’s the
right thing to do.  If it works out half as well as we think, we’ll be able to
survive.  If things work out half as well as we think in Hanover?  We die.  If
they work out half as well as we think in Virginia?  We are barely eking out an
existence.”

“How do you mean?”  The plane
bumped up and down as Peter pulled backwards and jumped the runway curb.

“Let’s say we get to Hawaii.  It’s
warm, all the time, so we don’t have to worry about weather.  There is water,
there are animals.  Hawaii presents a lot of givens.  There are some variables,
like can we grow crops or catch enough fish, but the givens are tropical fruit
trees, tropical vegetables, things that are already there.  Right?  We can’t
screw that up.  We can’t stop avocados from growing all over the place.”

“Okay,” Emily replied in a leading
voice.

“In Virginia?  It gets cold and
things die.  We’d have to can and cure for the winter months.  We have to
figure out how to fish all year around.  We get a blizzard or something?  We
could be socked in, screwed.  Do we survive?  Yes.  Does it suck?  A whole
bunch.  Those things won’t happen in Hawaii.  It would be, and I say this with
complete confidence, impossible for us to starve to death in Hawaii. 
Literally, impossible for us to starve.  In Virginia?  We could starve.  Up
here?  It’s a better bet we starve than don’t starve, particularly in three to
five years.  In five years?  We have to be able to grow and kill all our food. 
How are we going to do that in New Hampshire?”

“That makes sense.”  She agreed.

“I am afraid.  I’m afraid we’ll
fall out of the sky.  I’m afraid we won’t be able to land over there, or we’ll
have to land in the water, or we’ll meet a number of bad scenarios, but once we
get there, once my fears have come unrealized, we have set ourselves up for
thrivival.”

“Thrivival?”  She asked.

“You like it?  Combining Thriving
and Survival?  It’s my word.  Hawaii is thrivival, Virginia is survival, and New
Hampshire is most likely death.”

“Why do you need to make up a
word?”  Emily and Paul thrust forward ever so slightly as Peter put on the
breaks.

The intercom buzzed, “sorry about
that folks, came in a little hot.  Welcome to Manchester International Airport. 
It is 10am local time.  If you don’t mind, I’m going to run a few quick tests
on the engines.  You’ll hear some revving and it might get a little loud.  I’ll
let you know when I am done.”

“He’s funny.”  Emily commented. 

“I think he wants us to trust that
he is a real pilot.  I hope to God he’s a real pilot.  Shit, I could do the
pilot impression.”

They heard the engines come up,
revving loudly.  They were halfway down the runway, still a hundred yards from
the terminal.  The plane moved forward and began to pick up speed.  The engines
revved down and the plane slowed.  Peter kept a steady pace until they arrived
at the terminal.

“This concludes our flight for
today.  Thank you for flying Reinhart Air.”

Paul yelled towards the cockpit. 
“Peter, don’t turn the plane off yet, I have an idea I’d like to run by you.” 
He unbuckled and walked to the front.  Meredith and Peter wore giant
headphones.  “Nice.”  Paul told them.

“Peter,”  he continued.  “How hard
would it be to get the plane up against a gate at the terminal?”

“Pretty easy, but we still need to
move the bridge from the terminal to the side of the plane.”

“If we want cows and pigs and goats
and supplies, all those things will be easier to load from a ramp than a
staircase.  If we can get a ramp over to the side, like we are truly boarding
this plane, well, that will be a great thing.  Plus, we can pull back and take
off, not worry about a chair truck sitting next to us.”

“The chair truck would not be an
issue, but I get where you are going.  Most of your scenario depends on us
being able to get power to the terminal, and to one of those telescoping ramps
to the plane.”

“We can get a generator to make the
telescoping happen.  Just park the plane where you would normally put it.” 
Paul gave Meredith a thumbs up.  “And you keep doing what you’re doing, great
work.”  She giggled.  The oversized headphones slipped off her ears.

“You got it.  Hold on.  I might
bump into something I don’t see on the ground, but that’s okay.  Typically a
jumbo jet wins confrontations.”  Peter pulled the jet towards the last terminal
spot ten yards from a telescoping ramp.

Antonio retrieved the stair truck,
jogging all the way back to the end of the runaway.  He parked near the plane
door. 

“Before we get out, let’s check supplies. 
We have enough chips, crackers, and cookies to hold us for a while.”  Emily
spoke from the first class steward closet.  “We also have booze, water, soda,
and orange juice.” 

“The fuel gage reads full.”  Peter
added.  “We have enough to get us to Hawaii and back to the California if we
needed.”

“Let’s unload the luggage and head
back home.  This was a successful trip.”  He shook Peter’s hand, and gave
Meredith and Emily high fives.  “Based on your opinion, we could leave
tomorrow?”  He asked Peter.

“We could leave tomorrow.  I want
to get a good night’s sleep, it’s been a long time since I flew for 12 hours,
but yes, we could go wheels up tomorrow if we needed to do it.”

“Do you know how to open the
luggage door to get the bags out?”  Emily asked him as they made their way to
the back of the plane.

“I do, but we’re going to need a
little luggage ramp car to access it.”